We all know that Intel’s CPUs run extremely well all modern games, and way better than AMD’s offerings. However, things may change as an upcoming security fix may decrease overall performance on Intel’s CPUs by up to 30%.
According to reports, a fundamental design flaw in Intel’s processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels. Microsoft will soon roll out these changes in an upcoming update and according to early benchmarks, there will be an impact of 5-30%, depending on the task and the processor model.
What’s really interesting here is that this security bug/issue affects a lot of Intel’s CPUs. In fact, this bug is present in all Intel processors that were produced in the past 10 years.
As TheRegister reported, this security issue allows normal user programs to discern to some extent the contents of protected kernel memory.
“It allows normal user programs – from database applications to JavaScript in web browsers – to discern to some extent the contents of protected kernel memory.
The fix is to separate the kernel’s memory completely from user processes using what’s called Kernel Page Table Isolation, or KPTI. At one point, Forcefully Unmap Complete Kernel With Interrupt Trampolines, aka FUCKWIT, was mulled by the Linux kernel team, giving you an idea of how annoying this has been for the developers.
Whenever a running program needs to do anything useful – such as write to a file or open a network connection – it has to temporarily hand control of the processor to the kernel to carry out the job. To make the transition from user mode to kernel mode and back to user mode as fast and efficient as possible, the kernel is present in all processes’ virtual memory address spaces, although it is invisible to these programs. When the kernel is needed, the program makes a system call, the processor switches to kernel mode and enters the kernel. When it is done, the CPU is told to switch back to user mode, and reenter the process. While in user mode, the kernel’s code and data remains out of sight but present in the process’s page tables.
The downside to this separation is that it is relatively expensive, time wise, to keep switching between two separate address spaces for every system call and for every interrupt from the hardware. These context switches do not happen instantly, and they force the processor to dump cached data and reload information from memory. This increases the kernel’s overhead, and slows down the computer.”
Furthermore, it appears that this security fix will only affect Intel’s CPUs. AMD claimed that its CPUs are not subject to these types of attacks.
“AMD processors are not subject to the types of attacks that the kernel page table isolation feature protects against. The AMD microarchitecture does not allow memory references, including speculative references, that access higher privileged data when running in a lesser privileged mode when that access would result in a page fault.”
Microsoft will issue this security fix next week, so we’ll be sure to benchmark some games in order to see how much this fix will affect the performance on our Intel CPU.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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JUST
Fantastic way to start 2018!
Well, if nothing else, at least they didn’t try to shove the first controversy of the year right under our noses while acting like we’d be too stupid to notice the performance difference, anyway…..
Thank heavens that Ubisoft don’t own Intel!
Humour aside, PCG has stated the following good news,
“Right now, there’s no evidence that the kernel patches will impact a single-user system and it’s unlikely going to pose any serious impact for gaming.”
I suppose everyone that didn’t read this article will be blaming DRM for this performance degradation too somehow…
You’re free to suppose whatever you may choose regardless of how inaccurate it may be.
yeah…
this is how I feel atm
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d74ab7fd3142d433268cfdc215c5760972e50430f4e4823bab369c90596cfa6e.png
PURE FUD!
Pure Denial
Gently strokes my 1950X Threadripper 🙂
That is pretty crazy if the hit really is 30%, brutal. I just switched to AMD, guess it could not of come at a better time.
Sucks for the Intel crew that don’t have new refreshes 🙁 , might be a good excuse to upgrade if it is a big deal.
[ Update ] the patch for Windows is now available : January 3, 2018—KB4056892 (OS Build 16299.192)
I have the update installed on my 1950X Threadripper and everything is exactly how it was before, no change or performance impact. I can 100% verify that this issue does not effect AMD CPUs(well it did not effect my main comp the 1950X , and two AMD test rigs a 8 core FX 8150 and old school A8-7600 4 core).
Will update the i7s tomorrow and see what happens…
OMG haha, this is funny as hell
wtfffffffffffffffffff fk meeee i guess i’ll just
BUY A NEW INTEL CPU NEXT GEN
lol.
After reading and reading it doesn’t appear this is fixable with just a simple microcode update also reports are saying even higher then 30%
“According to Brad Spengler, from GR Security, an Intel Core i7-6700 will take a 29% performance hit while an Intel Core i7-3770S will run 34% slower.”
Also this patch comes on the 9th i bet in most cases its probably going to be 5-10% in games and applications.
I wonder if Intel will delay cannon lake to fix this issue?
Class action lawsuit time. I paid good money for a certain expectation of performance.. this is sort of like Apple and their battery issues or VW duping consumers about fuel consumption. How long has Intel known about this and where I send my i7-6700k to get replaced with, what, an 8th or 9th gen model?
Most what will happen is this will go to court and they will settle and everyone who bought a processor in the past 10 years from Intel will get 30$, that’s how it always goes
Yep, that sounds about right. Or a free game, haha. Sony did that with the network outage and the Vita advertising controversy. Just kidding, but I’ll take the $30.
Actually I work with around 20 new customers a week w/ Intel CPUs (I have an IT business) and if somehow I could sign everyone up them up, and take half, that’s pretty much unlimited money. I jest, of course, but hell if it was possible to do, that would be some real money.
Against Intel or Microsoft?
Intel. This supposedly affects them since Linux, Windows, and OSX are getting patches.
Intel since its not Microsoft’s fault for this malfunction
‘a fundamental design flaw in Intel’s processor chips’. Very early in the article.
