Linux 3.9 Through Early Linux 3.13 Kernel Benchmarks

While I'm waiting for development activity on the Linux 3.13 kernel to settle down a bit more before delivering comprehensive benchmarks looking at the Linux 3.13 kernel performance changes across the various covered subsystems, up this morning are some early benchmarks of the Linux 3.13 Git kernel and benchmarking every major release going back to Linux 3.9.

This is some of our first Linux 3.13 kernel benchmarking aside from the kernel already having been used for a few open-source graphics driver articles like our 21-way open-source GPU comparison from last week and the Intel Linux driver almost being as fast as Windows 8.1. The system used for this benchmarking was the Intel Core i7 4960X "Ivy Bridge" Extreme Edition system with the MSI X79MA-GD45 motherboard, 8GB of RAM, 1TB Seagate SSHD, AMD Radeon HD 4870 graphics, and Ubuntu 13.10 as a base operating system.

The Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA was used for comparing all kernels from Linux 3.9 to Linux 3.13 in a generic and reproducible manner. All settings were left unchanged between comparing the different kernel releases and no other modifications made. All benchmarking was handled via the Phoronix Test Suite.