yet to see an attack as a result of these flaws. In fact,
despite panicked reports about just how bad these
exploits could be, Intel and other affected manufacturers
were able to roll out their updates before Meltdown lived
up to its ominous moniker. We haven’t yet seen anything
on the scale of the 2017 NHS cyber attack, for example, in
which over 300,000 computers were affected.
Unfortunately, the updates come with an admittedly
less-cataclysmic side effect: CPU performance.
CPUs, like pre-election governments, need to
demonstrate strength and stability. Strength, in this field,
is measured in raw data-crunching ability, and stability
from the absence of blue
screens, system hangs, and
alarming pops coming from
within your case. It’s been a
frenetic 20 years for CPU
performance and until
recently the industry kept
pace with Moore’s Law,
which is to say the focus
has long been on faster performance; iterating on
architecture so that it’s optimised to perfection, then
doing it all over again. Fixing a problem that applies to
every Intel CPU architecture since the mid-’90s, then,
threatens to shake loose a lot of those incremental
performance gains. It requires a fundamental change in
operation, because the exploit works by accessing the OS
kernel, a secret area of virtual memory kept several layers
deep in an OS which blocks untrusted programs from
accessing it. Kernels have been fundamental to Windows
OS design since Bill Gates had acne, and Intel has made
CPUs in accordance with that constant for a long time.Early reports about the Meltdown fixes suggest they can
impact performance by as much as 49%. Your gaming PC
is probably fine. Large-scale server arrays and big data
virtual machine-type stuff has been hit hardest. Your data
probably isnt that interesting, but snoop on a virtual
machine that’s connected to many others, and suddenly
you’ve got access to the type and volume of data that lets
you hold big companies to ransom. That was an example,
by the way, not an instruction. Please don’t do either,
there’s a good reader.
As the Windows patch has been ignominiously rolled
out the world over, benchmarkers haven’t noticed much
of a drop-off in gaming
performance on a single
machine. Synthetic
benchmarks seem more
likely to report lower
performance, but games
themselves? Most
benchmarks show a 1fps
drop, roughly. That’s
frustrating, certainly, if you’ve fine-tuned your CPU and
overclocked that extra 1fps through hard graft. But
considering the potential ramifications of a security
vulnerability this big, it’s a comparatively small price to
pay. So if your first instinct upon reading this is to start
googling ‘how to roll back meltdown fix’... don’t. Seriously.
The real question is whether major companies can
implement a fix without their whole infrastructure falling
over. Ultimately, yes, these security breaches are a big
deal. Yes, they affect PC gaming, but no, not by any
meaningful measure. Let Windows or Linux do their
thing, and enjoy that private data of yours.LEFT: The huge spike
on the Fortnite
servers’ CPU
utilisation graph
shows the impact of
Intel’s Meltdown fixSTAY FROSTY Here’s what you can do to protect yourself
2
WINDOWS
It should install its own update, but
you can force it by clicking ‘check for
updates’ in the Windows Update menu.3
UPDATE EVERYTHING
Have a Chromebook or a phone
around that you hardly use? Turn it on
and make sure it automatically updates.4
OR YOU COULD TRY...
If you want to go tinfoil hat, buy an
AMD CPU. They’re not vulnerable to
Meltdown (but are to Spectre).1
MOBILE
Protect your Android device by
letting the OS update run its course
while you’re charging.
LARGE SERVER ARRAYS AND BIG
DATA VIRTUAL MACHINE-TYPE
STUFF HAS BEEN HIT HARDESTFeature
THE CPU SCANDAL