Arch Linux vs. Slackware 14 Beta vs. Other Linux Distros Looking at the Intel Core i7 3960X "Sandy Bridge" Extreme Edition performance on several popular Linux distributions compared to Slackware 14.0 Beta 64-bit (Slackware64) and Arch Linux using the new 2012 July media. Benchmarking by Michael Larabel for a future article on Phoronix.com. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30GHz (12 Cores), Motherboard: Intel DX79SI, Chipset: Intel Sandy Bridge DMI2, Memory: 8192MB, Disk: 64GB OCZ VERTEX, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4650 512MB, Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL S2409W, Network: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Connection OS: Ubuntu 12.04, Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity 5.10.0, Display Server: X Server 1.11.3, Display Driver: radeon 6.14.99, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2 Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.6, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 CentOS 6.2: Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30GHz (12 Cores), Motherboard: Intel DX79SI, Chipset: Intel Sandy Bridge DMI2, Memory: 2 x 4096 MB DDR3-1600MHz, Disk: 64GB OCZ VERTEX, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4650 512MB, Audio: Intel Patsburg HD Audio, Monitor: DELL S2409W, Network: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Connection OS: CentOS 6.2, Kernel: 2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME 2.28.2, Display Server: X Server 1.10.4, Display Driver: radeon 6.14.2, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 7.11 Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.4.6 20110731, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Fedora 17: Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30GHz (12 Cores), Motherboard: Intel DX79SI, Chipset: Intel Sandy Bridge DMI2, Memory: 8192MB, Disk: 64GB OCZ VERTEX, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4650 512MB (650/900MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL S2409W, Network: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Connection OS: Fedora 17 (Beefy Miracle), Kernel: 3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64 (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.4.1, Display Server: X Server 1.12.0, Display Driver: radeon 6.14.99, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2 Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.7.0 20120507, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Slackware 14 Beta: Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30GHz (12 Cores), Motherboard: Intel DX79SI, Chipset: Intel Sandy Bridge DMI2, Memory: 2 x 4096 MB DDR3-1600MHz, Disk: 64GB OCZ VERTEX, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4650 512MB, Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL S2409W, Network: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Connection OS: Slackware 14.0, Kernel: 3.2.23 (x86_64), Desktop: Xfce 4.10, Display Server: X Server 1.12.3, Display Driver: radeon 6.14.4, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4 Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.7.1 + Clang 3.0 + LLVM 3.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Arch Linux: Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30GHz (12 Cores), Motherboard: Intel DX79SI, Chipset: Intel Xeon E5/Core, Memory: 8192MB, Disk: 64GB OCZ VERTEX, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4650 512MB, Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL S2409W, Network: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Connection OS: Linux, Kernel: 3.4.6-1-ARCH (x86_64), Display Driver: radeon 6.14.6, Compiler: GCC 4.7.1 20120721, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 NAS Parallel Benchmarks 3.3 Test / Class: EP.B Total Mop/s > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 373.16 |=============================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 350.98 |============================================= Fedora 17 ......... 394.44 |================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 334.93 |=========================================== Arch Linux ........ 401.40 |=================================================== NAS Parallel Benchmarks 3.3 Test / Class: MG.B Total Mop/s > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 2705.06 |=============================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 2881.10 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 2777.18 |================================================ Slackware 14 Beta . 2805.12 |================================================= Arch Linux ........ 2876.97 |================================================== NAS Parallel Benchmarks 3.3 Test / Class: SP.A Total Mop/s > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 3830.96 |================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 3839.69 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 3527.57 |============================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 3511.16 |============================================== Arch Linux ........ 3638.09 |=============================================== NAS Parallel Benchmarks 3.3 Test / Class: UA.A Total Mop/s > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 49.12 |================================================ CentOS 6.2 ........ 53.39 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 52.31 |=================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 49.12 |================================================ Arch Linux ........ 51.03 |================================================== FFTE 5.0 Test: N=64, 1D Complex FFT Routine MFLOPS > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 5473.60 |============================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 5959.47 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 5737.92 |================================================ Slackware 14 Beta . 4850.30 |========================================= Arch Linux ........ 5741.54 |================================================ Timed HMMer Search 2.3.2 Pfam Database Search Seconds < Lower Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 15.62 |=================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 15.76 |=================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 16.08 |==================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 16.01 |==================================================== Arch Linux ........ 15.88 |=================================================== BYTE Unix Benchmark 3.6 Computational Test: Dhrystone 2 LPS > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 26208375.50 |=========================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 28060470.10 |============================================== Fedora 17 ......... 