Intel mds patches affect ssd drive performance

From Specter / Meltdown last year to recent MDS crashes (ZombieLoad, Fallout, etc.), Intel CPUs have suffered from performance degradation due to various security patches in Windows 10. Unfortunately, the repair of these holes has a cost, since with each patch Intel and its partners close a path of attack by eliminating processes that had allowed for faster performance.

Intel MDS Vulnerabilities Affect the Performance of Windows 10 SSDs

The various security patches from Meltodown and Specter up to the recent MDS have had an impact on Windows 10, as these tests reveal, on the speed of reading and writing SSDs.

Performance comparison and test equipment

The tests were conducted on a 1.5TB Intel Optane 905P SSD and two computers were used, one with the Intel platform (i7-9700K) and the other with the AMD platform (Ryzen 7 2700X) for comparison.

Tom's Hardware comments that the Core i7-9700K they used in the tests does not have Hyper-Threading and that the impact on older processors may be greater than what is seen in the tests.

The tests for reading and writing data and loading games were carried out by Tom's Hardware . The tests are conclusive and there was a decrease in performance. This is clear in the test of the famous CrystalMark or in the loading speed of Final Fantasy XV.

Final Fantasy XV

	Seconds - Less is better
Intel - No Patches	37.4
Intel - With Specter / Meltdown patches	39.4
Intel - With Specter / Meltdow / MDS Patches	39.7
AMD - With Specter / Meltdow / MDS patches	38.1

There is a 6.2% reduction in Intel performance with Meltdown / Specter patches activated, and around 1% additional loss when we add MDS patches. That is bad news for Intel because the AMD system now takes a 4% advantage.

CrystalMark

Unfortunately, 4K random performance is the most affected. This is by far the most common type of file access within an operating system, such as Windows, making it a disappointing sign. With a high QD of 64, we see an 18% loss in read performance and a 12% loss in write performance. Most PC workloads are in the QD1-2 range, and workstation users can reach QD8. When testing with these lower QDs, we see a staggering 41% reduction in read and write performance when activating the Meltdown / Specter patches. Adding the new MDS fixes, we can see an additional performance loss of between 2.5% and 6%.

PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

	Bandwith - MB / s bandwidth
Intel - No Patches	1, 364
Intel - With Specter / Meltdown patches	1, 356
Intel - With Specter / Meltdow / MDS Patches	1, 339
AMD - With Specter / Meltdow / MDS patches	1, 154

In PCMark 8, the overall score didn't change much by turning patches on and off, but average bandwidth did. With slower sequential and random performance, Intel's average bandwidth decreased by 2%.

Visit our guide on the best SSDs on the market

You can see the full comparison here, where tests were also made in DiskBench and SysMark 2018, with somewhat lower SSD performance losses, but they are there.

According to the conclusions of Tom's Hardware . In synthetic tests, the performance impact can be far greater than a 41% reduction in 4K random metrics. But the drop in performance in real-world applications is not so terrible. Application testing showed a 1-10% reduction in performance, depending on the test. The difference is not huge, but no one ensures that there will be no new vulnerabilities in the future that will further reduce performance with the Intel platform.

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