Processors Linux Reviews & Articles

There have been 421 Linux hardware reviews and benchmark articles on Phoronix for processors. Separately, check out our news section for related product news.

AMD Zen 4 vs. Zen 4C Performance, Zen 4C Core Scaling With Ryzen 5 8500G
AMD Zen 4 vs. Zen 4C Performance, Zen 4C Core Scaling With Ryzen 5 8500G

Besides the integrated RDNA3 graphics making the Ryzen 8000G series desktop APUs interesting, making the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G a fun benchmarking target besides its sub-$200 price tag is having a mix of Zen 4 and Zen 4C cores. Here are some benchmarks looking at the Zen 4 vs. Zen 4C performance and power efficiency when offlining various core combinations on the Ryzen 5 8500G desktop processor.

28 February 2024 - 21 Comments
Intel Core i3 14100 / i5 14500 vs. AMD Ryzen 5 8500G / 8600G In 500+ Benchmarks
Intel Core i3 14100 / i5 14500 vs. AMD Ryzen 5 8500G / 8600G In 500+ Benchmarks

As part of the recent AMD Ryzen 5 8500G and 8600G Linux reviews I ended up picking up the Core i3 14100 and Core i5 14500 Raptor Lake Refresh processors for the similarly-priced Intel competition. It's not too often receiving review samples from Intel of the lower-end processor SKUs, so I'm back around today with even more benchmarks of these lower-tier AMD and Intel processors. In this article are 500+ benchmarks looking at the CPU and iGPU performance of the Intel Core i3 14100 and Core i5 14500 processors up against the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 5 8600G processors under Ubuntu Linux.

22 February 2024 - 30 Comments
AMD Ryzen 8500G / 8600G / 8700G Performance @ 35 Watt & 45 Watt cTDP
AMD Ryzen 8500G / 8600G / 8700G Performance @ 35 Watt & 45 Watt cTDP

Following the Linux reviews of the Ryzen 7 8700G, Ryzen 5 8600G, and Ryzen 5 8500G Zen 4 + RDNA3 desktop APUs, here is another look at these parts when making use of the lower configurable TDP options for these AM5 chips. All three of these new parts were re-tested at both 35 and 45 Watt cTDPs for seeing the impact on performance and power efficiency.

15 February 2024 - 35 Comments
AMD Ryzen 5 8500G: A Surprisingly Fascinating Sub-$200 CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 8500G: A Surprisingly Fascinating Sub-$200 CPU

After reviewing the Ryzen 7 8700G and the Ryzen 5 8600G as these new Zen 4 processors with RDNA3 integrated graphics, the latest AMD 8000G series CPU in the Linux benchmarking lab at Phoronix is the Ryzen 5 8500G. The Ryzen 5 8500G is a 6-core / 12-thread processor with RDNA3 graphics that retails for just $179 USD. Here's a look at how it's performing against other AMD and Intel processors on Ubuntu Linux. The Ryzen 5 8500G ends up being decent on the GPU side but making me genuinely excited is the Zen 4C prospects in the low-power space for AI workloads at the edge, low power servers, and other different deployments for great low-power performance. Under load this AVX-512 wielding budget desktop processor was typically pulling 50 Watts or less!

7 February 2024 - 89 Comments
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Linux Performance
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Linux Performance

Last week the new AMD Ryzen 8000G series processors with Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA3 graphics became available in retail channels. The initial launch-day Linux testing was focused on the Ryzen 7 8700G processor, which showed great uplift for the integrated graphics over the Ryzen 5000G series with Vega/GFX9 graphics and the Ryzen 7000 series with their cut-down RDNA2 integrated graphics. In today's article the AMD Ryzen 5 8600G is the focus of the Linux testing along with an expanded set of comparison processors re-tested.

5 February 2024 - 29 Comments
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Linux Performance
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Linux Performance

Today the review embargo lifts on the new AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G desktop APUs. Announced back during CES, the Ryzen 8000G series pairs Zen 4 CPU cores with RDNA3 graphics and now also boasting Ryzen AI support too. Today's launch article is focusing on the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Linux performance.

29 January 2024 - 93 Comments
The Incredible Performance & Power Efficiency Of AMD Zen 1 vs. Zen 4C
The Incredible Performance & Power Efficiency Of AMD Zen 1 vs. Zen 4C

While we are beginning to see AMD Zen 4C cores in client systems, these smaller cores have already proven themselves very interesting and capable with the AMD EPYC Bergamo high core count server processors and the extremely power efficient EPYC 8004 "Siena" processors. For showing how far Zen has come in power efficiency, I thought it would be fun to show how the original flagship EPYC 7601 "Zen 1" processor with 32-cores / 64-threads compared to Zen 4C with the EPYC 8324P(N) 32-core processors. But as that isn't even the top-end Siena part, I also tossed in the 64-core EPYC 8534PN too for a top of stack look for the current EPYC 8004 line-up.

