AMD Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X Deliver Excellent Linux Performance
Let's kick off this very fun round of benchmarking...
Jumping straight to some code compilation benchmarks given all the interest from readers with many developers and those running source-based Linux distributions. The Ryzen 9 9950X could compile a default Linux 6.8 LTS x86_64 kernel build in 47 seconds, down from 54 seconds with the Ryzen 9 7950X -- the same as the Intel Core i9 14900K.
Besides shaving off several seconds on the kernel build times, the Ryzen 9 9950X was on average consuming 154 Watts with a recorded peak 0f 200 Watts -- down from a 176 Watt average on the Ryzen 9 7950X with a peak of 236 Watts. Or the power-hungry Core i9 14900K having a 172 Watt average here and a recorded peak of 320 Watts.
If compiling a Linux kernel build with all available modules, more than one minute of time savings was to be had... Or the Ryzen 9 9950X could compile the kernel in about 52% the time it took the aging Ryzen 9 5950X. The Ryzen 9 9900X build speed was just behind the Core i9 14900K. Churning out software quicker whether frequently compiling code on your desktop or looking at Ryzen for servers in a CI/CD type build farm.
And the Ryzen 9 9900 series were continuing to show to be more power efficient than the Ryzen 9 7900 series and the Intel Core 13th/14th Gen processors.
Do a lot of code compilation? The Ryzen 9 7900 series are fantastic. Significant time savings over even the Ryzen 9 7900 series and the Core i9 14900K not coming close to the Ryzen 9 9900X/9950X when compiling large codebases.
All the while the Ryzen 9 9900 series were consuming less power than the Ryzen 9 7900 series and the Intel Raptor Lake (Refresh) processors. I am very happy with the Ryzen 9900 series performance and power efficiency for code compilation.