The Cookie Machine - Click here to drag window

DUMMY TEXT - Real text set in assets/js/theCookieMachine.js

If you can read me, I'm broken!

Views: 11,597β€…    Votes:  12β€…
Tags: windows   windows-subsystem-for-linux   benchmarks  
Link: πŸ” See Original Answer on Ask Ubuntu ⧉ πŸ”—

URL: https://askubuntu.com/q/1035571
Title: Running a simulation on pure Ubuntu vs on Ubuntu in Windows (WSL)
ID: /2018/05/13/Running-a-simulation-on-pure-Ubuntu-vs-on-Ubuntu-in-Windows-_WSL_
Created: May 13, 2018    Edited:  June 12, 2020
Upload: March 26, 2024    Layout:  post
TOC: false    Navigation:  false    Copy to clipboard:  false


Ubuntu in Windows (WSL - 2017 Fall Creators Update) is definitely slower than β€œPure” Ubuntu in Linux environment.

For example screen painting takes many times longer in Windows 10 versus Ubuntu 16.04, ie you can actually see the cursor move in Windows 10:

WSL bash startup.gif

It takes about 5 seconds for the WSL Bash splash screen to paint. By comparison it is about 1 1/2 seconds for the same splash screen in Ubuntu 16.04:

Ubuntu terminal splash.gif


CPU Benchmarking

The first section shows how slow screen I/O is but what about CPU benchmarking?

From this Ask Ubuntu Q&A: CPU benchmarking utility for Linux, I ran tests on Ubuntu 16.04 on Linux and Windows. On Linux about 24 seconds on Windows 10 version 1709 about 31 seconds. Linux is 6 seconds faster or about 25% faster. However I just upgraded Windows 10 to version 1803 (Redstone 4 aka Spring Creators April 2018 update) and it took 24 seconds which is the same as Linux.

Ubuntu 16.04 on Linux

$ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1

Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started!
Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          23.5065s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 23.5049
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  2.13ms
         avg:                                  2.35ms
         max:                                  8.52ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               2.76ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   23.5049/0.00

Ubuntu 16.04 on Windows 10 build 1709

$ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1

Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started!
Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          30.5350s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 30.5231
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  2.37ms
         avg:                                  3.05ms
         max:                                  6.21ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               4.01ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   30.5231/0.00

Ubuntu 16.04 on Windows 10 build 1803

``` $ sysbench –test=cpu –cpu-max-prime=20000 run sysbench 0.4.12: multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options: Number of threads: 1

Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started! Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000

Test execution summary: total time: 23.7223s total number of events: 10000 total time taken by event execution: 23.7155 per-request statistics: min: 2.21ms avg: 2.37ms max: 4.53ms approx. 95 percentile: 2.73ms

Threads fairness: events (avg/stddev): 10000.0000/0.00 execution time (avg/stddev): 23.7155/0.00

```

NOTE: Windows 10 spring update for 2018 (dubbed Redstone 4) came out on May 9th (4 days ago) and I will be installing it soon to check out the improvements. No doubt there are many. One I know of that interests me is the ability to run cron jobs on startup. I need that for automatic daily backups to gmail.com.

NOTE 2: I’ve just installed Windows 10 Build 1803 (April 2018 Spring Creators Update AKA Redstone 4) and the screen painting is much much faster. It’s now only 3 seconds instead of 5 seconds to display the Bash splash screen. The CPU benchmark is on par with Linux now.

⇧ Terminal icon in window titlebar is stretched out over window control buttons How to tell if Ubuntu is using WiFi or Ethernet  β‡©