State of the CPUs

[LunarMist]

I was thinking about CPUs 16 months ago, but the maleficent Meltdown and Spectator dimmed my hopes of gaining enough improvements to be worth the hassle. Now that Windows 7 is coming to an end soon, I'm looking at new systems again. Have there been improvements against the anti-malware impact of the Windows 10 updates and/or are there are there any upcoming major improvements? Is Q3 a good time to build a new system or is there something significant in the following months? I'm looking at the fastest feasible per core performance with no more than 6-8 physical cores that can run on air, not liquide. A crap-load of slow cores that throw flames are not really useful for my programs. I'm hoping to keep the cost contained to $2K for CPU, mainboard and RAM, that will fit in a normal ATX 10-bay case from 2015. Thanks.

 

[Chewy509]

IIRC, the current state of affairs are:

1. AMD Ryzen CPUs have firmware + software based mitigation for Spectre (Meltdown only effects Intel). Upcoming CPUs based on the Zen 2 architecture (expected Q3 this year) is expected to have hardware mitigation for all known Spectre and Spectre-like issues.
2. Intel 8th and 9th Gen also have firmware + software based mitigation for Spectre and Meltdown. Intel CPUs based on Coffee Lake will have hardware based mitigation for some but not all Spectre variants as well as hardware fixes for Meltdown. (Note: Some Intel 9th Gen CPUs are based on older Skylake and therefore miss out on some of the mitigation technologies available, and it's expected Intel to rebrand some 9th gen parts as 10th gen - especially for the Xeons).
3. It's expected Intel will have hardware fixes for both in Ice Lake and Comet Lake architectures (Intel 10th gen).

As far as I'm aware both AMD and Intel are pushing 8+ cores for mainstream desktops in next gen architectures... Whats the concern of no more than 6-8 cores? (other than in some instances trying to feed 8 cores from a dual memory channel setup).

 

[LunarMist]

IIRC, the current state of affairs are:

1. AMD Ryzen CPUs have firmware + software based mitigation for Spectre (Meltdown only effects Intel). Upcoming CPUs based on the Zen 2 architecture (expected Q3 this year) is expected to have hardware mitigation for all known Spectre and Spectre-like issues.
2. Intel 8th and 9th Gen also have firmware + software based mitigation for Spectre and Meltdown. Intel CPUs based on Coffee Lake will have hardware based mitigation for some but not all Spectre variants as well as hardware fixes for Meltdown. (Note: Some Intel 9th Gen CPUs are based on older Skylake and therefore miss out on some of the mitigation technologies available, and it's expected Intel to rebrand some 9th gen parts as 10th gen - especially for the Xeons).
3. It's expected Intel will have hardware fixes for both in Ice Lake and Comet Lake architectures (Intel 10th gen).

As far as I'm aware both AMD and Intel are pushing 8+ cores for mainstream desktops in next gen architectures... Whats the concern of no more than 6-8 cores? (other than in some instances trying to feed 8 cores from a dual memory channel setup).

I'm concerned about the speeds dropping and heat increasing with increasing cores. I can live with a few extra cores so long as it can clock to 5+GHz on air, but I don't want a crazy power drain or unstable, exotic setup.

 

[Stereodude]

Why do you need 5GHz? However, a few of the next gen Ryzen chips are supposed to have boost clocks of 5GHz in addition to having a lot of cores.

 

[LunarMist]

I need best possible single thread performance with the Windows 10 security junk. Isn't the speed close to proportional for the single thread?

 

[Stereodude]

I need best possible single thread performance with the Windows 10 security junk. Isn't the speed close to proportional for the single thread?

Yes, but you think you're going to perceptually be able to tell the difference between boost clocks of 4.5gHz and 5.0gHz if all else is equal?

 

[LunarMist]

20% is significant. 10% matters. I'm not sure about perceptual measurements, but if one batch takes 75 minutes vs. 60 minutes, that's 15 minutes gained. Intel had 5GHz in 2018, so maybe 4.5GHz without the anti-malware would be equal.

 

[sechs]

If you install exotic cooling, you can get 5GHz without so much effort....

 

[LunarMist]

I can wait until Q3 to see if the Zen 2 is any good compared to the Lake options. I read that Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020, so there is still some time.