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.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 16GB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 4070 Ti EX
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Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
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Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Black Prometheus
Processor	Ryzen 7 3700X
Cooling	Thermalright PA120 SE
Storage	Sandisk X300 512GB + WD Black 6TB+WD Black 6TB
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Audio Device(s)	LG Dolby Atmos 5.1
Power Supply	EVGA 600W
Mouse	Logitech Trackman
Keyboard	Logitech K350
Software	Windows 10 EDU x64

Processor	Ryzen 5800X
Motherboard	Asus TUF-Gaming B550-Plus
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S
Memory	32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC
Video Card(s)	Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+
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 6600 1:2 CL36, 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 9 9950X
Motherboard	MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk Wifi
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon, Phanteks and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	128GB (4x 32GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-4000(Running 1:1:1 w/FCLK)
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	Intel 5800X Optane 800GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, 1x 2TB Seagate Exos 3.5"
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Case	Thermaltake Core X31
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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