AVX-512 Performance + Power Efficiency Shines With AMD Strix Halo
Those curious about all of my AVX-512 comparison benchmarks on the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 395 "Strix Halo" SoC can find them via this result file.
When taking the geometric mean of more than 100 AVX-512 capable software packages/applications, having AVX-512 enabled as is the default meant 1.46x the performance compared to force-disabling AVX-512 on Strix Halo. AVX-512 provides very meaningful performance gains on AMD Zen 5 (and Zen 4) from AI workloads to scientific computing, video coding, JSON parsing, and other software able to leverage Advanced Vector Extensions 512. Meanwhile Intel's latest laptop and desktop processors do not support AVX-512. At least with future Intel CPUs supporting AVX10.2 we are looking at their return meanwhile AMD is conquering the market today.
Very important for AMD Strix Halo laptops is that AVX-512 doesn't lead to any increase in power use. In fact, when looking at the CPU power consumption over the entire span of 100+ benchmarks carried out, AVX-512 disabled on the Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 395 led to a 53 Watt average and with the default AVX-512 enabled state was a 51 Watt average for the SoC. Regardless of AVX-512, the Ryzen AI MAX+ PRO 395 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS was topping out at 72 Watts with this HP ZBook Ultra G1a laptop.
Similarly, AVX-512 left enabled didn't lead to any impact on the thermals or the peak CPU clock frequency being achieved. AVX-512 was a win-win with Strix Halo and starkly different from those that may have bad memories of AVX-512 repercussions from years ago on the Intel side.
AMD supporting AVX-512 across their entire product stack from laptops/embedded to desktops and servers remains a wonderful strategic value. Their AVX-512 implementation continues to prove to be exceptionally fit and in the era of AI can provide some very beneficial performance improvements without any increased power use. With the powerful integrated graphics capabilities of Strix Halo paired with up to sixteen Zen 5 cores bearing AVX-512 makes for a very incredible combination for AI use, content creators, developers and more. It's been a real treat benchmarking the HP ZBook Ultra G1a this month under Linux with very capitvating performance; thanks to HP for supplying the review sample for the testing the past few weeks. If you'd like to see more/other Strix Halo Linux benchmarking continue if needing to buy hardware after sending back the review system, consider joining Phoronix Premium or making a tip and letting your Strix Halo interest be known. Or please at least turn off your darn ad-blockers.
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