Intel slowdown

[wynand32]

As an experiment- I switched to using the NVIDIA GPU as the default and any lag I was experiencing went away with Edge. It's possible the CPU patch has impacted the Intel GMA.

That's possible. I'll add this: Edge in general has really slowed down for me, and not just on my SB2. I think Microsoft also updated it to mitigate for Meltdown (I think that's the one that can use the browser to exploit). I'm fairly certain that Edge wasn't doubling RAM use prior to the update, but I could be mistaken.

Right now, Firefox 59 is SIGNIFICANTLY faster. I mean, it's night and day. Even typing into a text box in Edge is slow but speedy in Firefox. I should probably test Chrome as well, but I'm kind of fed up with Chrome right now.

 

[jnjroach]

That's possible. I'll add this: Edge in general has really slowed down for me, and not just on my SB2. I think Microsoft also updated it to mitigate for Meltdown (I think that's the one that can use the browser to exploit). I'm fairly certain that Edge wasn't doubling RAM use prior to the update, but I could be mistaken.

Right now, Firefox 59 is SIGNIFICANTLY faster. I mean, it's night and day. Even typing into a text box in Edge is slow but speedy in Firefox. I should probably test Chrome as well, but I'm kind of fed up with Chrome right now.

I agree - Firefox has come back in a big way - I've been using it more and more...

 

[chekhonte]

I might have to start using it. I haven't cottoned to edge and Chrome is completely out of control with battery life and RAM.

EDIT: Firefox fills a gig of memory just starting it. I suppose it's my expectations that need to be changed. I'll keep using it to see how I like it. Migrating everything over to FF was easy enough at least.

 

[wynand32]

I might have to start using it. I haven't cottoned to edge and Chrome is completely out of control with battery life and RAM.

EDIT: Firefox fills a gig of memory just starting it. I suppose it's my expectations that need to be changed. I'll keep using it to see how I like it. Migrating everything over to FF was easy enough at least.

As I previously noted, when I load up Edge with the same tabs and apps open, my RAM usage exceeds 10GB and sometimes jumps up to as much as 15GB. When I load up Firefox with the same, RAM usage never exceeds about 7.5GB. At least on my machine, Edge is broken.

Edit: Just loaded up Chrome as with the other two, and it's using around 8.2GB. So, Firefox is less than both Edge (by a huge margin) and Chrome (by a much smaller margin). And Firefox is much faster than both.

 

[GreyFox7]

but the battery... Is this memory usage saving the battery or not? Just wondering...

 

[wynand32]

So far, I'm finding battery use to be roughly equivalent to Edge. Nothing scientific, but the average mW drain is similar (using BatteryBar to eyeball things). Even if it were worse, I'd still continue to use Firefox for the performance benefits. Not only is browsing much faster, but the touchpad/keyboard lag is significantly less and general performance is better.

That said, I have to imagine this is all related to the funky Intel microcode use in the patch/firmware update, and that once Intel releases its new (hopefully improved) version then Microsoft will update and things will get better.

 

[GreyFox7]

So far, I'm finding battery use to be roughly equivalent to Edge. Nothing scientific, but the average mW drain is similar (using BatteryBar to eyeball things). Even if it were worse, I'd still continue to use Firefox for the performance benefits. Not only is browsing much faster, but the touchpad/keyboard lag is significantly less and general performance is better.

That said, I have to imagine this is all related to the funky Intel microcode use in the patch/firmware update, and that once Intel releases its new (hopefully improved) version then Microsoft will update and things will get better.

Yeah, my expectation is there will be several months of fine tuning after they get the major problems solved. So.. A couple rounds of Intel Firmware updates and some OS and Browser tweaking to better deal with the new realities of Spectresized CPU behavior.

Intel vows to release new "fixed" CPUs this year (it was previously speculated this could take much longer) but it's unclear what that means and what the performance of those CPUs will be or which generation CPUs will be fixed (8th, 9th, 10th). Best case, Intel is sitting on (holding back) performance increases they can use to offset the adverse effects of the "new secure architecture" otherwise new CPUs may not offer a performance increase and possibly even a performance decrease from previous Pre-Spectre performance levels.

 

[wynand32]

Yeah, my expectation is there will be several months of fine tuning after they get the major problems solved. So.. A couple rounds of Intel Firmware updates and some OS and Browser tweaking to better deal with the new realities of Spectresized CPU behavior.

Intel vows to release new "fixed" CPUs this year (it was previously speculated this could take much longer) but it's unclear what that means and what the performance of those CPUs will be or which generation CPUs will be fixed (8th, 9th, 10th). Best case, Intel is sitting on (holding back) performance increases they can use to offset the adverse effects of the "new secure architecture" otherwise new CPUs may not offer a performance increase and possibly even a performance decrease from previous Pre-Spectre performance levels.

It's a great time to be AMD.

 

[wynand32]

So, Microsoft pushed out some methods for mitigating the Intel Spectre Variant 2 patch that's suspected as causing so many issues. I'm pretty convinced the patch/firmware update is the root cause of the recent slowdown my SB2 15" has experienced -- I've applied the patch, but haven't been able to determine yet if the performance is truly better.

Here's the info though if anyone wants to apply Microsoft's fix: Grab this Microsoft update now if your PC was affected by the Spectre fixes

I suspect Patch Tuesday will have some additional fixes, and I'm hoping a firmware update that truly resolves the performance issues. I'd love to get my speedy SB2 back.

 

[GreyFox7]

I'd love to get my speedy SB2 back.

I don't think the same speed will ever be achieved with mitigation in place. AFAIK the old speed was the result of a cheat and now that they got caught they will have to do it straight or er ah as close to straight as possible. The new CPUs post Spectre will be left to find another way as this was not an implementation error rather it was a design/architectural fault and it was intentional. Either they never foresaw the ramifications or they ignored them. They and everyone else in the industry that used the same architecture ala ARM, AMD, IBM, Sun/Oracle, Apple, etc.

 

[wynand32]

I don't think the same speed will ever be achieved with mitigation in place. AFAIK the old speed was the result of a cheat and now that they got caught they will have to do it straight or er ah as close to straight as possible. The new CPUs post Spectre will be left to find another way as this was not an implementation error rather it was a design/architectural fault and it was intentional.

I do believe that Intel's first attempt to fix this was wonky, and that the next fix won't have so profound an impact. I expect some slowdown, but not what I've been experiencing. The touchpad and keyboard shouldn't be lagging the way it does, for example. And at worst, I expect the SB2 to perform no worse than any other system with equivalent components, which doesn't seem to be the case right now.

If the reality is that every system is slowed down somewhat, and the SB2 no more or less, than we'll all just have to live with it. I suspect that right now, this isn't the case -- because I think Microsoft was very quick to implement the bad Intel microcode.

 

[GreyFox7]

I do believe that Intel's first attempt to fix this was wonky, and that the next fix won't have so profound an impact. I expect some slowdown, but not what I've been experiencing. The touchpad and keyboard shouldn't be lagging the way it does, for example. And at worst, I expect the SB2 to perform no worse than any other system with equivalent components, which doesn't seem to be the case right now.

If the reality is that every system is slowed down somewhat, and the SB2 no more or less, than we'll all just have to live with it. I suspect that right now, this isn't the case -- because I think Microsoft was very quick to implement the bad Intel microcode.

Yes, it will improve from the current level but won't be like b4.