The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X Boasts Some Big AI Wins & More With Linux 6.7

For those on a new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series system at least, the recently released Linux 6.7 stable kernel is looking mighty good at least for the Threadripper 7980X when testing on the newly-launched System76 Thelio Major.

For AI workloads like TensorFlow and OpenVINO there were significant speed-ups found when upgrading from Linux 6.6 to 6.7. There were also measurable speed-ups found for code compilation performance and other areas. This was quite a pleasant surprise as originally I had started this kernel comparison on the System76 Thelio Major to see if the in-development Linux 6.8 kernel would see any wins there... That testing is ongoing but with seeing the surprise boost with Linux 6.7 is worth sharing.

The only change made was upgrading Pop!_OS 22.04 from its stock Linux 6.6 kernel to that of the Linux 6.7 kernel offered by the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA.

Here's a side-by-side look at that kernel upgrade:

It's quite a clear difference in performance with the Linux 6.7 kernel build atop Pop_OS! with the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X workstation.

Out of nearly 100 tests run, Linux 6.7 was the clear winner over Linux 6.6.

On a geo mean basis for those nearly 100 tests, the Threadripper 7980X workstation was nearly 8% faster when running the Linux 6.7 kernel build from the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA with no other differences. Quite a surprise and I'm now conducting tests on additional systems to see how broad these performance boosts may be on v6.7.

Those wanting to see all the Linux 6.6 vs. 6.7 kernel benchmarks in full from this Threadripper 7980X comparison on the System76 Thelio Major can find the individual data points here.