Intel releases updates for 'Foreshadow' CPU flaws

[HEXUS]

Similar to the Spectre and Meltdown flaws, it affects Intel processors from 2015 onwards.

Read more.

[Tabbykatze]

Well...the spectre and meltdown flaw opened a can of worms!

[azrael-]

AMD CPUs are not affected by L1TF.

is what I take away from this. Once again Intel is hit the hardest (or rather, singularly). Really shows how they've played fast and loose with processor security over the years ...despite all their promises.

[DanceswithUnix]

Well...the spectre and meltdown flaw opened a can of worms!

Interesting that this was discovered before Meltdown/Spectre were made public, I haven't heard whether the researchers knew about Meltdown before they started looking at this, would be interesting to know.

[Tabbykatze]

Interesting that this was discovered before Meltdown/Spectre were made public, I haven't heard whether the researchers knew about Meltdown before they started looking at this, would be interesting to know.

Did they know about these before Spectre/Meltdown?

[rabidmunkee]

Does anyone know of a catalogue of flaws that you can check, by cpu, to see if its affected by and if/when a fix is available (I know, this is restricted by mobo peeps also)?

Keeping track of all these flaws is getting ridiculous.

[LSG501]

All I see from the recent 'flaws' in intel designs is that my next purchase will be an amd processor.... the odds were it was going to be anyways but still.

I wonder how many more are going to crop up, really does seem like intel have been 'cutting corners' to ensure they have the 'performance' crown.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Phoronix have tested the effects of the flaws under Linux:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...rly-look&num=1

[badass]

Does anyone know of a catalogue of flaws that you can check, by cpu, to see if its affected by and if/when a fix is available (I know, this is restricted by mobo peeps also)?

Keeping track of all these flaws is getting ridiculous.

Then don't bother. They aren't a concern to normal users.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Then don't bother. They aren't a concern to normal users.

Meltdown/Spectre has impacted I/O performance,which does affect certain openworld and modded games more than the normal FPS games,most websites tested.

The Witcher 3 saw performance drop by nearly 10% according to DF and that is a very well optimised openworld game using a modern engine,and no wonder when you consider how some of these games work in the first place(a hint is how you can traverse large areas without hitting a loading screen). For normal games you did see a 3% to 4% drop on the latest Intel CPUs.

I certainly noticed it in FO4,especially the modded playthrough I am running now as the game is I/O dependent even in its basic form since Creation is a poorly optimised engine.Then Bethesda implemented a build system into the engine,which means if you build a very large settlement,there is a delay getting to build menus measured in how fast the primary storage is!

To put it in context,when the game is modded and with large settlements it can get unplayable when run off a normal hard disk - the patches have meant I will be upgrading earlier. There is far more stuttering now after the patches in areas which have a lot of assets loading involved(think city areas).

Plus for the batched RAW to JPG and DNG conversions I do with noise reduction,its bad enough the CPU is fully used,but there is an I/O bottleneck there too,so I make sure its done SSD to SSD.

Edit!!

Plus almost all of the tests are with SKL and newer not older CPUs like Ivy Bridge.

Second Edit!!

Also I checked on Reddit there was some comments from people with older CPUs running FO4 VR and modded FO4 who also saw similar issues too. The same stutters after the new updates.

I am not happy.

[ETR316]

10th gen cant come soon enough.

[Tabbykatze]

Then don't bother. They aren't a concern to normal users.

Security risks are concerns to everyone and to say otherwise is irresponsible.

[DanceswithUnix]

Did they know about these before Spectre/Meltdown?

Before Spectre/meltdown were published, but I think after they were discovered. So either they knew before the rest of us because that is their job to be well informed, or this is one of those ideas where it was just the right time for it to be discovered.

Security risks are concerns to everyone and to say otherwise is irresponsible.

I interpreted what he said as "Don't bother tracking all the flaws, just patch as most users won't notice any difference."

Obviously there are some outliers like Cat with his sluggish Fallout game, and Linux developers whose compiles might go 20% slower, but I hear very few people complain that their PC has slowed from the fixes.

[Corky34]

Before Spectre/meltdown were published, but I think after they were discovered. So either they knew before the rest of us because that is their job to be well informed, or this is one of those ideas where it was just the right time for it to be discovered.

I think they were both around the same time, spectre and meltdown were (iirc) published around January and this seems to be around the same time give or take 3-4 weeks.

As you suggest though all the speculative execution vulnerabilities were just about timing, (afaik) there had been a good few years of research from the security community on it, sort of like standing on the shoulders, i think they knew, theoretically, that it could be exploited so it was just a matter of working out how to do it, once they worked out how it opened the floodgates.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Obviously there are some outliers like Cat with his sluggish Fallout game

I think it will be cheaper and less troublesome for me to stop playing it at this rate!!

[Ozaron]

Obviously there are some outliers like Cat with his sluggish Fallout game, and Linux developers whose compiles might go 20% slower, but I hear very few people complain that their PC has slowed from the fixes.

Strange how some people in the not so distant past crowed and rejoiced over the IPC and speed benefits transitioning from Ivy through to Kaby, then upon losing most of that clock for clock in security updates they "don't even notice", it's almost as if they couldn't tell the difference to start with. That, or they're not interested in recieving the security they were meant to have at start and losing their precious 5-10 FPS.

I think it will be cheaper and less troublesome for me to stop playing it at this rate!!

Well, you'd have far less "please Bethesda do something vaguely competent and make a game engine which isn't awful, or at least patch improve this one" social engineering work to do.