I’m not sure it will be a lawsuit. I mean, it’s the patch that’s affecting performance. Security flaws are found in devices every day and companies are rarely held accountable as long as there is a fix. We’ll have to wait and see how much the fix really affects performance anyway.
Yeah, not sure about anything, but just putting that out there. To me, unless there’s a legal technicality of some sort, it sounds like false advertising or another type of fraud.
Of course I expect that they didn’t purposely do anything and all that, and wouldn’t complain over 5% myself, but dang..
Welp, looks like I may be upgrading my 4790K sooner than expected.
“Permission to say c**k.”
Oh boy, I can hear the screams of Windows and Linux programmers already.
Lol.
Don’t make me laugh, I don’t update my computer.
That’s a very nasty bug. If it can target virtual memory, it can mess your system really bad.
So, that means, it time to prepare for AMD CPUs, I guess.
Poopie.
i haven’t even had my 7700k for a year
First Logan Paul and now this… 2017 ended on a high note and 2018 looks like it wants to keep the momentum going.
Welp, I have Windows Updates disabled so I think I should be good… I hope.
Don’t even compare some teen drama to an actual problem.
Also, I believe all this “20XX is the worst year ever” meme is caused by selective perception. You’ve been told somewhere that some year was the worst and now you seem to pay more attention to bad events.
Okay?!? I was sarcastic?!? Also what Logan Paul did this year was a lot more than just your regular teen drama…
My i7 3770k is already the bottleneck in my pc and according to them i will get a 34% hit!?
Damnit intel wtf?!?!
Take this with a grain of salt since, i really don´t know if the source its reliable but it appears that the vulnerability affects sixth, seventh and eighth generation Core chips (Skylake, Kaby Lake and Kaby Lake R), along with Pentium, Celeron, Atom and multiple Xeon chips. So it appears that u and i are fine ? One can only hope.
After doing some research actully we are the one thats gonna be hurt the most “pre haswell cpu’s are expected to have the most significant performance hit”
My only question is how it will affect gaming especially cpu bound games, and emulators?
Actually only pentium is not affected… all other are
It affects haswell, broadwell, skylake, ivy bridge and sandy bridge.
I see, so this could be the reason why last month Brian Krzanich (intel CEO), dumped a lot of his stock shares only keeping the bare minimun demmanded for an CEO.
Well i guess i gonna have to wait for a new Gen or go with Ryzen seeing as my i5 3550 can´t keep up anymore.
They released after black friday but they knew before.
Ok, time to to turn off windows updates forever
It’s a nasty bug. If it can target virtual memory, it can mess your system in a lot of ways. It would not be wise to turn off WU once the exploit is revealed.
Just took a picture of those bechmarks:
Cpu z
Intel burn test
3d mark(physics scores based on cpu)
And gta5.
After the 9th we will see how bad it is :'(
I’d be bothered if I wasn’t building a Ryzen+ machine later in the year.
Man f*ck you intel . …. Last 10 years ? U been dooing this for 10 years ?
It is actually 5 to 75 percent depending on the use case
I don’t believe that in the slightest. 4X the work to do the same job after the fix? Never in the history of programming has a fix ever been that intensive.
honestly.. 1600 runs crysis 3 for example way better than intel’s offering in the same price bracket as per digitalfoundry – I dunno why this website seems so be so clueless sometimes
Ryzen sucks, so slow.
I dunno. In my experience, Intel gets higher maximums but Ryzen gets higher minimums. I’d take the higher minimums. I don’t feel anything about 90fps…I feel anything below 55.
It should be obvious by now that this site likes to make AMD look bad at every corner while hyping up anything Intel or Nvidia. It’s getting old.
What a coincidence that president of Intel sold half of his stocks right before christmas and this happens now?
They have to test this on AC: Origins. Performance should dive due to the Virtual Machine DRM.
Nope
It’s far more dangerous than that, the talk is not about Virtual Machine, but more about Virtual Memory.
The design fault allows for kernel memory leaking.
Benchmarks after the patch on Linux OS.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=x86-PTI-Initial-Gaming-Tests
I’m curious as to how hard this will be able to fix in future CPUs, and at what cost (if any). Will they need to rework their whole roadmap for a redesign, or is this a simple tweak (I’m no hardware engineer).
Mate, it’s a very serious bug. Their system could be exploited in a number of very nasty ways.
Man, it’s a kernel leaking memory problem. It’s a really serious issue.
Also, what if some program can read the memory of your browser? Your usernames/passwords, etc.? There’s a reason why each program’s memory shouldn’t be read from another.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e931a2f5f23704a6f49e5c6bef0b82977a554049f651e8c59ddc74a07c3f709a.jpg
wow…. you know this is a scam so people have to go buy new cpu`s, i cant see how this is legal.
Nah. This is huge negative PR for Intel. In a nutshell, they’ve been selling insecure chips for the last ten years. No way they can get something good out of this.
/Edit: BTW you forgot to upvote yourself 😛
Goodbye Intel lead, hellllllo AMD. I’ve never really used you before, but your Zen line is starting to look awfully good right now.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d179a85113f3210928adb8bc7c69f633c471e53ba010db8f5437d596453c44e3.png
Before everybody decides to jump ship to AMD, there’s another surprise: the Spectre bug. Read about it. While Intel’s Meltdown can be mitigated by software patch, Spectre is purely an architectural fault. Guess everybody is playing ‘Dumb and Dumber’ in the processing chip industry.
Yeah, I believe John’s wording was a bit unfortunate too. No really need to mention anything about AMD’s CPUs, this is an article about a security flaw in Intel chips.
Glad I didn’t upgrade in 2017 like I planned. Ryzen 2, pls.