Rumour: Spectre-NG, 8 Critical Vulnerabilities Detected in Intel CPUs

[ltron]

Heise.de https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Exc...U-flaws-revealed-several-serious-4040648.html is reporting that researchers have discovered 8 new critical Spectre-like vulnerabilities, some worse than the original, in Intel CPUs. AMD and ARM are not presently known to be affected, but further testing needs to be done to determine whether they are.

This is pretty scary stuff if true, but take it with a bucket of salt at this point. We'll know if this is true on May the 7th as that is when the grace period runs out. As if we didn't have enough problems though and manufacturers are extremely slow to fix things if they can even be bothered.

 

[ltron]

I have the 7600k wasn't that effected by there last bug? I have noticed zero drops in performance am I missing something? Does it only effect certain scenarios?

Have you updated your BIOS against Spectre? It affects pre-Skylake CPUs more, but the impact on newer CPUs is still significant.

On my Haswell-E I7 5820K and GTX 1080 system, Meltdown had virtually no impact on performance.
However, Spectre (which needs to be patched either through a BIOS update or manually installing a Windows update) resulted in a performance hit of 3% in all 3D Mark CPU/Physics tests and a 25% hit in the Aida64 FPU VP8 benchmark. I also have drops to the mid to low 40s in FPS in the main city in Kingdom Come Deliverance whereas before it would not go below 50.

 

[ltron]

That does suck but why now? Why would it not be an issue at launch if its the architecture of the cpu itself, this is what baffles me the most, the chips effected been out for years

Because only now do people know about it.

 

[ltron]

Absolutely agree, but I'm a hardware nut and I'm looking to buy some new shiny. I'm really just making the point that it's not the best of times to be buying CPUs.

Maybe Ryzen is not affected, let's wait and see.

 

[ltron]

I think Ryzen has it's own separate issues, also. 2700x not holding default clock speeds and also the 1000 series had heaps of issues. I think AMD get a bit of a free pass because they're bringing competition back into the CPU space again, which is great. However, I'm not looking for endless headaches with security vulnerabilities and subsequent patches affecting performance... and in AMD's case issues trying to get the basics right like default clock speed and rated RAM timing to work.

The CPU market is evolving right now, and it's definitely moving in the right direction. For end users like myself who already have up to date systems and am really looking to upgrade out of enthusiasm as opposed to "need", it's a bit frustrating trying to decide which way to go... especially with absolute zero brand loyalty.

I've not heard any mention of the 2700X not holding its default clock speed and as far as I know most of issues around Ryzen have now been fixed. You have to remember that the CPU's IMC plays a key role in determining what memory will run and anything over 2933MHz in Ryzen 2's case is overclocking and hence not guaranteed. It's a pity Ryzen is so RAM speed and latency sensitive.

 

[ltron]

I'm unable to run my 3200mhz memory any higher than 3000mhz with the 2700x, Any faster and both games & benches crash, I didn't have an issue with ram speeds when I was using the 1600x.

My brother can't run his 3200MHz RAM any higher than 3066 on his Ryzen 1600 no matter the voltage without the same things happening. It's luck of the draw unfortunately.

 

[ltron]

My Ryzen 1600x was used on the same motherboard with the same memory in the same PC, All I did was update my motherboards bio's and replace the 1600x with the 2700x. My memory is the 3200mhz 14-14-14-31 stuff sold here at OCUK. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3200mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08l-tg.html

The 2700x are supposed to be the better binned 8 cores that also have an improved memory controller, AMD told us this so if it can't run the memory at the same docp settings the memory worked with the 1600x at I'd say there's a problem. It may be that another bio's update is needed for the motherboard I won't know until it comes or doesn't. But either way the memory not running how it did with the last gen Ryzen means something's wrong.

It means you got a very good Ryzen 1600X and probably a below average 2700X. When AMD say the IMC is improved they mean on average, they do no not mean that all Ryzen 2700Xs will be better than any Ryzen 1. There are exceptional Ryzen 1s that can do DDR 4 3600 MHz.

 

[ltron]

Intel Has To Delay Patches

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/intel_has_to_delays_patches_for_new_spectre_ng_vulnerabilities.html

This is getting ridiculous now.