Intel Ice Lake "0x78" Microcode Update Having Small But Measurable Performance Hits

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Ice Lake "0x78" Microcode Update Having Small But Measurable Performance Hits

Following new Intel Ice Lake CPU microcode being published on Friday without any change-log and not updating prior Intel CPU family microcodes, I've begun looking at the performance as this first Intel CPU microcode update for Linux users since November. From my initial weekend testing there does seem to be some small but measurable and consistent performance impairments for Ice Lake from this microcode upgrade.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=29159

[hotaru]

It's worth noting that this coming Tuesday, 12 May, will mark the second Tuesday of the month where Intel is known to come out with their latest monthly security advisories. We'll see if something new is announced then that would explain this new Ice Lake microcode drop or anyhow we'll likely hear more once the weekend is over.

I'm sure we will eventually see something that explains it, but wouldn't be surprised if Intel delays telling us about it for several months or more.

[MadCatX]

Hm, a new Intel update that hurts performance... I'm sorry, is it Wednesday already? Seriously, guys, get it together. I don't mind getting a Whatever Lake as my next CPU so long as it won't start falling apart like my current Skylake has been ever since I got it over 4 years ago.

[loganj]

how else will they sell new cpus if they can't make them look faster then previous generations? really they have to make older model to work at half the speed so that newer cpus look like an innovation

[yeeeeman]

how else will they sell new cpus if they can't make them look faster then previous generations? really they have to make older model to work at half the speed so that newer cpus look like an innovation

Ice Lake core is 18% better in IPC. Say they lose at worst 5% with this microcode (to me it looks more like 1-2%) and they still have a 15% advantage over skylake, so they don't need to do anything to make Ice lake "look better" than previous gen.
They need to fix and patch absolutely every single vulnerabilities and loop hole, even with the enquired performance penalties. Then, in the next core revisions they need to come up with ways to fix them in hardware and not lose performance. The "vulnerability craze" needs to end...

[Slartifartblast]

Intel seem determined to make peoples next buying choice AMD Ryzen.

[moilami]

I am waiting for a book which analyzes in detail this fall of Intel and rise of AMD.

[carewolf]

Ice Lake core is 18% better in IPC. Say they lose at worst 5% with this microcode (to me it looks more like 1-2%) and they still have a 15% advantage over skylake, so they don't need to do anything to make Ice lake "look better" than previous gen.
They need to fix and patch absolutely every single vulnerabilities and loop hole, even with the enquired performance penalties. Then, in the next core revisions they need to come up with ways to fix them in hardware and not lose performance. The "vulnerability craze" needs to end...

18% better IPC including all the workarounds needed for Skylake or before?

[yeeeeman]

You should consult Anandtechs review on this. I think they had fixes for 9900K in place when they compared the IPC to 1065G7.

[birdie]

18% better IPC including all the workarounds needed for Skylake or before?

IceLake requires the same workarounds as Zen 2. Stop being an a-hole.