25 January 2024 - 33 Comments
Intel 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" AVX-512 Performance
Intel 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" AVX-512 Performance

With Intel's 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" processors that were released last month, in addition to the power efficiency improvements, faster DDR5 memory support, and other enhancements, one of the other notable enhancements talked up by Intel was improved AVX-512 support. Here are some benchmarks using the flagship Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ looking at the performance and thermal/clock/power metrics when toggling AVX-512 support.

5 January 2024 - 18 Comments
From Whiskey Lake To Meteor Lake: The Intel CPU Linux Performance Evolution
From Whiskey Lake To Meteor Lake: The Intel CPU Linux Performance Evolution

Yesterday I ran through a number of benchmarks looking at how the Intel integrated graphics have evolved from the Gen9/Skylake era through the new Meteor Lake CPUs with integrated Arc Graphics. While carrying out those graphics tests with being infatuated by the performance and power efficiency of Meteor Lake integrated graphics, I also took the opportunity to run 100+ CPU benchmarks on each of these laptop CPUs / Intel mobile processor generations being tested. Here's that look at the Intel CPU performance and power efficiency comparison from Whiskey Lake to Meteor Lake.

29 December 2023 - 21 Comments
Meteor Lake EPP Tuning For Greater Performance Or Power Efficiency With Intel Ultra Core 7
Meteor Lake EPP Tuning For Greater Performance Or Power Efficiency With Intel Ultra Core 7

With all of my initial Intel Core Ultra 7 155H benchmarking since last week from the Windows 11 vs. Linux performance to the integrated Intel Arc Graphics performance it was at the Linux 6.7 kernel defaults / OS defaults. But for those wanting to push the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H further for better performance or conversely wanting to extend the battery life further for devices like the Acer Swift Go 14 laptop, the Intel P-State Energy Performance Preference (EPP) can be adjusted. Here's a look at the sometimes significant difference to power and performance when adjusting the Intel Meteor Lake CPU between the default balanced performance mode and the alternative power saver and performance modes.

26 December 2023 - 12 Comments
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Meteor Lake vs. AMD Ryzen 7 7840U On Linux In 300+ CPU Benchmarks
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Meteor Lake vs. AMD Ryzen 7 7840U On Linux In 300+ CPU Benchmarks

Last week Intel launched their Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" notebook processors. Genuinely very curious about the performance potential under Linux along with various features of these new mobile SoCs like the NPU and integrated Arc Graphics, I bought an Intel Core Ultra laptop on launch-day for carrying out Linux benchmarks. In this first review of Intel Meteor Lake on Linux is a look at how the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H performs against the common AMD Ryzen 7 7840U as the Zen 4 laptop competition.

19 December 2023 - 59 Comments
Intel 5th Gen Xeon Performance Benchmarks: Impressive Efficiency Gains With "Optimized Power Mode"
Intel 5th Gen Xeon Performance Benchmarks: Impressive Efficiency Gains With "Optimized Power Mode"

With the new Intel 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" processors there is a new feature called the Optimized Power Mode (OPM). This Optimized Power Mode can be enabled via the system BIOS for Emerald Rapids for helping to reduce the CPU power consumption when not running at full utilization. With Intel claiming that up to 110 Watts of server power savings can be conserved when running at 30~40% utilization, I was curious and set out to run my own Optimized Power Mode benchmarks with the Xeon Platinum 8592+ processors. Here is a deep dive on Intel Optimized Power Mode benchmarks.

18 December 2023 - 21 Comments
Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ "Emerald Rapids" Linux Benchmarks
Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ "Emerald Rapids" Linux Benchmarks

Following the 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" overview, you are likely wondering about the performance claims made by Intel and how they shake up in independent testing as well as how Emerald Rapids competes against AMD EPYC Genoa(X) and Bergamo. If so this article is for you with the Phoronix benchmarks of the new flagship Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ 64-core processors being tested in both single and dual socket modes.

14 December 2023 - 26 Comments
Intel Launches 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" Server Processors
Intel Launches 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" Server Processors

In addition to announcing the Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processors, Intel's AI Everywhere event in New York City also served as the launch point for 5th Gen Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" server processors. Emerald Rapids is an incremental improvement over Sapphire Rapids with emboldened AI capabilities, energy efficiency improvements, and now up to 64 cores per socket.

