Stemming from a request by a Phoronix Premium reader wondering about some fresh historical kernel performance comparison numbers, today’s benchmarking is looking at the performance of the LTS and latest stable Linux kernel versions going back to Linux 5.15 LTS in 2021. For testing an AMD EPYC Milan-X server was used for compatibility back through Linux 5.15 LTS with some rather impressive results for testing these major Linux kernel releases of the past four years.
This Linux kernel performance benchmarking comparison is going back to the Linux 5.15 kernel as a popular kernel version in some enterprises and was the Long Term Support (LTS) version for the 2021 calendar year. Linux 5.15.189 was tested as the latest point release followed by Linux 6.1.148 LTS, Linux 6.6.102 LTS, and Linux 6.12.42 as the latest LTS kernel point releases over the past four years.
Linux 6.16.2 was also tested as the latest stable (non-LTS) kernel version as of testing. Plus Linux 6.17 Git as of 21 August was tested for a look ahead prior to the autumn 2025 Linux distribution releases. It’s likely that Linux 6.18 will be this year’s LTS kernel version but Linux 6.17 is the current leading-edge kernel state for representing the current state of affairs for the Linux kernel.
The same hardware and other software packages were used for benchmarking all these kernel versions. Dual AMD EPYC 7773X “Milan-X” processors were running on the AMD Daytona-X server with 512GB of RAM and 3.8TB Micron 9300 NVMe SSD drive. The Milan-X server platform was used for having hardware support/compatibility going back to the Linux 5.15 LTS kernel, which released just before the March 2022 debut of these Milan server processors with 3D V-Cache.
From there a wide variety of different Linux workloads were benchmarked for looking at the evolution of the Linux kernel performance from Linux 5.15 LTS through Linux 6.16 stable and the current Linux 6.17 development kernel. The CPU power consumption was also monitored during each benchmarking run to look for any impact on power consumption and overall power efficiency out of these newer Linux kernel releases.
