Intel recently released a one-line code patch for its Meteor Lake CPUs, resulting in huge performance wins in Linux. That single line of code fine-tunes the P-State CPU frequency scaling driver. In benchmark tests, the seemingly minor change resulted in Linux performance increases as high as 72% on Intel's Core Ultra PC systems.
The patch, sent out on June 6, 2024, adjusts the Intel P-State Energy Performance Preference (EPP) default “balance_performance” value. This sets the balance between power and performance in a processor. The allowable range for the EPP is from 0 to 255 and it was set to 128 in February before Intel changed it to 115. The latest patch further refines the value from 115 to 64.
