AMD confirms Linux "performance marginality problem" on Ryzen
AMD's Ryzen processors' abundance of CPU cores and threads combined with Linux's ability to efficiently use them seems like a match made in heaven. Even the strongest marriages have some ups and downs, though, and Michael Larabel at Phoronix was able to uncover a consistent sore point between Ryzen and Linux. The site's compilation test consistently causes segmentation faults (usually known as "segfaults," causing application crashes) on Ryzen CPUs. Larabel contacted AMD and the company's engineers confirmed the issue, describing it as "a performance marginality problem exclusive to certain workloads on Linux." AMD's engineers went on to explain that the problem is unique to Ryzen desktop chips and is not present in the upcoming Ryzen Threadripper high-end desktop CPU line or in the Epyc server processors.
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