Meet The Linux OS AMD Recommends For Superior Ryzen Threadripper 3990X Performance

AMD and Intel may be fierce competitors in the CPU space, but the two companies aren’t always trying to cut each other down. In fact, during the press briefing for AMD’s 64-core Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, it actually recommended using Intel’s in-house Linux distribution for best performance.

That revelation comes from Michael Larabel, otherwise known as the benchmarking guru behind the cross-platform Phoronix Test Suite. Larabel has pages and pages of statistical proof that Intel’s Clear Linux is the idea Linux distribution to run on Intel CPUs when taking pure performance into account.

But a reality that’s beginning to surface is that Clear Linux is also the optimal choice for AMD processors as well. Whether it’s AMD’s monstrous Threadripper CPUs or a lowly AMD Ryzen 3200U processor shipping inside a $199 laptop, Clear Linux is constantly winning a battery of performance benchmarks.

Here’s a pie chart from Larabel’s testing that shows Clear Linux versus 8 other Linux distributions running on AMD’s new Ryzen Threadripper 3990X:

This recommendation from AMD isn’t exactly surprising. For years — and even after the birth of Ryzen — AMD would run internal benchmarks for its new Radeon GPUs on Intel CPU-powered systems. Why? Because Intel processors provided the highest gaming framerates to talk up with press, and of course AMD wants to present their graphics cards in the best light.

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I recently ran my own tests using the Phoronix Test Suite on my System76 Thelio PC to confirm Larabel’s findings, but using a midrange AMD Ryzen 5 3400G. I compared Pop!_OS 19.10 (arguably the best choice since it’s designed with System76 hardware in mind) against the latest version of Clear Linux.

Clear Linux walked away with a staggering 95% first-place finishes. The lead was especially clear in Selenium browser benchmarks:

This doesn’t mean Clear Linux is suitable as a daily driver for everyone, but if pure performance matters, the results are, well, clear.

You can check out Clear Linux here.