Arch Linux Based CachyOS Takes The Lead On Intel Arrow Lake

Following the recent Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu Linux benchmarks I wanted to expand the testing to look at how well other Linux distributions as well were performing on this new 24-core Arrow Lake desktop processor. To much surprise Intel's own Clear Linux distribution didn't take the top spot this round but as a surprising upset the Arch Linux based CachyOS distribution outperformed Clear Linux, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Fedora Workstation on this flagship Arrow Lake processor.

This round of Linux testing on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 "Arrow Lake" looked at Ubuntu 24.10, Ubuntu 24.10 when using the Linux 6.13 kernel as well as switching to the performance governor rather than the default powersave, Fedora Workstation 41, CachyOS, Arch Linux, and Clear Linux on this same system. All the Linux distributions were cleanly installed and tested in their default / out-of-the-box state except for the noted extra runs on Ubuntu for reference purposes.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K was at stock speeds and all hardware kept the same throughout this out-of-the-box Linux distribution comparison.

Going into this testing the assumption was that Intel's Clear Linux would likely lead the race as it typically does on x86_64 processors both from Intel and AMD. Clear Linux has aggressive optimizations by default and also via function multi-versioning / x86_64 micro-architecture feature levels and similar does carry AVX-512 optimized libraries and more. But with Arrow Lake there is no AVX-512 support. Meanwhile the Arch Linux based CachyOS rolling distribution has been gaining traction in recent months and also picking up more optimizations of their own. CachyOS ended up edging past both Clear Linux as well as upstream Arch Linux on this Core Ultra 9 285K system while in turn also outperforming Fedora Workstation and Ubuntu Linux.