The Linux distributions tested on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X included Arch Linux, CachyOS, Clear Linux, Fedora Workstation 40, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and a recent daily snapshot of Ubuntu 24.10 in its current development form.

Intel's Clear Linux is the most intriguing for the new AMD Zen 5 hardware. Despite a lack of recent news, Clear Linux remains the most optimised x86_64 Linux distribution out of the box.

 It uses compiler function multi-versioning, performance-oriented defaults, aggressive compiler CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS defaults, optional AVX-512 usage for more libraries, and numerous other patches and optimisations aimed at delivering the highest x86_64 Linux performance.

Although not Intel's primary focus, it typically works well on AMD hardware too.

Using the same Ryzen 9 9950X system, all these Linux distributions were tested in their default state. Intel's Clear Linux easily emerged as the leader when taking the geometric mean of 59 benchmarks run across all the Linux distributions on this AMD Ryzen 9 9950X system.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which has been used for all Ryzen 9000 series Linux testing on Phoronix so far, was the slowest.

Switching to Intel's Clear Linux resulted in a 16 per cent performance improvement over Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. While Ubuntu 24.04 with the Ryzen 9000 series already showed generational enhancements, today's results indicate that performance can be further enhanced with additional software optimisations.

The Arch Linux-powered CachyOS, similarly tuned out-of-the-box like Clear Linux, also performed admirably. CachyOS was seven per cent faster than Ubuntu 24.04 LTS based on the geometric mean and three per cent faster than upstream Arch Linux itself.

For different workloads, CachyOS's advantage over Arch Linux varied from minimal to significant. From the performance of PHP and Python scripts on Clear Linux to compiling various server and HPC-oriented software, Intel's Clear Linux—and a commendable second place for CachyOS—demonstrated that even greater performance can be achieved on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.

 Even for dedicated Ubuntu Linux users, these results highlighted some notable advantages of the upcoming Ubuntu 24.10 release over Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, thanks to the GCC 14 compiler.

Ubuntu 24.10 performance is still subject to change, as the current daily ISOs have not yet moved past the Linux 6.8 kernel, while Ubuntu 24.10 in October will ship with Linux 6.11.