25806284.87 |========================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 22855850.80 |===================================== SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Composite Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 1264.24 |================================================= CentOS 6.2 ........ 1218.56 |=============================================== Fedora 17 ......... 1252.89 |================================================= Slackware 14 Beta . 1077.82 |========================================== Arch Linux ........ 1290.80 |================================================== SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Monte Carlo Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 539.23 |=================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 325.63 |=============================== Fedora 17 ......... 412.19 |======================================= Slackware 14 Beta . 345.47 |================================= Arch Linux ........ 411.80 |======================================= SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Fast Fourier Transform Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 287.29 |============================================= CentOS 6.2 ........ 326.27 |=================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 315.57 |================================================= Slackware 14 Beta . 293.03 |============================================== Arch Linux ........ 323.83 |=================================================== SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Sparse Matrix Multiply Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 1955.26 |=============================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 2015.91 |================================================ Fedora 17 ......... 1946.03 |=============================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 1724.73 |========================================= Arch Linux ........ 2089.77 |================================================== SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Dense LU Matrix Factorization Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 2362.50 |================================================ CentOS 6.2 ........ 2250.35 |============================================== Fedora 17 ......... 2416.01 |================================================= Slackware 14 Beta . 2033.69 |========================================== Arch Linux ........ 2449.41 |================================================== SciMark 2.0 Computational Test: Jacobi Successive Over-Relaxation Mflops > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 1176.92 |================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 1174.66 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 1174.66 |================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 992.20 |========================================== Arch Linux ........ 1179.18 |================================================== Gcrypt Library 1.4.4 CAMELLIA256-ECB Cipher Microseconds < Lower Is Better CentOS 6.2 . 2297 |============================================================ GraphicsMagick 1.3.12 Operation: Sharpen Iterations Per Minute > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 106 |====================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 102 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 104 |===================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 90 |============================================== Arch Linux ........ 106 |====================================================== GraphicsMagick 1.3.12 Operation: Resizing Iterations Per Minute > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 179 |===================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 169 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 178 |===================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 156 |=============================================== Arch Linux ........ 181 |====================================================== GraphicsMagick 1.3.12 Operation: Local Adaptive Thresholding Iterations Per Minute > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 102 |===================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 101 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 102 |===================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 89 |============================================== Arch Linux ........ 104 |====================================================== Himeno Benchmark 3.0 Poisson Pressure Solver MFLOPS > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 1617.25 |================================================ CentOS 6.2 ........ 1679.33 |================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 1601.01 |================================================ Slackware 14 Beta . 1365.25 |========================================= Arch Linux ........ 1583.88 |=============================================== C-Ray 1.1 Total Time Seconds < Lower Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 30.67 |================================================= CentOS 6.2 ........ 32.48 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 23.46 |====================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 27.92 |============================================= Arch Linux ........ 23.20 |===================================== FLAC Audio Encoding 1.2.1 WAV To FLAC Seconds < Lower Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 5.77 |============================================= CentOS 6.2 ........ 6.16 |================================================ Slackware 14 Beta . 6.84 |===================================================== Arch Linux ........ 5.79 |============================================= Sudokut 0.4 Total Time Seconds < Lower Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 20.02 |=================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 30.17 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 20.61 |==================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 23.82 |========================================= Arch Linux ........ 21.46 |===================================== OpenSSL 1.0.0e RSA 4096-bit Performance Signs Per Second > Higher Is Better Ubuntu 12.04 LTS .. 91.85 |==================================================== CentOS 6.2 ........ 91.15 |==================================================== Fedora 17 ......... 91.48 |==================================================== Slackware 14 Beta . 77.05 |============================================ Arch Linux ........ 91.95 |====================================================