Benchmarking The Performance Benefits To Ubuntu 26.10 amd64v3 Packages
With Canonical engineers again experimenting with x86_64-v3 package builds for Ubuntu Linux using an "amd64v3" archive for the current Ubuntu 26.10 development, I decided to see how these latest amd64v3 packages comparing to their conventional Ubuntu 26.10 amd64 packages.
It's not clear yet if amd64v3 packages will play any official status in Ubuntu 26.10 or if they will release any amd64v3 ISO, but like previous cycles they have an amd64v3 package repository that is quietly available for those wanting to try these packages targeting the x86-64-v3 micro-architecture feature level. They at least continue experimenting with amd64v3 while it will be interesting if they decide to officially support it either to augment their amd64 default or as an eventual replacement if raising the baseline similar to what RHEL10 and other Linux distributions have pursued.
👁 Ubuntu 26.10 amd64v3 APT setup
With x86-64-v3, AVX/AVX2 can be assumed along with FMA, MOVBE, and other newer ISA capabilities found in Intel CPUs since Haswell or since Excavator CPUs on the AMD side. Depending upon the workload, being able to generate binaries assuming x86_64-v3 and newer can mean a compelling performance advantage in sensitive code paths.
Today's testing looked at the current Ubuntu 26.10 amd64 daily ISO state as of 8 June followed by re-testing on the same system after upgrading all packages to the amd64v3 package variants. The same system was obviously used for all the testing and that was the Framework Desktop equipped with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Strix Halo with 64GB of LPDDR5-8000 memory, 2TB NVMe SSD, and the Radeon 8060S Graphics.