Windows update will reduce Spectre and Meltdown patch performance hit to 1-2%

mongeese

Posts: 643   +123
Why it matters: Spectre and Meltdown were seriously dangerous security flaws and companies rushed to secure their devices. Because most of the protections were quick patches rather than well-thought-out security systems, performance suffered as a result.

Gaming performance on Intel processors dropped by 3-4% on average, 5% at most. But SSD storage suffered the most, where people were complaining of up to 30% decreases in speed. Fortunately, by enabling the Retpoline mitigation strategy with the Windows 10 19H1 update coming early next year, performance will be uplifted to only ~1-2% below to where it was originally.

Alex Ionescu noticed that his Surface Pro 4 running the Windows 19H1 beta had much faster storage speeds, and asked a Windows Kernel developer if they'd managed to lessen the performance impact of the patch.

This is good news, especially for Intel-based systems that were the most affected but it seems that Microsoft won’t be backporting the update (adding it to previous Windows 10 builds). Many companies that prefer to stay on older but more stable versions of Windows won’t be happy that they need to update to see the uplift, though for good reason considering the last major Windows update did come with glaring issues.

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I run Windows 10 32bit laptop/tablet with an ATOM 8500 or whatever the end of the line ATOM chip was and use this for tuning my car and others with HP TUNERS. Will this affect me???????
 
Yeah but Microsoft can't even release a proper 1809 update for Windows 10 without deleting files...

The file delete bug only came about if you've mapped folders in your user directory to a drive that's not C: As 95% of people use laptops with one drive these days, the bug's scope is very limited. Especially as half the world was in bed between the time it was released and it was pulled as I was.

My desktop upstairs has mapped folders but as all it does these days is print eBay sales labels I probably wouldn't have missed anything the bug deleted.
 
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I had the update 1809 days before it's Tuesday release and had no issues. Nor did I have any of the supposed others issues like BSOD or audio issues that were reported on reddit. Some users did say the issues were related to mainly HP but I have no idea how accurate that was. Never heard HP say anything, at least not publicly. Maybe on their own site for their users they did.
Overall I have no issue with the new update 1809.
 
Yeah but Microsoft can't even release a proper 1809 update for Windows 10 without deleting files...

The file delete bug only came about if you've mapped folders in your user directory to a drive that's not C: As 95% of people use laptops with one drive these days, the bug's scope is very limited. Especially as half the world was in bed between the time it was released and it was pulled as I was.

My desktop upstairs has mapped folders but as all it does these days is print eBay sales labels I probably wouldn't have missed anything the bug deleted.
Doesn't make Microsoft look less incompetent.
 
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I run Windows 10 32bit laptop/tablet with an ATOM 8500 or whatever the end of the line ATOM chip was and use this for tuning my car and others with HP TUNERS. Will this affect me???????
Pretty sure the ATOM was one of the few Intel chips that didn't suffer from the flaws necessary for a Spectre style attack. YMMV but you may be better off de-activating the OS mitigations.
 
Will this update finally allow me to overclock my CPU again? The first 1803 microcode update (KB4100347) crippled my ability to OC my 6800k, at least that was an update that could be removed to restore functionality. With 1809 it's built in to the OS and can't be removed or disabled, a real pain in the ***, had to reinstall Windows because of that.

If that can't be resolved it looks like I'm stuck with 1803 indefinitely.
 
Will this update finally allow me to overclock my CPU again? The first 1803 microcode update (KB4100347) crippled my ability to OC my 6800k, at least that was an update that could be removed to restore functionality. With 1809 it's built in to the OS and can't be removed or disabled, a real pain in the ***, had to reinstall Windows because of that.

If that can't be resolved it looks like I'm stuck with 1803 indefinitely.

It really doesn't. Take ownership of and rename c:\windows\system32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll and restart. Be aware that updates to your UEFI BIOS, Windows Upgrades or sfc /scannow will repair or prompt you to restore the file or possibly enforce the uCode that stops the OC.
 
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