Compiling Thanos to Benchmark my Computers
Why?
My desktop computer wasn’t up to today’s standards anymore. Although it was decent, compared to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 6 Laptop I have for work, I could feel the difference in speed on a daily basis.
Where my desktop was lacking the speed (both CPU and Disk IO), the ThinkPad was actually sometimes struggling to drive my ultra-wide monitor (DELL U3419W at 3440x1440 resolution). So, I was kind of in the unfortunate situation of having trade-offs with both (I know, pretty high standards, but I also spend 40+ hours on those computers every single week).
Along with the COVID-19 lockdown, I figured it’s the perfect time to upgrade my desktop anyway.
Thus, it was time to get a new CPU (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12x 3.80GHz) and SSD (Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB NVMe M.2 SSD). For the new CPU I had to get a new mainboard (MSI X470) and RAM (32GB G.Skill RipJaws V DDR4-3200) too…
How
I’m running these “benchmarks” on the current master branch of Thanos:
git checkout 02ab6b84908e5458699655ab064a78afc0f9da9b
Each machine had the latest version of Go (1.14) installed.
To disable the Go build cache we run go clean -cache before each run.
go clean -cache && time go build -v ./cmd/thanos
Results
metalmatze-x1 (Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6th Gen)
201.17s user 15.57s system 722% cpu 29.999 total
186.64s user 14.37s system 715% cpu 28.092 total
202.74s user 15.82s system 714% cpu 30.604 total
202.26s user 15.52s system 719% cpu 30.259 total
214.77s user 17.14s system 718% cpu 32.262 total
Average: 30.243 seconds
+ OS: Arch Linux x86_64
# Hostname: metalmatze-x1
### Kernel Release: 5.6.15-arch1-1
##### Uptime: 10 days, 10:19
###### WM: i3
; #####; DE: None
+##.##### Packages: 1106
+########## RAM: 3764 MB / 15889 MB
#############; Processor Type: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz
###############+ $EDITOR: vim
####### ####### Root: 41G / 49G (83%) (ext4)
.######; ;###;`".
.#######; ;#####.
#########. .########`
######' '######
;#### ####;
##' '##
#' `#
metalmatze-desktop (old)
237.25s user 18.04s system 362% cpu 1:10.33 total
237.39s user 17.99s system 361% cpu 1:10.55 total
237.92s user 18.31s system 356% cpu 1:11.82 total
238.79s user 17.93s system 363% cpu 1:10.64 total
238.44s user 17.96s system 363% cpu 1:10.58 total
Average: 70.784 seconds (1:10.78)
+ OS: Arch Linux x86_64
# Hostname: metalmatze-desktop
### Kernel Release: 5.5.13-arch2-1
##### Uptime: 0:40
###### WM: i3
; #####; DE: None
+##.##### Packages: 1242
+########## RAM: 1160 MB / 15996 MB
#############; Processor Type: AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor
###############+ $EDITOR: vim
####### ####### Root: 30G / 49G (61%) (ext4)
.######; ;###;`".
.#######; ;#####.
#########. .########`
######' '######
;#### ####;
##' '##
#' `#
metalmatze-desktop (new)
136.07s user 11.17s system 1546% cpu 9.518 total
136.21s user 10.99s system 1554% cpu 9.467 total
136.74s user 10.85s system 1592% cpu 9.269 total
136.08s user 11.42s system 1550% cpu 9.514 total
136.56s user 10.89s system 1581% cpu 9.324 total
Average: 9.418 seconds
+ OS: Arch Linux x86_64
# Hostname: metalmatze-desktop
### Kernel Release: 5.7.4-arch1-1
##### Uptime: 2:40
###### WM: i3
; #####; DE: None
+##.##### Packages: 512
+########## RAM: 1600 MB / 32120 MB
#############; Processor Type: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor
###############+ $EDITOR: vim
####### ####### Root: 7.6G / 98G (7%) (ext4)
.######; ;###;`".
.#######; ;#####.
#########. .########`
######' '######
;#### ####;
##' '##
#' `#
Conclusion
This benchmark is far from being scientific, but tasks like these (compiling) are pretty much what I do every day, so I care a lot of the new hardware improved here. :)
Going from 70s to 9s is really significant and impressive. Although Go has an amazing cache for the build system, I’m pretty sure I’ll notice the difference here and there every day going foward.
As for the ThinkPad, I’m super happy with it as a laptop, but my desktop is finally a lot more powerful again!
If you run the same benchmark, let me know on Twitter and I’ll add your results down below. :)