AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Linux Performance Boosted By Updated BIOS/AGESA

With last week's initial launch-day Linux benchmarks of the Ryzen 5 2600X / Ryzen 7 2700X some found the Linux performance to be lower than Windows. While the root cause is undetermined, a BIOS/AGESA update does appear to help the Linux performance significantly at least with the motherboard where I've been doing most of my tests with the Ryzen 7 2700X. Here are the latest benchmark numbers.

The past few days I've been looking at the CPU scaling driver, Linux kernel versions, and other areas for trying to figure out why the new AMD Zen+ CPUs on Linux were coming up a bit short of Windows. Then I noticed ASUS put out an updated BIOS for the ROG CROSSHAIR VII HERO X470 motherboard, so decided to give that a whirl.

My testing of this new AMD X470 motherboard from ASUS up until now was the default BIOS 0505 that is also what AMD was distributing to other reviewers as the BIOS for at-launch. But now there is the Version 0509 build. The sole public change listed is updating to AGESA 1.0.0.2a.

I upgraded to BIOS 0509 from 0505 and ran a fresh round of benchmarks... This is while keeping all other system BIOS settings and other hardware the same during the benchmarking process.

Whether it be due to the updated AGESA or ASUS having fiddled with something else in this BIOS revision, the Linux performance is now significantly better:

Nearly all across-the-board wins...

But in the occasional test or two, a performance drop.