AMD May Be Vulnerable to Spectre After All

[mr moose]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Not sure how that would help existing users. My desktop PC is probably going to run until it can't actually run, so I would loathe for there to be a permanent performance hit.

Unless they fund away to side step the issue that is causing the performance hit, then I don't think they will be able to help existing customers.

 

Although to be honest I think this is going to be one of those things where if you don't tell anyone only a handful of domestic users would even notice.

[Zodiark1593]

2 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Unless they fund away to side step the issue that is causing the performance hit, then I don't think they will be able to help existing customers.

 

Although to be honest I think this is going to be one of those things where if you don't tell anyone only a handful of domestic users would even notice.

Emulating certain games in PCSX2 is surprisingly IO bound where putting a disc image onto solid state storage eliminates a lot of random stutters. If the patches worsens performance for this application (I won't apply until I see how others are faring), the only other mitigation for this performance drop is to add in more RAM and put the game image on a ram disk.

 

Though as my desktop spends most of it's life off the internet anyway, I do have to wonder if these security flaws are worth being concerned about anyway at this time.

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Emulating certain games in PCSX2 is surprisingly IO bound where putting a disc image onto solid state storage eliminates a lot of random stutters. If the patches worsens performance for this application (I won't apply until I see how others are faring), the only other mitigation for this performance drop is to add in more RAM and put the game image on a ram disk.

 

Though as my desktop spends most of it's life off the internet anyway, I do have to wonder if these security flaws are worth being concerned about anyway at this time.

 

It's not very prudent of anyone to trivialize a security threat, however this maybe just one of those threats that if you have good malware protection and safe surfing practices when you are online you are likely safe.   I have a MAME cabinet that runs XP.  It does not connect to the internet at all.  If I need to transfer games or files I do it with a USB drive.

[Zodiark1593]

29 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

It's not very prudent of anyone to trivialize a security threat, however this maybe just one of those threats that if you have good malware protection and safe surfing practices when you are online you are likely safe.   I have a MAME cabinet that runs XP.  It does not connect to the internet at all.  If I need to transfer games or files I do it with a USB drive.

My internet is through tethering via mobile plan, so I don't really do much beyond using Google Docs, or Netflix/Youtube (T-mobile allows unlimited video streaming without hitting the data cap). To install games from Steam requires bringing my windows tablet to a wifi point, throw it on a usb drive, then transfer it to my desktop and hope Steam is cooperative and doesn't try to download another copy or update anything. GoG.com is really my proverbial "Knight in Shining Armor" for PC games while GabeN is Satan.

 

I really want A Hat In Time to come on GoG though.

 

I also use NoScript in Firefox, though I am aware it is unlikely to save me in the event a trusted website gets hacked or a malicious ad gets injected into an otherwise trusted site.

 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

For those interested in finding out if their PC is vulnerable or has significant slowdown, Steve Gibson wrote a nice little free tool that checks it and gives a quick verdict with a detailed analysis further down. 

 

https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

 

I'm not quite there yet ...

 

 

I've heard reports of some AV picking it up as a potential risk, but that's a false positive.