Some Windows Server 2016 vs. Linux Network Benchmarks

Written by Michael Larabel in Operating Systems on 15 March 2018 at 12:09 PM EDT. 26 Comments
OPERATING SYSTEMS
A Phoronix Premium supporter recently requested some Windows vs. Linux networking performance benchmarks. That is being done as part of a larger comparison also featuring the popular BSDs, but for some initial measurements, here are some Netperf networking performance metrics on Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and various Linux distributions.

Prior to the larger and more formal network performance comparison to come for Windows/BSD/Linux, while doing the benchmarks this week for the 7-way Linux distribution comparison on AMD EPYC 7551, I also ran some network tests, including with Windows Server 2016 riding on all available stable release updates on each OS.


The client system was the AMD EPYC 7551 + GIGABYTE MZ31-AR0 + 8 x 4GB DDR4-2666 + Samsung 960 EVO configuration on each of the mentioned Linux distributions.
Windows vs. Linux Networking Performance

The server system running the Netperf server instance was connected via Gigabit Ethernet and was powered by the Xeon E5-1680 v3 + ASUS X99-A + 4 x 4GB DDR4-2400 + 60GB Patriot Torch system all while running Ubuntu 17.04 with the Linux 4.16 Git kernel.
Windows vs. Linux Networking Performance

Windows vs. Linux Networking Performance

Linux was mostly dominating in the Netperf TCP tests, but Manjaro 17.1.6 happened to run slower to comparable to these Windows numbers... Manjaro was also a distant outlier in the Linux performance tests published this morning in several instances. Intel's Clear Linux meanwhile was running the fastest.
Windows vs. Linux Networking Performance

Manjaro edged slightly ahead of Windows Server 2016 in the UDP test.
Windows vs. Linux Networking Performance
Anyhow, a lot more tests are on the way, including with iPerf and other potential tests while including the BSDs for testing too.
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About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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