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SieteBlanco

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,878
Absolutely not. Keeping such a serious security vulnerability intact in your system after it becomes publicly known and exploitable is the worst thing you can do.

Even if I'm one of the few dumbasses that still has Avira and Symantec active? I do wonder if I lose more performance from them than from the bug, though.
 

Akronis

Prophet of Regret - Lizard Daddy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,468
Even if I'm one of the few dumbasses that still has Avira and Symantec active? I do wonder if I lose more performance from them than from the bug, though.
First, you shouldn't have two EPPs running on one machine.

Second, patch vulnerabilities regardless of AV protection. Always.
 

Last_colossi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
4,266
Australia
This makes me glad I bought a Ryzen 1600 for my next PC ^_^

I am curious to see exactly how much of a performance drop there will be (if any) post patch though.
 

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,547
Portland, OR
Some initial reports from techies testing on Linux have reported no gaming performance impact.

Highly context-switching focused, so multitasking is most likely to take a major hit. Close those Firefox windows when playing games. ;P

Based on the Phoronix benchmarks, the issues seem to be *heavily* weighted toward I/O based workloads (especially on super-fast SSDs - a couple of those synthetic tests showed 50-60% performance reduction). The gaming benchmarks showed absolutely no difference pre- and post-patch.

The problem is obviously something beyond a virtualization bug, but weighted far toward I/O bound applications. I could see load times on games increasing, especially for people with M.2 NVMe SSDs, but gaming overall looks like it will be just fine. Of course, we have no benchmarks from the Windows side yet, and who knows how DirectX and/or Nvidia's/AMD's graphics drivers might interact with the kernel (I assume very little, and that we'll see similar results compared to Linux).

Datacenters are completely boned. Their workloads are exactly the kind most directly affected. Companies like Amazon and Google may be forced to deploy 20% more CPUs (or even more) just to get back to the same previous levels of performance, which will drive prices for their services way up.
 

less

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,865
Welp. Thankfully, I'm do for an upgrade later this year. Might go with An AMD cpu for the first time because of this mess.
 

Ploid 6.0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,440

The hardware fix implemented in B3 Phenoms is that whenever a page table entry is modified, it's evicted out of L2 and placed in L3. There's a very minor performance penalty because of this but no where near as bad as the software/BIOS TLB fix mentioned above.

Seems like the fix didn't effect Ryzen? Also the fix had a minor performance penalty so that's not too bad.
 

DieH@rd

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,713
Is there a new Ryzen line on the horizon or should I just get what's out there now if performance hit is >5%
In a few months we will get a node shrink of original Zen [lower power consumption and a slight factory overclock]. In a year AMD will release Zen2, first real redesign.

It is important to notice that Zen, Zen shrink, Zen2 and Zen2 shrink will all use AM4 motherboards. That is one of the reasons I got a bit high end B350 board [Asus Strix], so that I can easily switch to Zen2 or Zen2 shrink if there's a need.
 

SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,029
Maybe we should get an FAQ going of what we know so far. There's a lot of speculation and misinformation out there.
 

Deleted member 3534

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,537
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it seem like 30% performance degradation is only a worst case scenario in tasks that require a lot of system calls into kernal? That is to say, not gaming and general tasks.
 

caff!!!

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,033
rip my nvme performance
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it seem like 30% performance degradation is only a worst case scenario in tasks that require a lot of system calls into kernal? That is to say, not gaming and general tasks.
pretty much, although it might result in lower I/O with pcie based drives (nvme). I'd assume that performance will go up over time while said fixes have speed refinements added, or that NT implementation will have higher performance
 
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Deleted member 3534

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,537
pretty much, although it might result in lower I/O with pcie based drives (nvme). I'd assume that performance will go up over time while said fixes have speed refinements added, or that NT implementation will have higher performance

So, in other words, average consumers who use their computers for gaming and general computing might do well to keep from overreacting? Not saying this isn't a big deal, because it definitely is. But it seems to me, with my limited knowledge, that average consumers aren't getting fucked by this as much as power users and enterprises whose computing involves high intensity work loads and things like deploying a lot of VMs?

If anyone's going to make a stink that actually leads to a satisfactory resolution, it'll be that sector. The fact that this so disproportionately affects those users makes me hopeful that this won't just get swept under the rug.
 

