Computers Linux Reviews & Articles

There have been 252 Linux hardware reviews and benchmark articles on Phoronix for computers. Separately, check out our news section for related product news.

Apple last week released their latest iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro products powered by their fourth-generation M-series Apple Silicon. The new Mac Mini in particular is interesting for under $600 starting out with the all re-designed Mac Mini with 10-core M4 and now the base model having 16GB of memory. It will take some time before there is any reasonable Linux support on the M4 hardware with Asahi Linux, but for those curious about how the M4 Mac Mini with macOS compares to AMD Ryzen and Intel Core CPUs under Linux, here are some preliminary benchmarks.

System76 is announcing one of their most innovative and interesting products going back to their Launch Configurable Keyboard and HP Dev One collaboration: the System76 Thelio Astra. The Thelio Astra is a high-end ARM64 desktop system geared for developers with a focus on AI / STEM / self-driving technologies and powered by Ampere Computing and NVIDIA.

On Sunday there was a new patch posted by an Intel Linux engineer to boost the Lunar Lake Linux performance out-of-the-box for ASUS laptops by adjusting the new ASUS Intelligent Performance Technology "AIPT" feature so that Linux follows the same behavior as Windows 11. My initial testing of this ASUS AIPT patch has indeed shown the Core Ultra 7 256V "Lunar Lake" yielding much better performance with this patch applied.

For those that have been eager to see more Intel Core Ultra Series 200V Lunar Lake Linux testing, here is the latest installment of testing as well as an update from Intel following my Lunar Lake Linux testing recent reports. Today's article is looking at Intel Lunar Lake versus AMD Strix Point across different ACPI Platform Profile configurations for whether you are after peak performance or the most power savings.

As part of a busy day in the CPU world, Intel has lifted the embargo on the Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" desktop processors. This isn't the review embargo but just an overview on this new generation succeeding 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" on the desktop.

For those wondering about the performance of the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation workstation performance on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with the up-to-date NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers now relying on the open-source kernel modules, this article is for you in looking at the performance of this high-end workstation graphics card on the up-to-date Linux software stack. The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation is tested alongside the RTX 2000 / 4000 Ada Generation graphics cards and also the AMD Radeon PRO W7000 series competition atop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

While AMD Ryzen AI 300 series laptops have begun appearing with Zen 5 CPU cores, to date the launched laptops have revolved around having either the integrated Radeon 890M RDNA3.5 graphics and/or NVIDIA GeForce discrete graphics. For those wanting a Linux-friendly laptop with Radeon discrete graphics for more gaming and GPU/compute potential, that still leaves the still very powerful Zen 4 laptop options. Bavarian Linux PC vendor TUXEDO Computers recently launched the Sirius 16 Gen 2 as a nice workstation/gaming laptop featuring the Ryzen 7 8845HS with Radeon RX 7600M XT discrete graphics.

Back in May the folks at Framework Computer announced Framework Laptop 13 support for the Intel Core Ultra Series 1 (Meteor Lake) alongside announcing a new 2.8K 120Hz display option, a new web camera upgrade, and new colors for their expansion cards. Today marks the review embargo expiration with the hardware now shipping. Here's my initial look at the Intel Core Ultra Series (Meteor Lake) within the confines of the modular and upgradeable Framework Laptop 13.

Like most modern Intel and AMD laptops, the new ASUS Zenbook S 16 models for the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" support ACPI Platform Profiles for allowing the system platform behavior to be modified depending upon whether you are seeking maximum performance, balanced (default), or power savings/efficiency. With the Ryzen AI 9 365 and Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 testing I have been doing thus far it's been on the default balanced mode (along with other laptops being compared) while in this article is a look at the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 performance impact on the ASUS Zenbook S 16 UM5606WA when trying the other platform profile options.

In part for preparing for upcoming Linux testing of AMD Ryzen AI 300 series laptops, I've been re-benchmarking various Intel/AMD laptops around the lab at Phoronix. In today's article is a fresh look at how the existing AMD Zen 4 laptop performance in the form of the popular Framework 13 and Framework 16 laptops is competing with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" SoC while using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and upgrading to the latest Linux 6.10 development kernel as well as the newest Mesa open-source graphics driver support.

