[Nition]

I recently replaced my main desktop PC after nine years and the new CPU benchmarks at only about twice the performance.

Double the performance isn't too bad obviously, but that's about the same timespan as between the 486 and the Pentium III.

[_arvin]

I'm right there with you guys.

I made my desktop in 2014 with a Haswell i5-4670K @ 3.4GHz. Overclocked it to 4.3GHz, and I still don't have a reason to upgrade. I really want a Ryzen 2700X also but staying patient. Newer and better hardware will keep coming out so I'm in no rush. (but my next CPU will definitely be AMD)

My current thing right now is compiling the Linux kernel exactly catered to my Haswell machine, and using the latest gcc with "-march=native -O2" optimizations. It might seem minor, but man if she ain't screaming right now. I should mention I have an AMD RX 480 graphics card also. So I'm up-to-date in that world and enjoying the best of team red and blue right now. New drivers, software, kernels, and optimizations keep coming out that make my current hardware faster. But then came Spectre and Meltdown lol.

[mrdmnd]

Just remember,

http://funroll-loops.teurasporsaat.org/

[yjftsjthsd-h]

So... always use `-O0 -march=i586`, because using obvious optimizations for your hardware is a total waste of time and will definitely never ever be beneficial? Seriously, I get that it's possible to go off the deep end over optimizing, but that site is way off the deep end in the opposite direction.

[_arvin]

I'm sure it was just poking fun. We can't be kernel ricers and get mad when people make fun of it. CFLAGS matter! lol

One thing I will say, compiling your own has many benefits, as all the distribution kernels use Generic x86-64 and miss out on all the Intel/AMD optimizations.

For example, just by switching from "Generic-x86-64" to "Core 2 or newer" in Processor type and features -> Processor family in kernel config, adds these 5 optimizations:

CONFIG_X86_INTERNODE_CACHE_SHIFT=6

CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=6

CONFIG_X86_INTEL_USERCOPY=y

CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y

CONFIG_X86_P6_NOP=y

You can say it's pulling hairs, but hey, that's what I want. Not many people have the time, know-how, run Linux, etc. to be able to make these optimizations.

[sundvor]

7y son's computer is my old, and nearly as old as him! 2600k overclocked to 4.4ghz, 16gb ram, 512gb 840 Pro, NVIDIA 980 on a 1920*1200 U2412M.

My much newer one (six core 6850/950 NVME/1080ti/32gb) really isn't that much faster, GPU aside.

[berti]

In a similar boat with my old 4770k and a new RX580. I'm kicking myself for the k model though, as I would like to pass my old GPU through to a Windows VM, but the unlocked k model CPUs don't have VT-d, necessary for IOMMU.

[wila]

Buy a 4th gen second hand CPU? No need to kick yourself, those are cheap now.

For example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i7-4770-3-4GHz-Quad-Core-Syst...

[chx]

This mistake was fixed in Devil's Canyon:

https://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Pro...

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes

[copperx]

Can AMD Ryzen and Threadripper run Linux without crashing? What about compiling large source code bases? There were some scary bugs reported on Linux when Ryzen came out.

And that's not even covering motherboard incompatibilities with Linux (e.g. sleep/shutdown not working, WiFi/Bluetooth broken, etc.)

Have those problems been fixed definitively? Or should one stick to Intel for Linux at the moment?

[mih]

Longtime Linux user who switched to Ryzen 1500x recently from an old Core i7 (2011 model). As far as the processor goes, I have faced no problems w.r.t stability. Paired with an ASRock motherboard, there are no problems with other functionality such as suspend/resume either. Occasionally the Desktop compositor hits a snag freezing my machine and requiring a forced reboot, but I would fault the NVidia drivers for this.

Also, since I use the Arch distro, installing packages from the AUR requires compiling stuff. So far ffmpeg has been among the packages with large source code base that I compile regularly and I've never had issues. I would like to compile the kernel too, but I'm unsure as to whether the difference will be noticeable for my daily usage. On my old machine, the Zen-kernel did improve responsiveness, but on my current one, I'm sticking to the LTS kernel.

Word is that the 2nd generation of Ryzen a.k.a Raven ridge are more stable and worth it if you can afford them (watch out for motherboard compatibility though).

[chx]

I can't resist crosslink my post from two days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17656645

I for myself couldn't suffer a machine where I occasionally need to reset , destroying flow.

[copperx]

I read your post twice and you didn't mention rebooting. Were you rebooting because of docking?

Most of your gripes come from running Linux on a laptop machine. If you are a person who likes to work on powerful desk workstations, Linux behaves great on those. Granted, some things, such as multifunction printers (which are mostly software-driven) don't have support. You do have to be careful when selecting hardware, unfortunately.

[chx]

No, I just found your off-the-cuff comment absolutely typical of the desktop Linux situation: it's totally stable except when it freezes so hard you need to find a reset button.

[jhasse]

> Can AMD Ryzen and Threadripper run Linux without crashing?

Yes, of course!

> What about compiling large source code bases? There were some scary bugs reported on Linux when Ryzen came out.

Are you referring to this? https://www.extremetech.com/computing/254750-amd-replaces-ry...

The later revisions of Ryzen 1000 CPUs have been fixed, you could RMA your CPU if it was affected (I did this myself, AMD's support was excellent). Ryzen 2000 CPUs aren't affected.

> Have those problems been fixed definitively? Or should one stick to Intel for Linux at the moment?

I've never heard of any motherboard incompatibilities. The WiFi chips in some of those AMD motherboards are actually from Intel btw.

I'm running an AMD Ryzen workstation with Linux for over a year now and it works perfectly.

[ben-schaaf]

From what I remember those crashes were hardware defects that caused issues under load on any platform. Ryzen 2 hasn't had this issue and my 1600X worked beautifully out of the box on Ubuntu 18.04 except for the lack of sensors.

[copperx]

So your software has no idea whether the hardware is overheating?