Spectre and meltdown question

[Themostdead]

Hi,

 

So today i've gotten what i suppose are the updates for the spectre,meltdown issues on windows 7, but i've also read people get a pretty big slowdown on haswell cpu's like mine.

Should i just updated or what is the deal?

I'm kinda lost and dont know what would be best

 

Any help/opinion is appreciated

[done12many2]

The big question is did YOU observe a big slowdown?  If not, no biggie and no need to update.  Most of this is being blown way out of proportion.  It's what we do in the tech community.  The reality is most of the performance degradation is within margin of error.

[johnukguy]

If you don't store any sensitive data on your PC, then you can avoid the update entirely. I would frankly suggest that, at least until Microsoft figure out what they're doing, since they've already pulled some of these updates for messing up older, mostly AMD systems, which didn't even really need the update to begin with. It's a good idea to keep an eye on https://www.askwoody.com/ for information on Windows updates in general, as he often catches the ones that cause problems.

[Themostdead]

Only read about it on the webs about the slowdown, and i do store sensitive and personal data on my pc yea, so i guess it's best to update?

Not using an AMD machine btw

[AlTech]

11 minutes ago, Themostdead said:

Only read about it on the webs about the slowdown, and i do store sensitive and personal data on my pc yea, so i guess it's best to update?

Not using an AMD machine btw

Have you installed the update yet?

[Themostdead]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

Have you installed the update yet?

Not yet

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Themostdead said:

Not yet

In that case, you should try using several CPU benchmarking programs and do a Before and After test.

So basically, i'd recommend benchmarking your CPU before using a few different programs and record the results and then do the same thing after the update is installed.

 

And then you can see how much of an impact there was. I'd recommend doing each test from each benchmarking app 3 times to ensure reliable results.

[Themostdead]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

In that case, you should try using several CPU benchmarking programs and do a Before and After test.

So basically, i'd recommend benchmarking your CPU before using a few different programs and record the results and then do the same thing after the update is installed.

 

And then you can see how much of an impact there was. I'd recommend doing each test from each benchmarking app 3 times to ensure reliable results.

Just to be sure, the update windows has brought out for this issues gets installed via the windows update program right? its not a separate download or anything?

[jj9987]

53 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

The big question is did YOU observe a big slowdown?  If not, no biggie and no need to update.  Most of this is being blown way out of proportion.  It's what we do in the tech community.  The reality is most of the performance degradation is within margin of error.

This.

While this is a Windows sub-forum, I'll say that on my MacBook Pro, these Spectre/Meltdown updates did not decrease my benchmark scores. I ran benchmarks before updating to High Sierra (Sierra to High Sierra is like Windows 8 to 8.1, not major upgrade), then with High Sierra and then finally with supplementary update including the Spectre and/or Meltdown fixes. Benchmark scores remained in the same range, +/- 2-5% which falls under margin of error.

 

macOS Sierra did not contain any of those patches at that time, only High Sierra did. Day-to-day usage hasn't changed either.

 

EDIT: It really comes down to what you are doing with your computer. If you are not doing any constant heavy lifting with the CPU, such as running databases on the PC, you really will not see any major performance degradation.

[Themostdead]

3 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

This.

While this is a Windows sub-forum, I'll say that on my MacBook Pro, these Spectre/Meltdown updates did not decrease my benchmark scores. I ran benchmarks before updating to High Sierra (Sierra to High Sierra is like Windows 8 to 8.1, not major upgrade), then with High Sierra and then finally with supplementary update including the Spectre and/or Meltdown fixes. Benchmark scores remained in the same range, +/- 2-5% which falls under margin of error.

 

macOS Sierra did not contain any of those patches at that time, only High Sierra did. Day-to-day usage hasn't changed either.

 

EDIT: It really comes down to what you are doing with your computer. If you are not doing any constant heavy lifting with the CPU, such as running databases on the PC, you really will not see any major performance degradation.

Mostly use for school/games/ work etc but some pretty intensive games, but thats more GPU specific

[AlTech]

36 minutes ago, Themostdead said:

Just to be sure, the update windows has brought out for this issues gets installed via the windows update program right? its not a separate download or anything?

for Windows 7 and 8.1 it might be a separate download.

 

Check through Windows Update first.

[knightslugger]

Update it. if you experience a slowdown, either live with it, or upgrade your hardware.