[PConline News] Recently, some of the most severe vulnerabilities in the history of x86 architecture were revealed. These two vulnerabilities are named Meltdown and Spectre. While Meltdown primarily affects Intel x86 processors, including many generations of Core processors since the 45nm process, Spectre is more widespread, potentially impacting ARM, AMD, and Intel processors alike. Although the risk level of Meltdown isn't as high as initially feared, its reach is extensive. Following the disclosure, Intel faced criticism, but it has been actively working on bug fixes. In collaboration with Microsoft, Google, and other vendors, patches have been released across various systems. These fixes require not only software updates but also BIOS upgrades. Recently, Asustek, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock have rolled out new BIOS versions to address the vulnerabilities on their Intel-based motherboards—but at the cost of performance loss. According to Intel's official tests, 8th generation processors may experience up to a 10% drop in performance. It's like squeezing a toothpaste tube—what you get back is less than what you had before.
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Meltdown and Spectre are linked to the architectural design of modern processors, but Intel has clarified that these are not design flaws, but rather unintended side effects of the branch prediction feature. To address this issue, both operating system updates and microcode upgrades for the processors are necessary. Microsoft, Apple, and Google have already implemented OS patches, while Intel has gradually released microcode updates, which are then passed on to motherboard manufacturers for BIOS upgrades.
As the wave of updates continues, MSI has been one of the fastest to respond, releasing a BIOS update for the Z370 series last week. ASUS has also rolled out BIOS updates for its 100, 200, and 300 series motherboards. GIGABYTE has taken a more user-friendly approach, launching a dedicated page on its official website that lists affected motherboard models and explains the necessary steps for users. You can find all the details on the GIGABYTE website. Similarly, ASRock has started rolling out BIOS updates, targeting Skylake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, and X299 series boards over the past few days.
At this point, all four major motherboard manufacturers have released BIOS updates to address the x86 processor vulnerabilities, mainly focusing on the Intel platform. While fixing these security holes is a positive step, the impact on performance is quite complex. As previously explained, fixing the vulnerability requires changes to the CPU's kernel list, which can lead to performance degradation. Intel officials conducted tests comparing 6th to 8th generation Core processors, and the results showed varying degrees of performance loss. Specifically, the Core i7-8700K experienced a drop of 0–12% in Windows 10 benchmarks, with an average of around 5%. Considering that the IPC improvements between generations are relatively small, even a 5% drop could effectively bring the performance of the 8th generation down to that of the previous two generations. Moreover, earlier generations like Skylake and Kaby Lake saw even greater performance declines in some tests.
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