Patch for Intel Processors Significantly Boosts Performance and Energy Efficiency

TapTechNews August 5th news, Pedro Henrique Kopper, an engineer of the Ubuntu distribution developer Canonical, pushed a tiny single-line patch to the Linux kernel mailing list on August 1 local time.

But this patch can bring significant performance and energy efficiency improvements for Intel's 5th-generation Xeon Scalable processors EmeraidRapids under specific settings.

The patch adjusted the default value of the balanced performance option in the EmeraidRapids processor's EPP (TapTechNews note: Energy Performance Preference, Energy Performance Preference) configuration file, from 128 to the same 32 as the previous-generation SapphireRapids processor.

According to the joint internal investigation conducted by Pedro Henrique Kopper and Intel, this change has brought improvements in performance and energy efficiency in multiple tests:

In the POV-Ray test, the running speed increased by 32%, and the energy consumption decreased by 12%;

In the OpenSSL test, the running speed increased by 12%, and the energy consumption remained approximately the same;

In the Linux kernel build test, the running speed increased by 19%, and the energy consumption decreased by 18%.

And in the earlier June, a similar default value change of the EPP also improved the energy efficiency and performance for Intel Core Ultra 1st-generation processors (MeteorLake).

According to foreign media Phoronix, the default value patch for the balanced performance option of the EmeraidRapids processor's EPP configuration file is expected to be merged into the mainline as early as Linux 6.11 kernel.