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 equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H "Arrow Lake H" Processor, 64GB of LPDDR5-7467 memory, NVMe storage, and NVIDIA RTX Pro 1000 graphics. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255H consists of 16 cores between six P cores, 8 E cores, and two LPE cores. The Core Ultra 7 255H has a 28 Watt base power rating and 115 Watt maximum power rating.
After sharing my findings with Lenovo and being surprised by Windows 11 leading where Linux typically dominates, they roped in their BIOS and thermal/power teams as well as Intel liaisons. While a few power management / thermal thoughts came up to try to explain it and carrying various follow-up comparison benchmarks with changing the power/thermal settings, but in the end the belief is that the results are inline with expectations and the hardware is working as expected.
The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 is a mighty impressive piece of hardware for a mobile workstation and I'll have my Linux review on it in the coming days, but for those curious about Windows vs. Linux performance, here are the original out-of-the-box benchmarks I did on the laptop for the ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 with Lenovo's Windows 11 preload against Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS... Both with the OEM kernel and trying Linux 6.18 Git as part of trying to rule out any kernel bugs. Follow-up tests with different Linux tunables still showed Windows 11 ahead and ruled out any platform/firmware bugs there.
Whether this new found Windows 11 advantage is isolated to this new laptop model or a new trend forming with Windows remains to be seen. With not often receiving laptop hardware, I haven't had any other new devices to test to see if this better-than-Linux Windows 11 performance is isolated or a trend with newer hardware/firmware across OEMs. I do plan to buy a Panther Lake laptop in 2026 if not receiving any review hardware when available, so that will likely be my next time to see how the Windows vs. Linux performance is holding on a new laptop model.