Windows 11 Outperforming Linux on an Intel Arrow Lake H Laptop

Summary

Typically when receiving any review hardware preloaded with Microsoft Windows I tend to run some Windows vs. Linux benchmarks just as a sanity test plus it still seems to generate a fair amount of interest even though the outcome is almost always the same: Linux having a hefty performance advantage over Windows especially in the more demanding creator-type workloads. As an unexpected twist and time consuming puzzle the past two months, when recently testing out the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 it's faster for numerous workloads now on Microsoft Windows 11 than Ubuntu Linux. Across the many Windows 11 benchmarks the past several years from laptops to DIY desktop builds and more, it has been very consistent of Linux delivering better performance. With AMD or Intel processors, "small" or "big" systems, OEM preloads or carrying out a retail Windows 11 install, etc, Ubuntu and other major Linux distributions have typically led with ease in delivering better performance. Especially with newer processors, Linux has typically scaled better to higher core/thread counts thanks to its scheduler. Only in a few cases of encountering power management bugs in the Linux kernel / BIOS or similar has there been upsets in favor of Windows. The Linux advantage has traditionally been very apparent for creative tasks like Blender CPU-based 3D rendering performance or other renderers. Even for proprietary renderers like V-RAY and Indigo with just the static binaries on each platform, Linux has tended to soar past Microsoft Windows. So back in November when carrying out some Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS benchmarks on a ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 review unit sent over by Lenovo, it caught me by great surprise to find Windows 11 winning in workloads where Linux is typically the hands-down leader. Including for those proprietary renderers where relying on static binaries for each platform and thus foregoing any compiler toolchain mishaps or similar problems. The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 review unit is ...