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Intel out get spectre meltdown chip10/14/2023 Grab the latest Nvidia drivers here.Ĭheck out PCWorld’s guide to protecting your PC against Meltdown and Spectre if you need more help. Nvidia swiftly released graphics card drivers containing initial protection against Spectre as well-a crucial fix since GPU display drivers sink deep hooks into your kernel. They’re classified as optional, though, because AMD says its CPU architecture has “near-zero” risk against the Spectre variant that requires a firmware update. Macs are affected by Meltdown and Spectre, too.ĪMD plans to release firmware updates to protect against Spectre, with patches for Ryzen, Threadripper, and Epyc CPUs coming first, and older architectures later. Here’s how to find Spectre CPU fixes on DIY PCs. When processor firmware updates become available, you’ll need to snag them from your PC, laptop, or motherboard maker (like HP or Gigabyte) rather than Intel itself. PC owners with other Intel CPUs should still hold off installing CPU firmware updates for now. Intel has since released revised patches for Intel Skylake (6th-gen) and newer systems. Intel yanked them, Microsoft has released an optional emergency Windows patch that disables Intel’s earlier firmware updates if you installed them and are running into performance issues. Intel also published fast firmware updates for its processors, but the first round of Spectre CPU fixes could cause system instability, reboots, and potential data loss or corruption in Intel CPUs released since 2011. Updates issued outside of Microsoft’s monthly “Patch Tuesdays” are rare, underlining the severity of this issue. Microsoft pushed out a Windows update protecting against Meltdown on January 3, the day that the CPU exploits hit headlines. It’s there, and no normal being can see it, yet they can pray to it.” How do I know if my PC is at risk? Here’s how The Register puts it: “Think of the kernel as God sitting on a cloud, looking down on Earth. Standard software has much more limited access. It has complete access to your operating system, with the highest possible level of permissions. The kernel inside your operating system is basically an invisible process that facilitates the way apps and functions work on your computer, talking directly to the hardware. Software also needs to be hardened to guard against it. (We have a separate FAQ on how Spectre affects phones and tablets.) There may be no permanent hardware solution to Spectre, which “tricks other applications into accessing arbitrary locations in their memory.” Processor firmware updates can mitigate the issue to some degree. Spectre affects AMD and ARM processors as well as Intel CPUs, which means mobile devices are also at risk. Gordon Mah UngĮven new Intel chips like the Core i7-8700K are affected by Meltdown and Spectre. This flaw most strongly affects Intel processors because of the aggressive way they handle speculative execution, though a few ARM cores are also susceptible. It “breaks the most fundamental isolation between user applications and the operating system,” according to Google. Meltdown is the more serious exploit, and the one that operating systems are rushing to fix.
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