Earlier this year when the Framework 13 was updated for the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series I ran benchmarks looking at the performance gains across different Linux distributions with Debian 13, Clear Linux, and CachyOS being the outstanding performers for that Strix Point hardware. With the recent launch of the Framework 12 2-in-1 laptop powered by Intel Raptor Lake you may be wondering what Linux distributions have the edge there. Here is an eight-way comparison of different Linux operating systems on the Framework 12 with Intel Core i5 1334U with the likes of Arch Linux, CachyOS, Clear Linux, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu.
With the likes of CachyOS and Clear Linux performing so well on AMD Strix Point isn’t really too surprising given they have optimizations available for AVX-512 and the like that benefit the higher-end x86_64 processors. But with Framework 12 going the Raptor Lake U route, there isn’t any AVX-512 and just two P cores with eight E cores. So curiosity got the best of me and I ran eight different Linux distributions to see their out-of-the-box performance on the Framework 12 convertible laptop.
The Linux distributions tested in their latest out-of-the-box state on the Framework 12 included:
– Arch Linux
– CachyOS
– Clear Linux 43760
– Debian 13 Testing
– Fedora Workstation 42
– openSUSE Tumbleweed
– Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
– Ubuntu 25.04
The same Framework 12 laptop was used for all testing with the Intel Core i5 1334U SoC, 16GB of single channel DDR5-5200 memory, 1TB WD_BLACK SN770M storage, and the integrated Raptor Lake Iris Xe Graphics.
All of these Linux distributions were tested in their clean, out-of-the-box/default installation with updates applied as of testing time. So for those curious about how these Linux distributions compare on the Framework 12, continue on for these fresh numbers.
