Ryzen 9 9950X runs 16% faster on an Intel-optimized Linux distro

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Intel helps AMD's Zen 5 flagship run extra fast.

AMD Ryzen 3000-Series Processors
(Image credit: AMD)

Linux often the leads Windows in benchmark comparisons, at least for certain tasks. However, performance between different Linux distros can also vary drastically. Phoronix benchmarked AMD's latest Ryzen 9 9950X in five different Linux distros, including one featuring Intel optimizations, and discovered the Zen 5 chip runs up to 16% faster with the Intel-optimized distro.

The distro in question is called Clear Linux, and it's purportedly one of the most highly optimized Linux distros for x86 processors. Clear Linux's focus is to prioritize app performance by using a plethora of optimizations across the entire operating system, including optimizations made from the kernel, middleware layers, and runtime.

Another advantage Clear Linux has over its contemporaries is dedicated optimization work done by Intel software engineers, helping to boost Clear Linux's performance on x86 processors. In this case, it seems Intel's engineers are helping out all x86 processors, including those from arch-rival AMD.

Phoronix Clear Linux Ryzen 9 9950X Test

(Image credit: Phoronix)

Phoronix tested Clear Linux against an assortment of other Linux distros on the Ryzen 9 9950X: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.10, Fedora Workstation 40, Arch Linux and CachyOS. That last is another performance-focused Linux distro that purportedly shares some of the same patches as Clear Linux.

Across 59 benchmarks, Phoronix saw up to a 16% improvement in performance with Clear Linux compared to  the slowest Linux distro that was tested — Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Clear Linux came in first place, with CachyOS coming in second, Arch Linux 3rd, Fedora Workstation 4th, Ubuntu 24.10 5th, and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS coming in last.

Phoronix's testing reveals that OS-level CPU optimizations can be extremely important for boosting CPU performance. A 16% performance difference is massive, basically matching the improvement seen by the Ryzen 9 9950X over it's 7950X predecessor.

Improving Ryzen 9 9950X performance under Linux shows that Zen 5 has more fuel in the tank. How AMD's latest and greatest stacks up to Intel CPUs, including the upcoming Intel Arrow Lake offerings, remains to be seen.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jeremyj_83
    Interesting to see how the Linux distro affects performance. I would also be interested to see these benchmarks run on the 7950X to get an even bigger comparison.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    By the way, Phoronix went thru an analysis of the new AVX512 uarch of Zen 5, which is absolutely breathtaking. It just proves how today tech reviewers are nothing more than a bunch of Influencers.

    "When taking the geometric mean of the 90 benchmarks used for this AVX-512 on/off comparison, the Zen 5 AVX-512 implementation with the Ryzen 9 9950X saw its performance go up by 56% while the Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 with its "double pumped" AVX-512 implementation saw its performance go up by 41%. Zen 4's AVX-512 was great and now with Zen 5 it's even better with the SKUs having the full 512-bit data-path. This is especially good news for Ryzen 9000 series (EPYC 4005?), EPYC Turin, etc."
    Reply
  • mitch074
    jeremyj_83 said:
    Interesting to see how the Linux distro affects performance. I would also be interested to see these benchmarks run on the 7950X to get an even bigger comparison.
    Go check that article, I think you'll find what you're looking for : performance against 7950X and against Windows 11 - if you extrapolate, running Clear Linux with a 9950X VS. Windows 11 gives you close to 25% extra performance with a 9950X.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    redgarl said:
    By the way, Phoronix went thru an analysis of the new AVX512 uarch of Zen 5, which is absolutely breathtaking. It just proves how today tech reviewers are nothing more than a bunch of Influencers.

    "When taking the geometric mean of the 90 benchmarks used for this AVX-512 on/off comparison, the Zen 5 AVX-512 implementation with the Ryzen 9 9950X saw its performance go up by 56% while the Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 with its "double pumped" AVX-512 implementation saw its performance go up by 41%. Zen 4's AVX-512 was great and now with Zen 5 it's even better with the SKUs having the full 512-bit data-path. This is especially good news for Ryzen 9000 series (EPYC 4005?), EPYC Turin, etc."
    How is this being an influencer? Did they state anything that wasn't factual? No.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    mitch074 said:
    Go check that article, I think you'll find what you're looking for : performance against 7950X and against Windows 11 - if you extrapolate, running Clear Linux with a 9950X VS. Windows 11 gives you close to 25% extra performance with a 9950X.
    I was getting at how much extra performance does 7950X get in Clear Linux and that compared to 9950X.
    Reply
  • dwd999
    What? No Linux Mint? Considering how popular Mint is its a glaring omission.
    Reply
  • mitch074
    jeremyj_83 said:
    I was getting at how much extra performance does 7950X get in Clear Linux and that compared to 9950X.
    That one isn't direct, but by comparing the scores of the 9950X between the two articles, you should see the difference. Or, if you have that processor, you can try running the article's same benchmark on openbenchmarking.org.
    Reply
  • mitch074
    dwd999 said:
    What? No Linux Mint? Considering how popular Mint is its a glaring omission.
    He did benchmark a bunch of distros recently. Apart from Ubuntu 24.04 that was quite a bit slower than all the other ones (gcc 13), and Clear Linux that's a cut above, all distros run within a 2% margin of error from each other. As long as you're using the same compiler with the same options (gcc 14 with -O2), frankly, there's no real point.
    Reply
  • KraakBal
    These improvements will also be the case for CPUs going back 16 years..

    A lot of these improvements are due to compiler flag changes for the packages. And clear Linux and cacheos uses other pathes and different scheduler.

    But since zen 5 is already faster on Linux than windoze, and has resulted in some games performing better, using these might make sense for someone to game with the best perf
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Articles about Clear Linux's performance advantage pop up regularly.

    https://www.phoronix.com/review/clear-linux-zen3
    https://www.phoronix.com/review/ubuntu2004-clear-intelamd
    And so forth.
    Reply