Intel chip flaws affect us gamers

[omniconsumer]

If you use an Intel chip there will be a performance drop due to updates released by Windows to patch security flaws in Intel processors.  They are called Meltdown and Spectre.  We will notice it since we utilize our processors more fully than casual users. Happy New Year, my fellows!

I am uninstalling the Win 10 updates and disabling my updates.  I will also be overclocking my chip now I guess to mitigate the effects of this on my performance.  What a bummer. 

[commissar]

Good news for anyone interested, I heard about this and decided to do some spec checking on my own system both before and after the update. I have an Intel i5 somethingsomething, but I compared the before and after performances and I have had no significant changes in its throughput or other stats (there is some negligible differences but so small that it has no effect) so you shouldn't need to worry too much although your results may vary. Hope this helps out a little. 

[omniconsumer]

Good news for anyone interested, I heard about this and decided to do some spec checking on my own system both before and after the update. I have an Intel i5 somethingsomething, but I compared the before and after performances and I have had no significant changes in its throughput or other stats (there is some negligible differences but so small that it has no effect) so you shouldn't need to worry too much although your results may vary. Hope this helps out a little. 

How were you able to compare before and after? They released that update super quickly on January 3rd. I imagine you had benchmark results from before? Glad to hear it looks like are on the low end of being affected.  I have an i7 2700k @3.4 ghz.  I am not keen on over-clocking, so I will hold out a little longer and do the real test of actually gaming like crazy this weekend if I can.

I am using Sisoft Sandra to benchmark my system.  What did you use?  Regardless, the performance hits are supposed to vary according to Microsoft.  I am sure there will be more in depth diagnostics done after the fact, so I am definitely waiting to hear from those.

[commissar]

Yea, I had a previous benchmark from earlier, so may need to account for some discrepancies but it seemed reliable. Anyways, for overclocking I wouldn't bother unless your really working your CPU hard since its more risk than reward with CPUs, GPUs are a different story however. For benchmarking I used a combo of cpuz, pirated Passmark BurnInTest, and something else I cant remember. But like I said results may vary, however I seriously feel that the update will have negligible effects and its being a bit exaggerated so no need to worry too much. It's not the first time a CPU exploit has had to be patched, these things happen every once in a while.

[omniconsumer]

...however I seriously feel that the update will have negligible effects and its being a bit exaggerated so no need to worry too much. It's not the first time a CPU exploit has had to be patched, these things happen every once in a while.

Well, I appreciate your optimism, and share some of it when it comes to the performance effects because there probably needs to be more tests done.  However, from the information I'm taking in, the performance hits will vary across Intel processors from over 20 years. So far, I haven't read about there not being any negative effects at all.   

Doing a cursory search for past Intel chip exploits, I found only a few, but no where near on this scale.  This is just ludicrous in every sense of the word. 

[omniconsumer]

KB4056892 is the win10 update that is supposed to address this issue.   I've already uninstalled it. 

Seems reckless, but the amount of effort a hacker would have to go through to utilize this flaw is a lot.  Plus, as long as our browsers are updated, everyday users and gamers should be ok.  Google doesn't seem to bothered by this because they delayed their chrome security updates after discovering these major flaws.

I've also disabled automatic updates in Windows 10 which is not something you could anymore.  I had to download a program called DWSLite which allows you to disable windows update and get rid of other spyware preinstalled in windows 10. 

If it weren't for gaming, I would've stopped using Windows a long time ago, but that's a whole other subject. 

Thanks, Intel! Though I will most likely end up buying another one down the line.

[omniconsumer]

You can get pretty thorough information here about the 'Meltdown' and 'Spectre' security flaws.

https://meltdownattack.com

[ZenPhire]

Linux FTW =)
Yeah these flaws are overhyped, but it is a big deal because all it would take is to find one easy way to exploit it that is present across platforms and viola, keys to the kingdom. It's more just the shock of a major hardware flaw. Shellshock is still the only one that made my jaw drop (though heartbleed was big too).

[Marxman]

Win 7 64bit FTW hahaha. Using an i5 8400 and loving dem frames. Im still hesitant about new windows. I think its gonna be like XP for me when I'lll only stop using it years after its not supported/when significant numbers of games are only available on them.

[omniconsumer]

More flaws are on the way I've heard! Which means more patches that will reduce performance. 

[omniconsumer]

Doesn't really affect gamers, but still not good. This kind of stuff is resource waste in performance and security liability cumulatively.   

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-spectre-vulnerability-returns/