14 December 2023 - 1 Comment
Intel Launches Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" Mobile Processors
Intel Launches Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" Mobile Processors

At Intel's AI Everywhere event they officially launched their new Core Ultra branded Meteor Lake processors that will begin appearing in new laptops. Intel Core Ultra aims to deliver their most power efficient client processors, deliver around twice the GPU performance of existing integrated graphics, and via the NPU feature more robust AI capabilities.

14 December 2023 - 25 Comments
Ampere Altra Max Continues To Deliver Competitive Power Efficiency To AMD EPYC & Intel Xeon
Ampere Altra Max Continues To Deliver Competitive Power Efficiency To AMD EPYC & Intel Xeon

While it's been three years now since Ampere Altra Q80 was first introduced and two years since first testing the 128-core Ampere Altra Max, this ARM server platform has aged rather well with more robust hardware platforms coming to market with better firmware, the AArch64 Linux/open-source software ecosystem as a whole improving a lot during this time and more open-source projects receiving ARM optimizations, and other improvements made. While we're eagerly awaiting to see AmpereOne hardware, here is a look at how Ampere Altra Max M128-30 is standing up against current AMD EPYC Genoa(X) and Bergamo server CPUs along with Intel Xeon Scalable Sapphire Rapids processors in raw performance and power efficiency.

11 December 2023 - 81 Comments
AMD Announces The Ryzen 8040 Series Mobile Processors With Better Ryzen AI
AMD Announces The Ryzen 8040 Series Mobile Processors With Better Ryzen AI

In addition to AMD using its AI event today for launching the Instinct MI300A and MI300X along with ROCm 6.0, AMD also announced the Ryzen 8040 series mobile processors. A big emphasis with these forthcoming laptop processors is on the AI capabilities between the dedicated NPU with AMD XDNA, Zen 4 CPU cores with AVX-512 VNNI support, and AMD RDNA3 graphics capable of accelerating AI.

6 December 2023 - 68 Comments
AMD EPYC 8534P / EPYC 8534PN Benchmarks - Siena Delivers Incredible Value & Energy Efficiency For Linux Servers
AMD EPYC 8534P / EPYC 8534PN Benchmarks - Siena Delivers Incredible Value & Energy Efficiency For Linux Servers

Back in September AMD rounded out their Zen 4 server product line-up with the EPYC 8004 "Siena" processors that are optimized for delivering excellent energy efficiency with leading performance-per-Watt and maximizing value both for initial server costs and ultimately the TCO. These single-socket server chips are quite interesting for a range of workloads form the edge to networking and more. In today's article are benchmarks of the top-end AMD EPYC 8534P and EPYC 8534PN 64-core server processors and showing how they can take on Intel Xeon Platinum "Sapphire Rapids" in raw performance and blow the competition out of the water when it comes to the incredible performance-per-Watt and value.

29 November 2023 - 9 Comments
AMD EPYC Genoa/Genoa-X & Bergamo vs. Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids On Ubuntu 23.10
AMD EPYC Genoa/Genoa-X & Bergamo vs. Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids On Ubuntu 23.10

While Ubuntu 23.10 isn't a long-term support (LTS) release and thus won't see too much exposure in the enterprise space, it's worthwhile today looking at the AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon server performance. It's interesting for a look ahead being just a few months until Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and with Ubuntu 23.10 incorporating GCC 13 that will also be the default compiler of Ubunu 24.04 among other close software package versions, the kernel not too far off from what will be in this next LTS release, and with Ubuntu 23.10's Linux 6.5 kernel bringing some nice performance optimizations. So with that said I recently wrapped up some fresh benchmarks looking at the current generation Intel Xeon Scalable Sapphire Rapids performance against AMD EPYC 9004 Bergamo, Genoa, and Genoa-X processors.

22 November 2023 - 4 Comments
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X & 7970X Linux Performance Benchmarks
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X & 7970X Linux Performance Benchmarks

Last month AMD announced the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series along with the new Threadripper PRO 7000 WX Series for bringing Zen 4 to the HEDT and workstation space. Ahead of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors becoming available via DIY retailers on the 21st, today marks the review/performance embargo expiration for the Threadripper 7000 series. First up today is a look at how the new Threadripper 7970X 32-core and Threadripper 7980X 64-core processors are performing for Linux HEDT workstations... Or the TLDR: the incredible Linux performance and potential for a wide-range of creator and developer workloads now possible with the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series.

