Ubuntu Linux Squeezes ~20% More Performance Than Windows 11 On New AMD Zen 4 Threadripper

With the Kvazaar H.265 open-source video encoder it was interesting. When encoding at 1080p where there is last scalability with the high core counts, Windows 11 Pro did carry a noticeable advantage over Linux. But when dealing with 4K content, Ubuntu 23.10 easily led. Part of the advantage with Windows 11 at 1080p content may be due to AMD not yet having mainlined the AMD Preferred Core handling for the Linux kernel. AMD has been working on their Preferred Core support for the Linux kernel and to tie into its scheduler, which when that lands should help in the performance for single and lightly threaded workloads to help ensure they wind up on the best cores possible.

With the Intel/AOMedia SVT-AV1 open-source AV1 encoder, Ubuntu 23.10 delivered the best performance across the board... Even for 1080p content. SVT-AV1 has long been the fastest CPU-based AV1 encoder around.