Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX

Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by the_grue on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @06:12AM (#17756615)

So WHY is Windows slower? What effect can OS conceivably have on CPU benchmarks? Off the top of my head I can think of preemptive multitasking and memory allocation implementations (the latter shouldn't influence pure CPU benchmarks much, but it can influence 7-Zip results), any better guesses?

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by swebs on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @06:52AM (#17756786)

There was a very good post about that a few years ago. It probably doesn't explain this specific case, but it is a fascinating read nonetheless.

>I Contribute to the Windows Kernel. We Are Slower Than Other Operating Systems. Here Is Why

http://blog.zorinaq.com/i-contribute-to-the-windows-kernel-w...

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by Someguywhatever on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @09:35AM (#17757713)

Theres also the burden on Microsoft that nothing can break. Meaning: anything that used to work before (in an earlier incarnation of Windows) must continue to work in later versions. I don't think Linux has this burden. They are more free to break stuff and so more free to innovate.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by the_grue on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @09:39AM (#17757743)

I'm quite sure Linux has the same burden. Here is what Linus Torvalds has to say: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by coinerone on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @10:39AM (#17758330)

In Linux Kernel development there is one realy important Rule: Don't break Userspace!

Its like the Windows burden you mentioned, but much more reasonable imho.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by the_grue on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @08:13AM (#17757156)

Thanks, that's really interesting, even though the author toned much of his initial satire down in a later update.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by stefs on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @10:18AM (#17758111)

curiously, nowadays (i.e. the article/original comment is from 2013) some google employees voice similar criticism about their own engineering culture: building new things are rewarded, maintaining an old thing is not.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by the_grue on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @10:23AM (#17758178)

I guess it's an industry-wide problem. It would be illuminating to learn of any counter examples, where a big software company manages NOT to fall into this trap.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by volkisch on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @10:35AM (#17758288)

Just a hunch, but maybe you could try searching outside of SV.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by rbanffy on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @07:11AM (#17765172)

This deserves its own post.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by AtomicOrbital on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @08:25AM (#17765473)

it had one https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5688151

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by magicalhippo on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @06:28AM (#17756681)

Scheduling threads is probably a big one I imagine. If Windows schedules two threads from the same process working on a shared dataset across two different NUMA nodes then memory latency can shoot up, from what I understand.

I've also noticed that Windows is very fond of passing hard-working threads around all the cores in turn, rather than letting them hog certain cores. Pretty sure that doesn't improve cache behavior etc.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by nolok on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @09:53AM (#17757887)

You're running dozens of threads over 16+ cores who don't all have the same properties to access and share memory (speed, invalidation, permission, ...).

The OS is in charge of deciding who runs where, and who shares a core with who.

So ... A lot.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by ygra on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @06:17AM (#17756632)

I wonder whether Windows Server SKUs do differently, perhaps due to different scheduler optimization choices.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by dogma1138 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @07:38AM (#17756970)

There is no difference, in fact they might be slower as they are on older kernels.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by stinos on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @08:58AM (#17757461)

Combination of things (which probably also explains why some distros are good at one becnhmark but less good at others)? Scheduler, no architecture-specific kernel code etc.

Plus it's never just the OS: there's always platform-specific source code and the compiler.. Non-optimal optimization options for the latter and you're screwed as well.

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Re:Windows 10 vs. Linux Performance On AMD Threadripper 2990WX by rasz on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @01:56AM (#17764033)

It might be blindly applying all the Intel brokeness (spectre/meltdown) patches to AMD cpu.

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