Here is one comparing some modern high end server CPUs: https://www.phoronix.com/benchmark/result/amd-5th-gen-epyc-9... (2P = dual socket)
Here is one comparing some modern consumer CPUs: https://www.phoronix.com/benchmark/result/amd-ryzen-9-9900x-...
Searching "Phoronix ${cpuModel}" will take you to the full review for that model, along with the rest of the build specs.
With the default build in a standard build environment the clock speed tends to matter more. With tuning one could probably squeeze more out of the higher core count systems.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-threadripper-9995wx-trx5...
That's using the same config as the server systems (allmodconfig) but it has the 9950X listed there and on that config it takes 547.23 seconds instead 47.27. That puts all of the consumer CPUs as slower than any of the server systems on the list. You can also see the five year old 2.9GHz Zen2 Threadripper 3990X in front of the brand new top of the range 4.3GHz Zen5 9950X3D because it has more cores.
You can get a pretty good idea of how kernel compiles scale with threads by comparing the results for the 1P and 2P EPYC systems that use the same CPU model. It's generally getting ~75% faster by doubling the number of cores, and that's including the cost of introducing cross-socket latency when you go from 1P to 2P systems.
Here is the corrected link for the 9950X review with allmod instead of def for equal comparison (I couldn't find the def chart in the server review) https://www.phoronix.com/benchmark/result/amd-ryzen-9-9900x-...
I recently built a 6.17 kernel using a full Debian config, and it took about an hour on a fast machine. (Sorry, I didn't save the exact time, but the exact time would only be relevant if you had the exact same hardware and config.) I was surprised how slow it still was. It appears the benefits of faster hardware have been canceled by the amount of new code added.
In many organizations, compilation time tends to hover around a benchmark of "this is acceptable." If it is below that benchmark, nobody pays attention to performance. If it is above, someone fixes something.
In multiple interviews Linus Torvalds has said that this benchmark is about 10 minutes for him. But considering that his personal hardware gets better faster than Moore's law alone, that means that compiles get slower for the rest of us.
systemswizard•3mo ago