SlipperySlope

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
42
Cloud-related tasks are screwed. I think AMD will pick up some pretty good market share out of this from the big Cloud players. Can't put all your eggs in one basket.
 

Suiko

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,931
Datacenters are completely boned. Their workloads are exactly the kind most directly affected. Companies like Amazon and Google may be forced to deploy 20% more CPUs (or even more) just to get back to the same previous levels of performance, which will drive prices for their services way up.

Holy shit, you are probably right.
I wonder what's going to happen with my linode servers.
 

FacesAndAces

Chicken Chaser
Avenger
Dec 9, 2017
852
There's a lot of talk going on here right now -- some of which I'm sure is hyperbolic. What's the performance degradation for the average user?

Is this tied to a certain generation of Intel CPUs -- like the 2, 3, or 4 series? Or is it the while kitten kabootle all the way up to the 8th series?
 

caff!!!

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,033
So, in other words, average consumers who use their computers for gaming and general computing might do well to keep from overreacting? Not saying this isn't a big deal, because it definitely is. But it seems to me, with my limited knowledge, that average consumers aren't getting fucked by this as much as power users and enterprises whose computing involves high intensity work loads and things like deploying a lot of VMs?

If anyone's going to make a stink that actually leads to a satisfactory resolution, it'll be that sector. The fact that this so disproportionately affects those users makes me hopeful that this won't just get swept under the rug.
anyone needing a lot of I/O (database, VMs, compiling) will take a performance hit on Linux, everything else should be fine, esp. if Windows implementation is faster than the current Linux one.

Considering the exploit's scale, and ease of performing it (possible in browser?), it's seriously worth updating.
 

Rayne

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,634
This is shit.

Goddammit if they're gonna take that performance from me I want that much back in a refund.
 

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,762
So, in other words, average consumers who use their computers for gaming and general computing might do well to keep from overreacting? Not saying this isn't a big deal, because it definitely is. But it seems to me, with my limited knowledge, that average consumers aren't getting fucked by this as much as power users and enterprises whose computing involves high intensity work loads and things like deploying a lot of VMs?

If anyone's going to make a stink that actually leads to a satisfactory resolution, it'll be that sector. The fact that this so disproportionately affects those users makes me hopeful that this won't just get swept under the rug.

Yeah based on everything I've read so far it will mostly affect business that run servers, especially virtual servers that use Intel CPUs. It seems like the impact on home users will be minimal but of course we'll have to see when the Windows patch comes out.
 

Noire

Member
Oct 25, 2017
261
I bought a new PC few hrs before I saw this thread and it has intel... should I cancel? T_T
 

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,762
I bought a new PC few hrs before I saw this thread and it has intel... should I cancel? T_T

Unless you're planning running a virtual machine on that computer all signs point to a minimal impact for end users. It will mostly affect companies like Google and Amazon that run server farms with virtual machines on Intel processors.
 

Deleted member 3534

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,537
There's a lot of talk going on here right now -- some of which I'm sure is hyperbolic. What's the performance degradation for the average user?

Is this tied to a certain generation of Intel CPUs -- like the 2, 3, or 4 series? Or is it the while kitten kabootle all the way up to the 8th series?

Is your shit 10 years old or newer?

Then it's affcted.

I bought a new PC few hrs before I saw this thread and it has intel... should I cancel? T_T

That depends on your use case. After reading about the Intel CEO stock dump, I'd cancel out of principal. As a normal consumer, my response would be measured by how Intel has/is going to handle the situation and how long they've known. From that perspective, so far it doesn't look good.
 

skullmuffins

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,445
There's a lot of talk going on here right now -- some of which I'm sure is hyperbolic. What's the performance degradation for the average user?
Nobody knows for sure yet. All we have now are vague details about the problem and informed speculation and benchmarks based on in-progress linux patches. The specifics of the vulnerability are embargoed, but if we assume the windows fixes have a similar performance impact to the linux ones (which, who knows), gaming or other general home uses won't feel it too much. Basically, if you're a normal home user, I wouldn't fret about it just yet. Datacenters might be pretty well fucked.
 

Etain

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,800
Unless you're planning running a virtual machine on that computer all signs point to a minimal impact for end users. It will mostly affect companies like Google and Amazon that run server farms with virtual machines on Intel processors.
Which sounds like it'll effect us all but probably not in a way we can do anything about anyway.

