AMD Ryzen 7000 gives Windows users the perfect reason to move to Linux

Date:
Tue, 04 Oct 2022 11:30:01 +0000

Description:
Ryzen 7000 chips run faster in Linux with security defenses enabled (yes, you read that right).

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AMD Ryzen 7000 processors are now on sale, and those running the silicon in Linux PCs will apparently find the CPUs are faster with security mitigations turned on, which is counterintuitive for sure.

This is according to a report from Phoronix.com which tested out Linux 6.0 with the new Zen 4 chips specifically the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X and the mentioned security functionality, which consists of mitigations against the Spectre vulnerability (on multiple fronts).

Of course, turning on such defenses comes with the expectation that you may have a slight performance hit or a heftier one, or perhaps at best your system might be pretty much unaffected. But what you definitely wouldnt
expect is that itd run faster with the mitigations applied.

So, with the security mitigations turned off, a route some folks might take
to chase better performance, the Linux system is actually being slowed down while leaving it more vulnerable to exploitation at the same time. A
lose-lose situation if ever there was one. Analysis: Here comes the caveat, but its a very minor one

Advantage Linux, then? Well, yes, but there is a caveat here as is usually the case namely that the Ryzen CPU was faster with the defenses turned on in the majority of cases, but some synthetic benchmarks were quicker with mitigations off. Not many, though, and theres no real argument as to whether or not you should turn on the mitigations.

Overall, the Ryzen 9 7950X was 3% faster on average with the mitigations enabled over a large swathe of tests, with particularly big boosts for browser-based apps. And as mentioned, youve got a better protected PC, too,
so its the very definition of a no-brainer here.

Phoronix notes that it hasnt conducted a deeper dive to find out the reason this is the case, mainly because you really shouldnt be turning off security measures like this on your PC anyway, for obvious reasons. But its certainly an interesting revelation, and AMD would appear to get full marks here for preparing Zen 4 very well around applying these defenses to ensure
performance isnt hampered (and indeed, the opposite is the case).

Via Toms Hardware



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/amd-ryzen-7000-gives-windows-users-the-perfect- reason-to-move-to-linux/


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