SPECTRE and MELTDOWN: Bug rocks Intel / ARM CPUs

[segfaulted]

Kinda glad I bought AMD this round. For those who don't know there is a new bug affecting just about every SKU from Intel made in the last .. ohh.. _DECADE_ or so. It's actually worse then F00F or FDIV. Only mitigation appears to castrate the CPU upward of 30%! (depending on processes).

Can Asus confirm AMD and more importantly for me, this or any AMD motherboard are not affected? If so, will there be RMAs?

Fun fact, Intel's CEO dumped stock back in November before they started issuing gags on people from even talking about it.

*****ASUS advisory page(may get updated): https://www.asus.com/News/V5urzYAT6myCC1o2 ******

[Boostland]

But wait there is more.
Three L1 Terminal Fault bugs discovered in Intel CPUs
https://www.dvhardware.net/article69360.html

New firmware & os updates required for intel AMD unaffected at this stage
Replacing intel CPUs next year may be the only real fix as more to come
https://www.itwire.com/security/84056-openbsd-chief-says-more-intel-cpu-flaws-likely-to-be-found.htm...
Or moving to AMD their current CPUs pass the tests

[F0x135]

Boostland wrote:
But wait there is more.
Three L1 Terminal Fault bugs discovered in Intel CPUs
https://www.dvhardware.net/article69360.html

New firmware & os updates required for intel AMD unaffected at this stage
Replacing intel CPUs next year may be the only real fix as more to come
https://www.itwire.com/security/84056-openbsd-chief-says-more-intel-cpu-flaws-likely-to-be-found.htm...
Or moving to AMD their current CPUs pass the tests

I've always been an AMD guy in these last 8 years of pc building, i thought this time to try Intel 'to see what the hype was all about.' A month after my very first Intel chip (8700K), Spectre and Meltdown drops, and now more and more exploits are being found as the months go on.

I know real world single user usage isn't affected much (still affected though) by these exploits and subsequent microcode updates, but just knowing these exploits were there to begin with, and more are still coming, i can't help but feel conned by Intel. Is it worth switching back to AMD with how well Ryzen is performing or is that a grass is greener syndrome?

[Arne_Saknussemm]

https://wccftech.com/intel-microcode-update-gag-order-benchmarks/

LOL

[panzlock]

Latest benchmarks don't seem to be that bad. Seems like the performance hit is propagandized:

https://www.techspot.com/review/1659-intel-spectre-variant-4-performance-test/

Or am I missing something, here. Senility, etc...

[F0x135]

panzlock wrote:
Latest benchmarks don't seem to be that bad. Seems like the performance hit is propagandized:

https://www.techspot.com/review/1659-intel-spectre-variant-4-performance-test/

Or am I missing something, here. Senility, etc...

You are correct, going off those benches, there isn't much loss.

But - with each variant, there has been these 'small' losses each time, and they eventually add up. How many more losses are we supposed to take? How do we know future bugs are not going to be bigger losses? The fact that we EXPECT more bugs is what's frustrating.

[Boostland]

F0x135 wrote:
You are correct, going off those benches, there isn't much loss.

But - with each variant, there has been these 'small' losses each time, and they eventually add up. How many more losses are we supposed to take? How do we know future bugs are not going to be bigger losses? The fact that we EXPECT more bugs is what's frustrating.

This shows there is a massive performance hit to servers

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=l1tf-foreshadow-xeon

[Nixon2992]

Boostland wrote:
This shows there is a massive performance hit to servers

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=l1tf-foreshadow-xeon

Perfomance hit on I/0 operations(File/netrwork activity) is about 25% on with activated Spectre & Melltdown security w/o Foreshadow L1D Flushing on Windows 10 1803 + KB4100347.

[levicki]

Hi everyone, first post here even though I am long time ASUS user.

Intel microcode revision C6 for Skylake CPUs which addresses L1TF and SSBD vulnerabilities has been available since April 17, 2018.

Sadly, ASUS Z-170 PRO BIOS latest version 3801 is from April and it still has C2 revision which does not address those vulnerabilities.

I contacted ASUS support yesterday and I got this reply:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting Asus, my name is Dimitris and i will try my best to assist you with your current situation.

Regarding the below case, unfortunately there is no official information about the time of the next BIOS release. Please check Asus website periodically and perform all Windows Updates.

In case you are not satisfied by our reply above, please inform us accordingly before filling the satisfaction form.

Damn right I am not satisfied with the answer, it should not take 5 months to include new microcode revision and publish such an important security update.

I replied to the email as well, we will see if that gets me anywhere.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

panzlock wrote:
Or am I missing something, here. Senility, etc...

Those are from mid July for something else I think...though I've lost count of the names and variants now...the latest is Foreshadow?...rumored 10-15% hit

But they removed the gag order already....after making sure everyone will benchmark LOL

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Broadwell-e looks as though it took a big hit with oc not applying entering the os 😕

Haswell-e at least for me using 2101 bios last bios purely for haswell-e is unaffected by the latest kb4100347 update so far 🙂