Linux 6.9 Enhances Performance of Intel and AMD Processors, Among Other New Features

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Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 6.9, the latest major version of the kernel. Due to accelerated development, with more releases per year, the number of new features is not as substantial as in the past, but that doesn’t mean this release lacks interesting elements.

Firstly, Linux 6.9 includes improvements for processors from the two major players in the x86 ecosystem: Intel and AMD. For Intel, performance and efficiency have been enhanced for Meteor Lake, one of Intel's latest generations aimed at laptops. Regarding AMD, the P-State driver can now utilize "preferred cores," a concept introduced in Zen 2, for tasks that have higher priority in the kernel scheduler, which should result in increased usage of these cores.

Continuing with more enhancements for Intel and AMD processors, optimizations have been made to the functioning of KVM, the open-source virtualization module for the Linux kernel, allowing it to act as a hypervisor to run virtual machines. These optimizations can improve performance by up to 10%.

Another notable point related to the two major x86 processor brands is that performance has been improved in specific HP laptop models by supporting higher TDP. For Intel, the x86 code topology has been reworked to better support hybrid processors.

Linux 6.9 does not seem particularly strong in terms of graphics; hence, a significant development here is the removal of support for AMD FreeSync Video from AMDGPU, the official open-source driver of the red giant for "modern" Radeon graphics (quoted because many generations are supported, but the old Radeon driver remains for even older GPUs). The reason behind this decision is that compositors like Mutter and Kwin are implementing variable refresh rate (VRR) independently, so AMD FreeSync Video could potentially conflict. Another relatively interesting aspect is that AMD continues to work on support for RDNA 4 and RDNA 3 Refresh architectures.

The situation with file systems is more intriguing. Here, the old NTFS driver has been retired, as its functions can be fulfilled by NTFS3, and EXT2 has been marked obsolete due to the approaching year 2038. Support for block devices with zones has been improved in F2FS, various optimizations have enhanced the performance of Btrfs, the operation of exFAT should be faster, and online repair has been improved in XFS.

Additionally, we see a variety of new features covering many different aspects, such as the initial enablement for IBM Power11, the introduction of Rust support for ARM64, support for more ARM-based SoC models, support for various Samsung peripherals operating over Bluetooth, and support for Snakebyte controllers via Xpad, the driver for operating Xbox controllers, which supports many compatible controllers, including those from 8BitDo in “Windows mode.”

These are the most important aspects of Linux 6.9. Updating the kernel is usually not critical for most users, especially if the hardware is a few years old. Aside from the tedious compilation process, users can opt for a rolling release and bleeding-edge distribution like Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, or MicroOS, have a bit more patience and wait for it to reach Fedora 39 and 40, or use third-party repositories available for Ubuntu.

All details about Linux 6.9 are available on the corresponding Kernel Newbies page, where they are presented in a more digestible and friendly manner for those without deep knowledge.

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