20 November 2023 - 40 Comments
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX Linux Performance Benchmarks
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX Linux Performance Benchmarks

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X/7980X Linux benchmark review shows just how well the new Zen 4 powered HEDT Threadripper processors can perform with up to the 64 core flagship offering. The results were stunning while today the review embargo also expires on the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 series for the professional-catered SKUs that offer up to 96 cores and support up to 8 channel DDR5 system memory. Here are the initial benchmarks of the 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX for showing the performance potential of this outright workstation performance monster if your budget allows.

20 November 2023 - 73 Comments
AMD Announces Zen 4C Cores Coming To Ryzen Laptops
AMD Announces Zen 4C Cores Coming To Ryzen Laptops

We've been impressed with AMD Zen 4C cores with their initial appearance in Bergamo with the flagship EPYC 9754 and then over the summer with Siena for the likes of the EPYC 8324P(N) plus the EPYC 8354P(N) review soon. Today AMD is confirming what many had anticipated: Zen 4C cores will be coming to new Ryzen laptop SoCs.

2 November 2023 - 54 Comments
Intel Core i5 14600K & Intel Core i9 14900K Linux Benchmarks
Intel Core i5 14600K & Intel Core i9 14900K Linux Benchmarks

Earlier this month Intel introduced the 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors led by the flagship Core i9 14900K. Unfortunately my review samples had arrived late but in any event today are the first Linux benchmarks of the new Core i5 14600K and Core i9 14900K processors compared to prior 13th Gen Core processors as well as the AMD Ryzen 7000 series competition. All of these Intel and AMD processors were freshly re-tested on the newly-launched Ubuntu 23.10 with the Linux 6.5 kernel.

31 October 2023 - 47 Comments
Google Cloud C3D Shows Great Performance With AMD EPYC Genoa
Google Cloud C3D Shows Great Performance With AMD EPYC Genoa

Back in August Google Cloud announced the C3D instances powered by AMD EPYC 9004 "Genoa" processors while only last week was C3D promoted to general availability. Curious about the performance of C3D after being impressed by AMD EPYC Genoa bare-metal server performance at Phoronix as well as what I've seen with Genoa in the cloud at Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2 / AWS, here are some benchmarks of the new C3D up against other GCE instances.

27 October 2023 - 1 Comment
AMD Launches The Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series: Up To 96 Cores, DDR5 RDIMMs, PRO & HEDT CPUs
AMD Launches The Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series: Up To 96 Cores, DDR5 RDIMMs, PRO & HEDT CPUs

AMD today announced the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX Series as the company's long-awaited Threadripper update that brings up to 96 Zen 4 cores, RDIMM memory is now required for Threadripper platforms moving forward, and catering to both HEDT enthusiasts and professionals. Here is an initial overview of the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series while the benchmark/review embargo isn't being lifted until a later date.

19 October 2023 - 47 Comments
AMD EPYC 8324P / 8324PN Siena 32-Core Siena Linux Server Performance
AMD EPYC 8324P / 8324PN Siena 32-Core Siena Linux Server Performance

Last month AMD launched the EPYC 8004 "Siena" 4th Gen EPYC processors to round out their Zen 4 server processors with the expansive Genoa, Genoa-X, Bergamo, and Siena product portfolios. The new EPYC 8004 series are designed to maximize the power efficiency for server deployments from the data center to edge, teclo, and other non-traditional server environments. Up for testing today is an initial look at the Siena performance in the form of the EPYC 8324P and EPYC 8324PN 32-core parts for seeing how they stack up against 32-core Intel Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" performance.

10 October 2023 - 5 Comments
AMD Launches The EPYC 8004 "Siena" 4th Gen EPYC Processors
AMD Launches The EPYC 8004 "Siena" 4th Gen EPYC Processors

Last November AMD introduced the first of the 4th Gen EPYC series with the EPYC 9004 "Genoa" processors and that was then complemented earlier this year by the July launch of the Genoa-X processors for sporting AMD 3D V-Cache to help technical computing workloads and as well launching Bergamo for the Zen 4C based processor designs that allow up to 128 cores / 256 threads per socket. While AMD has a very robust portfolio for the high-end server space with 4th Gen EPYC, today AMD is introducing the EPYC 8004 "Siena" processors for "intelligent edge" servers. Siena is a step below Genoa but still very capable offering and coming in at a lower price point while being geared more for maximizing power efficiency and opening up EPYC to more deployments outside of the data center.

18 September 2023 - 15 Comments

421 processors articles published on Phoronix.