Revisiting AMD EPYC 7773X "Milan-X" Performance With Linux 6.0 + Ubuntu 22.10

Earlier this month I revisited the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Linux performance for looking at the effectiveness of the AMD 3D V-Cache under Linux when now using the very latest Linux kernel along with other new/updated benchmarks of the past several months. While already being very impressed by the performance of AMD EPYC Milan-X since those 3D V-Cache server CPUs launched earlier this year, here is a fresh round of Linux benchmarks looking at the EPYC 7763 vs. 7773X performance when running on a development snapshot of Ubuntu 22.10 paired with the Linux 6.0 development kernel and other newer software packages for a very up-to-date look at the performance potential on the server side.

Like my AMD Ryzen 7 5800X vs. 5800X3D benchmarks from earlier in September, this round of EPYC 7763 vs. 7773X benchmarking is primarily for a fresh look at the Milan-X performance under Linux when making use of the very latest open-source software, the very bleeding edge kernel, several new/updated benchmarks, etc.

As a reminder, the AMD EPYC 7773X flagship processor is a 64-core / 128-thread part with an impressive 768MB L3 cache per socket, or 1.5GB L3 cache combined for 2P server configurations. The EPYC 7773X has a base clock of 2.2GHz and a maximum boost clock of 3.5GHz, compared to the 64-core EPYC 7763 with its 256MB cache having a slightly higher base clock of 2.45GHz and a maximum boost clock of 3.5GHz.

This fresh round of tests were done with the EPYC 7763 and 7773X processors in both 1P and 2P configurations. An Ubuntu 22.10 snapshot with the GCC 12.2 compiler was in use while manually upgrading to a Linux 6.0 kernel snapshot as of early September. All of the same hardware/software was at play for this fresh round of Milan-X focused benchmarking with just changing out the CPUs between tests.

The "TLDR" remains that the EPYC 7773X continues showing the huge uplift from the large 3D V-Cache. For the 2P tests with the combined 1.5GB L3 cache size, workloads from common HPC benchmarks to PostgreSQL database server, Zstd compression, OpenFOAM CFD, Intel's Embree, and many other workloads all enjoyed significant speed-ups from the EPYC 7773X. Here is the quick side-by-side in the 2P tests:

Only rarely was the EPYC 7763 2P faster, which is for workloads not able to make use of the large 3D V-Cache and thus where the slightly higher base clock of the EPYC 7763 is an advantage.

Let's dig more into the 1P and 2P numbers across different workloads for those curious about this fresh Linux look at Milan-X.