For those considering an Intel Core Ultra 7 165U "Meteor Lake" powered laptop, here are some benchmarks of the 165U using a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 compared against the Acer Swift 14 with the Core Ultra 7 155H (Meteor Lake), the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (Zen 4) within the Framework 13, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS (Zen 4) within the Framework 16 under Linux.

The past two months I've been testing out the TUXEDO Pulse 14 Gen 3 laptop as a new AMD Ryzen laptop from this Bavarian Linux PC retailer. It's been working out very well under Linux (as would be expected of TUXEDO Computers) and quite adaptable for power and performance. For those needing a capable Linux laptop the TUXEDO Pulse 14 Gen 3 has proven quite stable and reliable under both their in-house TUXEDO OS distribution as well as Ubuntu Linux.

Earlier this month I posted some initial CPU benchmarks of the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper up against AMD EPYC Zen 4 and Intel Xeon Emerald Rapids processors. That was a very interesting battle and showed the interesting capabilities of the 72 Arm Neoverse-V2 cores. With this GPTshop.ai GH200 system actually being in workstation form, I also ran some additional benchmarks looking at the CPU capabilities of the GH200 compared to AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series workstations.

As an important notice to those with new TUXEDO laptops such as the TUXEDO Pulse 14 Gen 3 powered by the Ryzen 7 7840HS, installing their DKMS-based driver package can be very important if aiming to achieve maximum performance.

With Ryzen AI found in the very newest Ryzen processors, AMD began making use of IP from their acquisition of Xilinx. Today though AMD is announcing their Embedded+ Architecture that is taking the marriage of AMD and Xilinx tech much further by combining the wares onto a single PCB for new embedded applications as an integrated compute platform.

The review embargo has now expired on the Framework Laptop 16, the latest innovative and upgradeable laptop from this company that has made quite a name for itself with modular and user-upgradeable laptop designs for both AMD and Intel. The new Framework Laptop 16 offers even more customizability around the keyboard/touchpad and other options including over using a Radeon RX 7700S graphics module and more. Besides the immense customizability options and upgrades available with the Framework Laptop 16, the new model employs the AMD Ryzen 7040HS processor for even greater performance over the AMD Ryzen 7040U found with the latest Framework 13 model.

When it comes to AMD Zen 4 laptop testing to date I've done a lot of testing with the Ryzen 7 7840U as well as the Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U which have proved to be very capable 8-core / 16-thread laptop processors with performant integrated graphics and running great on Linux -- besides the current lack of Ryzen AI. Recently TUXEDO Computer sent over their newly announced Pulse 14 Gen 3 Linux laptop featuring the Ryzen 7 7840HS part, which is the focus of today's testing.

For those in the market for a high-end Linux workstation for carrying out a lot of code compilation, AI workloads, or other creator or HPC tasks, the new System76 Thelio Major goes on sale today and it's a real winner. I've been trying out the new System76 Thelio Major powered by the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7900 series processors and it delivers excellent Linux performance and all comes nicely working out-of-the-box with their Pop!_OS Linux distribution.

The past two months I've been using the Gigabyte (Giga Computing) G242-P36 and it's been a refreshing delight for an ARM64 server platform running well with the mature Ampere Altra and Ampere Altra Max processors while boasting support for up to two GPUs and up to two DPUs or other PCIe adapters to make for a nice GPU/AI accelerated computing server.

Following my Linux benchmarks of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor performance where it ended up being rather disappointing but then with finding great success with the integrated Arc Graphics on Meteor Lake, like I you may be left wondering how much of a role Linux is playing with these results compared to Windows... Well, this article will shed some light on that aspect with looking at the Microsoft Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu Linux performance on the Acer Swift Go 14 Meteor Lake laptop.

Since the release of the Threadripper 7000 series on 20 November I've carried out and published many benchmarks of these new HEDT/PRO CPUs including the flagship AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX featuring 96-cores / 192-threads. All of my Threadripper PRO 7995WX benchmarks have been carried out using an HP Z6 G5 A workstation and it's proven to be an outright beast for creators, software developers, and others needing immense multi-threaded capabilities at your finger tips. Here's more about my experience with this new high-end HP workstation.

