Windows 10 1H-2019 Update to Reduce Performance Impact of Spectre V2 Mitigations

btarunr · Oct 19, 2018

Microsoft is working to reduce the performance impact of "Spectre" V2 security vulnerability software mitigation with its next major update to Windows 10. The major update that's scheduled for the first half of 2019, will feature the "Retpoline" mitigation enabled on the operating system's kernel by default. Retpoline will be enabled in addition something Microsoft's OS kernel developer Mehmet Iyigun calls "import optimization." Together, the two reduce the impact of Spectre V2 software mitigation to "noise-level" (i.e. that which can be discounted for random variation, or minimal).

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Durvelle27 · Oct 19, 2018

I see more broken PCs in the future

Octopuss · Oct 19, 2018

I'll rather buy an AMD processor.

m4dn355 · Oct 19, 2018

Me too, intel is going dodo.

londiste · Oct 19, 2018

Octopuss said:
I'll rather buy an AMD processor.

m4dn355 said:
Me too, intel is going dodo.

This patch applies to AMD processors too.

phanbuey · Oct 19, 2018

nice!

m4dn355 · Oct 19, 2018

londiste said:
This patch applies to AMD processors too.

AMD's platform is Spectreless.

R-T-B · Oct 19, 2018

Octopuss said:
I'll rather buy an AMD processor.

AMD is affected by Spectre v2 as well. And the mitigations are global anyhow.

m4dn355 said:
AMD's platform is Spectreless.

Nope. You are thinking of Meltdown and Spectre variant 1.

m4dn355 · Oct 19, 2018

R-T-B said:
AMD is affected by Spectre v2 as well. And the mitigations are global anyhow.

Nope. You are thinking of Meltdown and Spectre variant 1.

You are right.
I can't keep track of all those vulnerabilities, patches, updates and so on. . .

SIGSEGV · Oct 19, 2018

R-T-B said:
AMD is affected by Spectre v2 as well. And the mitigations are global anyhow.

Nope. You are thinking of Meltdown and Spectre variant 1.

Not sure, if your statement is true.
https://www dot reddit dot com/r/Amd/comments/7o2i91/technical_analysis_of_spectre_meltdown/

This attack requires poisoning the CPU's BTB. This is easy on at least Intel Haswell CPUs (and probably some other Intel CPUs), because BTB entries are aliased in a very predictable way. Some recent ARM Cortex-A series CPU cores are reportedly vulnerable too, for the same reason. It is much more difficult on all AMD CPUs, because BTB entries are not aliased - the attacker must know (and be able to execute arbitrary code at) the exact address of the targeted branch instruction.

?

R-T-B · Oct 19, 2018

SIGSEGV said:
Not sure, if your statement is true.
https://www dot reddit dot com/r/Amd/comments/7o2i91/technical_analysis_of_spectre_meltdown/

?

It's true. Diffilcult does not equal impossible. AMD has since released AGESA updates for Spectre variant 2 so they clearly think it still needs patching.

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Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
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Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
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Software	Windows 11 Pro

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Processor	\|AMD Ryzen 7 1700
Motherboard	ASRock B550M Pro4\|MSI X370 Gaming PLUS
Cooling	Thermalright PA120 SE \| AMD Stock Cooler
Memory	G.Skill 64GB(2x32GB) 3200MHz \| 32GB(4x8GB) DDR4
Video Card(s)	ASUS DirectCU II R9 290 4GB
Storage	Sandisk X300 512GB + WD Black 6TB+WD Black 6TB
Display(s)	LG Nanocell85 49" 4K 120Hz + ACER AOPEN 34" 3440x1440 144Hz
Case	DeepCool Matrexx 55 V3 w/ 6x120mm Intake + 3x120mm Exhaust
Audio Device(s)	LG Dolby Atmos 5.1
Power Supply	Corsair RMX850 Fully Modular\| EVGA 750W G2
Mouse	Logitech Trackman
Keyboard	Logitech K350
Software	Windows 10 EDU x64

Processor	Ryzen 5800X
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Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S
Memory	32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 6600
Storage	HP EX950 512GB + Samsung 970 PRO 1TB
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Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster AE-5
Power Supply	Seasonic PRIME Ultra 650W Gold
Mouse	Roccat Kone AIMO Remastered
Software	Windows 10 x64

Processor	i7 2600
Motherboard	ASUS H67 rev. B3
Cooling	EVO 212
Memory	Kingston 8GB
Video Card(s)	MSi 7870 GHz Edt.
Storage	EVO 850 250GB + WD Black 1TB
Display(s)	Dell U2412M
Case	ASUS Essentio CG8250
Power Supply	Delta 550W
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Windows 7

Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI
Memory	2x16GB G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL36 (F5-6000J3636F16GX2-FX5)
Video Card(s)	INNO3D GeForce RTX™ 4070 Ti SUPER TWIN X2
Storage	2TB Samsung 980 PRO, 4TB WD Black SN850X
Display(s)	42" LG C2 OLED, 27" ASUS PG279Q
Case	Thermaltake Core P5
Power Supply	Fractal Design Ion+ Platinum 760W
Mouse	Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE
Keyboard	Corsair K100 RGB
VR HMD	HTC Vive Cosmos

Windows 10 1H-2019 Update to Reduce Performance Impact of Spectre V2 Mitigations

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Durvelle27

Moderator

Octopuss

m4dn355

londiste

phanbuey

m4dn355

R-T-B

m4dn355

SIGSEGV

R-T-B

System Name	stress-less
Processor	9800X3D @ 5.42GHZ
Motherboard	MSI PRO B650M-A Wifi
Cooling	Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO
Memory	64GB DDR5 6400 1:1 CL30-36-36-76 FCLK 2200
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090 FE
Storage	2TB WD SN850, 4TB WD SN850X
Display(s)	Alienware 32" 4k 240hz OLED
Case	Jonsbo Z20
Audio Device(s)	Yes
Power Supply	Corsair SF750
Mouse	DeathadderV2 X Hyperspeed
Keyboard	65% HE Keyboard
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	They're pretty good, nothing crazy.

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen R9 9950X
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	Intel 905p Optane 960GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64 / Windows 11 Enterprise IoT 2024