Intel slowdown

[wynand32]

So, you just turned off CVE-2017-5715, but left CVE-2017-5754 enabled. On mine, both are disabled.

Interestingly, I don't have the last line in CVE-2017-5754 listed (this one):
Windows OS support for PCID performance optimization is enabled: True [not required for security]

That must be due to the fact that I have that one disabled.

Edit: I get it now. CVE-2017-5754 is Meltdown, and the PCID helps mitigate the performance impact of having this one enabled. I ran the script that turns off both Spectre and Meltdown, rather than the one that just turns off Spectre.

 

[wynand32]

Here's a nice little utility that tells your system status and also provides a good description of how everything is setup.

GRC | InSpectre  

 

[gman713]

Do I need to do anything manual to remove it our does a MS update take care of that? I don't even know if I received the patch to begin with. All I see are cumulative updates.

 

[GreyFox7]

Do I need to do anything manual to remove it our does a MS update take care of that? I don't even know if I received the patch to begin with. All I see are cumulative updates.

Strangely this update is NOT automatically downloaded and run by Windows Update. Rather you have to manually download it from Microsoft Update Catalog
Then run it. However, it runs silently, providing no positive indication or indication of any kind that it ran or didn't run or that it succeeded or failed... Absolutely nothing.

I had seen comments to this effect so I originally opted to do the manual steps described is this article. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ive-execution-side-channel-vulnerabilities-in

TL;DR
The simpler solution is to use the InSpectre utility from Gibson Research. Download and run that then click the button to disable spectre protection if necessary. This utility will indicate the status of protections for Meltdown and Spectre and it toggles the buttons to enable or disable the protection depending on the current state.

 

[wynand32]

TL;DR
The simpler solution is to use the InSpectre utility from Gibson Research. Download and run that then click the button to disable spectre protection if necessary. This utility will indicate the status of protections for Meltdown and Spectre and it toggles the buttons to enable or disable the protection depending on the current state.

Just a note: I believe you have to run the utility as an administrator in order to change the settings.

 

[GreyFox7]

Just a note: I believe you have to run the utility as an administrator in order to change the settings.

Yes that is correct and in keeping with good design it will tell you what to do in the event you ran it without administrative permissions, even if it is a retro design from a bygone era.

 

[wynand32]

Yes that is correct and in keeping with good design it will tell you what to do in the event you ran it without administrative permissions, even if it is a retro design from a bygone era.

Yeah, that guy knows his stuff but he's stuck in the '90s for sure.

 

[gman713]

I think I'll try that solution. I'm assuming it will tell me im patched or not. I think disabling it is a good idea for now. I was just working on doing employee reviews yesterday and noticed that things seemed slower than what I would expect from a $3K machine. For instance, opening and closing Word docs had slight delays. I got a blue spinning circle every time I closed a doc.

 

[gman713]

Strangely this update is NOT automatically downloaded and run by Windows Update. Rather you have to manually download it from Microsoft Update Catalog
Then run it. However, it runs silently, providing no positive indication or indication of any kind that it ran or didn't run or that it succeeded or failed... Absolutely nothing.

I had seen comments to this effect so I originally opted to do the manual steps described is this article. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ive-execution-side-channel-vulnerabilities-in

TL;DR
The simpler solution is to use the InSpectre utility from Gibson Research. Download and run that then click the button to disable spectre protection if necessary. This utility will indicate the status of protections for Meltdown and Spectre and it toggles the buttons to enable or disable the protection depending on the current state.

Which one should I disable for improved performance? Spectre or Meltdown? Also, will the tool allow you to easily enable it as well?

 

[GreyFox7]

Which one should I disable for improved performance? Spectre or Meltdown? Also, will the tool allow you to easily enable it as well?

Spectre is the one that kills performance. Yes you can enable or disable easily with the InSpectre tool.

 

[gman713]

Spectre is the one that kills performance. Yes you can enable or disable easily with the InSpectre tool.

Awesome! I'll give it a go.

 

[gman713]

After disabling it, my performance went up a lot. With the patch enabled, Geekbench 4 had me at 4241 for Single and 11,398 for multi. After disabling the patch, single went up to 4618 and multi went to 13,106. Both tests were on "Better Performance." I would say that's fairly significant.