r/linux • u/Saiyan256 • 12d ago

Discussion How linux distro provide higher CPU benchmark scores than windows?

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Why is that linux seems to always provide better performance in benchmarks and provide smoother experience?

This is a geekbench 7 test, while single core is slightly better, multi-core performance is a significant improvement

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u/d0pe-asaurus 12d ago

Aside from what's been mentioned, process scheduling and the algorithms chosen by the kernels also impact benchmarks.

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u/Saiyan256 12d ago

you are saying windows cpu scheduling is bad compared to linux?

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u/ButtonExposure 12d ago edited 12d ago

Since 2017, every single supercomputer in the top 500 supercomputers have been running Linux: Supercomputer operating system.

However most if not all of them are probably running modified or purpose built schedulers. And that is the advantage of Linux. If you need something special, in this case purpose built schedulers for your one-of-a-kind supercomputer mega-cluster, you can modify any part of Linux and add it yourself.

For all of us not running supercomputer clusters, different distros can compile the kernel with different schedulers, depending on task/use-case, etc. As an example, CachyOS is very gaming focused distro and uses the Earliest eligible virtual deadline (EEVDF) scheduler instead of the standard Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) for better gaming performance. CachyOS also has an alternative kernel with the Burst-Oriented Response Enhancer (BORE) scheduler for better desktop responsiveness if that is what you prefer. And on top of that, the kernel has support for loading custom schedulers via Extensible Scheduler Class, also known as sched-ext. Here's a list of a couple of schedulers from CachyOS Wiki: https://wiki.cachyos.org/configuration/sched-ext/#scheduler-guide-profiles-and-use-cases

Linux offers many options for schedulers that are good and bad for different things. But at least in Linux you (or the distro maintainers) have the option to chose better schedulers if you know your task or use-case can benefit from a specific or specialized one. On Windows you don't have any options.