For those in the market for an AMD Ryzen 7040 series (Zen 4) laptop, the Framework 13 laptop is a great option for those wanting a Linux-friendly device and is a rare breed in being a completely upgradeable laptop similar to Framework's Intel laptop models. I've been testing out the Framework Laptop 13 the past month and after a BIOS update has been working out wonderfully on Linux.

With recently picking up the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U and given the recent release of Fedora 39, I found it to be a nice time to provide a Lenovo ThinkPad retrospect of how the AMD Ryzen laptop Linux performance has evolved the past few generations. In today's article is a look at how the AMD Ryzen 7 mobile series laptop performance has evolved going back to Zen 2 for various ThinkPad models while all testing was carried out on the brand new Fedora Workstation 39 Linux release.

After a difficult few years of global supply chain woes leading to limited available and heightened retail pricing on the Raspberry Pi single board computers, today there is finally an update to the family. Four years after the Raspberry Pi 4 shipped, today the Raspberry Pi 5 is launching with a much improved SoC leading to significant performance gains. Additional improvements with the Raspberry Pi 5 make this a very nice generational upgrade.

The past few weeks I've been putting the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 AMD mobile workstation through its paces that is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U SoC. Besides uncovering one BIOS issue that is in the process of being resolved, this latest-generation AMD-powered laptop that features 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, 1TB NVMe SSD, and integrated Radeon graphics with 2.8K OLED display has been working out well on modern Linux distributions. Here's a look at this AMD Zen 4 laptop running on Linux and plenty of performance benchmarks for this laptop.

SiFive's HiFive Unmatched development board was interesting when it began shipping in 2021 with 16GB of RAM and four U74-MC RISC-V cores along with one S7 core. But pricing was rather steep at $665 USD. Fast forward two years, the StarFive VisionFive 2 has begun to enjoy wide availability and for $100+ this RISC-V development board features a quad-core RISC-V processor via the StarFive JH7110 SoC with integrated GPU, up to 8GB of RAM, HDMI 2.0 output, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual USB 3.0 ports, and more for around $100 USD. Here are some benchmarks of this most interesting RISC-V single board computer in the ~$100 space to be released yet.

This Patch Tuesday brings a new and potentially painful processor speculative execution vulnerability... Downfall, or as Intel prefers to call it is GDS: Gather Data Sampling. GDS/Downfall affects the gather instruction with AVX2 and AVX-512 enabled processors. At least the latest-generation Intel CPUs are not affected but Tigerlake / Ice Lake back to Skylake is confirmed to be impacted. There is microcode mitigation available but it will be costly for AVX2/AVX-512 workloads with GATHER instructions in hot code-paths and thus widespread software exposure particularly for HPC and other compute-intensive workloads that have relied on AVX2/AVX-512 for better performance.

The most common request from my recent ROG Ally benchmarking with the Ryzen Z1 SoC and also the Ryzen 7 7840U laptop SoC testing has been wanting to know how these Zen 4 mobile processors compete with Apple's M2 on Linux. Well, for those curious, here are some initial performance figures of the Apple M2 in a MacBook Air running Asahi Linux up against the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen 7 7840U SoCs on Linux.

With the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld that began shipping last month I've so far looked at the Linux support for this device as well as looking at the Windows 11 vs. Linux gaming performance as well as the Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU performance. What many Phoronix readers have been most interested in seeing though are the side-by-side benchmarks for Valve's Steam Deck up against the ASUS ROG Ally. Today's benchmarks provide just that comparison plus some CPU benchmarks too.

Following last month's announcement, this week marks the start of the ASUS ROG Ally shipping as the most compelling alternative to date for Valve's Steam Deck. The ASUS ROG Ally features the new AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU that's interesting in its own right for being based on Zen 4 and RDNA3 integrated graphics. There will be many benchmark articles on Phoronix over the days ahead looking both at the ASUS ROG Ally itself for Linux gaming/performance as well as focusing more generally on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme. In today's article is a few words to get started on the Linux support.