First patch performance tests for meltdown and specter

There is a lot of talk that security patches against the Meltdown and Specter vulnerabilities of Intel processors are going to have a major impact on system performance. The Guru3d team has set to work to analyze the results of these security corrections. For these tests a Core i7 8700K and a Core i7 5960X have been used.

Analyzing the impact of Meltdown and Specter fixes

Firstly, the performance of the SSDs under the X370 platform and a Core i7 8700K processor have been analyzed, for which a 2 TB capacity Samsung 960 Pro has been used. Below are the results before and after applying the patch. The first image is before applying the patch and the second after.

Samsung 960 Pro before

Samsung 960 Pro after

As we can see that there is a certain impact on performance, despite this it is testimonial with an average of 5%, although in the case of performance in 4K random operations it is where it is most noticeable. It should also be noted that two identical results are never obtained in these tests so there is a certain margin of error.

The same goes for a Samsung 850 PRO 512GB.

Samsung 850 PRO before

Samsung 850 PRO after

We now turn to see the tests of the processor memory system, as we can see there are no significant differences neither in RAM nor in the cache system.

We now turn to see the impact of these patches in applications that make very intensive use of the processor.

As we can see there is no significant performance difference either.

Best processors on the market (January 2018)

Video game performance

One of the points that most worries users about patches for Meltdown and Specter is the possible impact on performance in video games. The Guru3d tests show no significant impact.

Conclusion on the evidence

As we have seen, the patches released to fix the Meltdown and Specter vulnerabilities have no significant impact on system performance, at least for the processors used in these tests. Video game fans have nothing to worry about, as their processors will continue to perform the same as now.

It is possible that in the case of less powerful processors if there is a greater impact on performance, we will be on the lookout for new tests to bring you the information as soon as possible.

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