The Performance Impact From Different Arch Linux Kernel Flavors

Out of nearly 100 benchmarks run on this AMD Ryzen 9 7950X desktop with the five official Arch Linux kernel flavors, coming in first place most often was Linux 6.1.7-arch1-1 as the default "stable" kernel used on Arch Linux and others like Endeavour OS. The default kernel was in best shape overall followed by the Zen kernel performing well in gaming benchmarks and other select scenarios.

Coming in last place most often was the Linux 5.15 LTS kernel option on Arch Linux. This is most significant with AMD Zen 4 hardware with optimizations landing past the 5.15 LTS state having helped the performance greatly in some areas. Those interested can go through all 96 test results in full here.

Lastly is the geometric mean of all 96 tests. The stable Arch Linux kernel was basically tied with the Zen kernel performance followed by the hardened kernel. For this Ryzen 9 7950X desktop going from Linux 5.15 LTS to the current Linux 6.1 stable kernel netted a 12% increase in performance overall.