Question x86 and ARM architectures comparison thread.

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511

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2024
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Btw the compliers aren’t comparable. GCC 16 didn’t even exist when this was tested.

It should just say Xcode 16.1 or just apple clang 16.1, don’t know why Michael adds the misleading stuff
sure but clang 16 is 2024 GCC 13 is like 2022 I doubt changes for Zen5/ARL would be in GCC 13 he would have been better off using a LLVM Based compiler for doing testing of around the same timeframe would have been a more fair comparison and if he is using Apple propritery compiler than Intel/AMD might as well use their compiler toolchain.
 

poke01

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2022
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sure but clang 16 is 2024 GCC 13 is like 2022 I doubt changes for Zen5/ARL would be in GCC 13 he would have been better off using a LLVM Based compiler for doing testing of around the same timeframe would have been a more fair comparison and if he is using Apple propritery compiler than Intel/AMD might as well use their compiler toolchain.
Here is a newer GCC 14.2, it’s faster than 13.2. Michael didn’t test FFMPEG compilation in this review but we can compare LLVM compilation.


IMG_3108.jpeg
IMG_3109.jpeg

Also these don’t look like wall readings to me.

And here is the M4 Max in a MacBook.
IMG_3110.jpeg
What I’m most impressed is the perf/w on the M4 Max which use around 100watts at the wall.

I’m going to test my own 9800X3D on LLVM and see the time difference.
 
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MS_AT

Senior member
Jul 15, 2024
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It should just say Xcode 16.1 or just apple clang 16.1, don’t know why Michael adds the misleading stuff
Because he doesn't care about the fine details, but scale and automation, that is why when you scrutinize the benchmarks from phoronix you will see all kinds of inconsistencies;) I guess on MacOS simply gcc aliases clang for convenience.

I doubt changes for Zen5/ARL would be in GCC 13 he would have been better off using a LLVM Based compiler for doing testing of around the same timeframe would have been a more fair comparison and if he is using Apple propritery compiler than Intel/AMD might as well use their compiler toolchain.
Support for Zen5 in mainstream LLVM is still a joke. It's copy paste of Zen4 backend which itself only recently got fixed and was a copy paste of Zen3. AMD is dropping a ball there.

Michael didn’t test FFMPEG compilation in this review but we can compare LLVM compilation.
I’m going to test my own 9800X3D on LLVM and see the time difference.
Be sure to build the same target as by default each will compile for the same architecture it's running on, which will trigger different code/data paths in the compiler;) Make sure to match the same options, and depending on the platform use the right compiler package ;) [As in my table, depending on the package source there was large diff between 18.1.8 clang versions].
 
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Covfefe

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Jul 23, 2025
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How did they measure power for the x86 machines? As I previously wrote, I only trust power at the wall, after all this is what the machines I run consume.
Software readings for everything. Here's the review.
The M4 showing was all the more impressive when looking at the CPU power consumption exposed by powermetrics compared to the Intel/AMD RAPL/PowerCap results on Linux.
 
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