And wow, that wasn't really the mod edit I wanted to see but these newer posts indicate I PROBABLY shouldn't worry. Hopefully.
 
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Zomba13

#1 Waluigi Fan! Current Status: Crying
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,011
Just heard about this. This is huge. Even if the performance hit won't be that big for my uses, it's still a massive issue that will affect a lot of other users and datacenters and make me seriously consider switching to AMD for my next PC build after only ever using Intel CPUs. Plus the stuff with the CEO dumping stock which just seems suspicious given the timing, just makes me less trusting of Intel.
 

Daphne

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,722
Damn. First time I go with Intel ever and this happens. I built my new PC at just the wrong time. It was that tail-end period with only FX AMD chips but I couldn't wait another 7-8 months for Ryzen and who knew how good they'd be? I just built a gaming PC a few months ago for a family member and it was the Ryzen build I would have made if I was more patient. I might be moving up my next build now.

I hope the hit is more 5% than 30%. I'll have to overclock just to get back to standard speed, ffs. Intel better have some compensation plan for this.
 

Deleted member 3534

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,537
Glad I got Ryzen. AMD be laughing.

I wouldn't laugh just yet since you may find yourself paying for it in other ways.

Damn. First time I go with Intel ever and this happens. I built my new PC at just the wrong time. It was that tail-end period with only FX AMD chips but I couldn't wait another 7-8 months for Ryzen and who knew how good they'd be? I just built a gaming PC a few months ago for a family member and it was the Ryzen build I would have made if I was more patient. I might be moving up my next build now.

I hope the hit is more 5% than 30%. I'll have to overclock just to get back to standard speed, ffs. Intel better have some compensation plan for this.

You can rest assured the top brass at Intel has and will be well compensated.
 
Oct 27, 2017
485
Umm, I have multiple pcs with high end intel chips. Im pretty angy about this. Hopefully they make good with their customers.
 

Mr.Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,677
The severe security exploit that's existed in Intel's CPUs for 10 years is fine as long as the performance degradation for consumers isn't too much?
 

DeciderVT

Member
Oct 27, 2017
391
I have a sealed i7-8700k waiting for a motherboard as part of my first PC build. Very irritating and I hope Intel are forced to compensate users.
 

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,547
Portland, OR
Damn. First time I go with Intel ever and this happens. I built my new PC at just the wrong time. It was that tail-end period with only FX AMD chips but I couldn't wait another 7-8 months for Ryzen and who knew how good they'd be? I just built a gaming PC a few months ago for a family member and it was the Ryzen build I would have made if I was more patient. I might be moving up my next build now.

I hope the hit is more 5% than 30%. I'll have to overclock just to get back to standard speed, ffs. Intel better have some compensation plan for this.

If it ever goes class action, you'll probably get a $10 coupon off your next CPU or pre-built PC purchase. The lawyers will make millions, and no matter what happens, the Intel executives will make tens of millions.
 

GotMineGood

Banned
Nov 25, 2017
801
Black Mirror got a new episode to write. I look forward to my already shitty 2017 MacBook Pro being slightly shittier
 

Wiseblood

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,534
Even though they aren't technically VMs I wonder how this will affect the performance of Docker containers.
 
Oct 29, 2017
1,248
Can someone please break this down for those who aren't very processor savvy?

There's a bug that affects Intel processors... It only effects Linux and windows users? Anything thats i5 or i7?

How does it affects apple computers?
 

MarkRJR

Member
Oct 25, 2017
355
Wow this sucks. I splurged and bought a laptop with an i7 a year or so ago, now it's going to be up to 30% slower? That's insane.

I wish there was an intel alternative for laptops. While AMD is pretty good on desktops, they're super shit with laptops. I'd definitely change to AMD when I upgrade next time if they had a competitive alternative.
 

s_mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,788
Birmingham, UK
Can someone please break this down for those who aren't very processor savvy?

There's a bug that affects Intel processors... It only effects Linux and windows users? Anything thats i5 or i7?

How does it affects apple computers?

Any Intel CPU in roughly the last decade. It'll negatively impact any OS that patches the security flaw, and macOS will certainly be patched. Exactly what impact there will be will likely be workload dependent and is not absolutely clear at present. Hopefully gaming and general usage will not suffer too badly, but file serving, multitasking, etc, are more likely to take a big hit.
 
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