cpupower on Linux: AMD vs Intel Frequency and P-State Drivers

cpupower (from linux-tools / cpupower package) exposes what the kernel cpufreq driver is doing — whether an Intel host is on intel_pstate or legacy ACPI, and whether AMD uses the newer amd-pstate driver with schedutil.

Pair with: nice & ionice,
iostat & vmstat.

See the active driver

cpupower frequency-info shows driver name and available governors.

cpupower frequency-info | grep -E 'driver|governor|limits'

Intel: intel_pstate

Most recent Intel servers use intel_pstate with powersave (hardware-managed boost) or performance for minimum latency — validate thermals and power cap.

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
# intel_pstate

AMD: amd-pstate / acpi-cpufreq

Newer kernels prefer amd-pstate (ACPI CPPC). Older images may still show acpi-cpufreq. Governor choice affects jitter on low-latency apps.

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
# amd-pstate_epp or acpi-cpufreq

When to set performance

Batch analytics nodes, small latency-sensitive proxies, or benchmarking baselines — not every 24/7 web tier (power and fan curve). Document before/after with turbostat or cloud metrics.

sudo cpupower frequency-set -g performance
# revert: sudo cpupower frequency-set -g powersave

Quick Reference

• Inspect: cpupower frequency-info
• Driver path: scaling_driver sysfs
• Latency lab: performance governor briefly

Related tutorials

• AMD vs Intel
• lscpu
• htop

Diagrams are original illustrations by Gnome IT Solutions. Tutorial text © Gnome IT Solutions.