A patch queued yesterday ino the Linux power management subsystem’s “linux-next” branch ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.13 merge window will tune Intel Xeon Granite Rapids processors for better performance out-of-the-box.
For running with Intel Xeon Granite Rapids (including upcoming Granite Rapids D processors) with the Intel P-State “powersave” governor as is commonly the default on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, Granite Rapids will enjoy better performance with Linux 6.13.
The change is adjusting the performance of the Energy Performance Preference (EPP) value in the balance_performance mode. This won’t have an impact though if you are already running Granite Rapids with the “performance” governor.
The patch queued ahead of Linux 6.13 explains:
cpufreq: intel_pstate: Update Balance-performance EPP for Granite Rapids
Update EPP default for balance_performance to 32.
This will give better performance out of the box using Intel P-State powersave governor while still offering power savings compared to performance governor.
This is in line with what has already been done for Emerald Rapids and Sapphire Rapids.
Indeed it was just earlier this year that the EPP for Emerald Rapids was tuned for better performance. It’s a bit surprising that Granite Rapids wasn’t tuned at that time or any point prior to today, two months after these Xeon 6 P-core processors were announced.
The Linux 6.13 merge window is expected to open next week while the stable Linux 6.13 kernel will be out around late January or early February. It’s also possible this straight-forward Intel P-State patch may get back-ported to existing stable kernel versions. In any event look for better Granite Rapids performance for those using the default “powersave” governor.
