Apple's Spectre fix throttles iPhone 6 performance 'by 40 per cent'

[SceptreCore 93]

APPLE'S SPECTRE PATCH for iDevices could affect iPhone performance by as much as 40 per cent.

 

So says Dutch security researcher Melvin Mughal, who carried out benchmarking tests before and after the security patch had been applied. The test results indicate that Apple's iOS fix has a significant impact Apple's A8 processor, with single core results experiencing a 41 per cent decrease from 924 to 1,561.

 

Multi-core scores are almost as bad, dropping from 1,616 to 2,665, down by 39 per cent. Memory was impacted the least, with performance declining in Mughal's benchmarks by 14 and eight per cent for single and multicore, respectively.

 

Last week, Apple rolled out its iOS 11.2.2 firmware update to mitigate against the risks posed by the Spectre security flaw. But following warnings of a performance hit from patches introduced on other platforms, Mughal was keen to see how it might affect the iPhone.

Although Mughal performed the benchmarks on an iPhone 6, he said the update would likely have a similar impact on other Apple devices.

 

"The performance benchmarks were performed on an iPhone 6 and are done pretty straightforward. The benchmarks were performed before/after updating iOS in the exact same scenario: no apps running (including background)," he said.

Mughal said his handset "took a serious hit in performance at every possible level", with the benchmark results showing "a significant decrease in performance" up to 50 per cent in most areas.

"Although this is not the best news, this security update is a ‘necessary evil'. It demonstrates a message the security community have reminded us time and time again: security can't be compromised over performance," he said.

Some of the worst affected applications on the iPhone will be web surfing, with HTML5 Parse and DOM whacked by 46 per cent and 56 per cent respectively on single core, according to Mughal's benchmark, and by 46 per cent and 36 per cent respectively on multicore.

 

In the wake of the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerability, Apple joined companies, including Microsoft and Canonical, in releasing firmware updates for affected hardware. However, complaints of big performance hits following implementation of the patches have been widespread.

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3024424/apples-spectre-fix-throttles-iphone-6-performance-by-40-per-cent

[Jeruselem 637]

Well if you have a bad battery on top of that ... you're stuffed

[Master_Scythe 521]

Man, considering all the restrictions built into the iphone (like the limited Bluetooth stack, and OTG support, or lack of), the main thing they had going for them was 'ease of use'.

And even that was slipping in recent times.

 

Even my 'numbskull' car mates who only care about burnouts are using iphones and wanting to do things that 2 years ago would have been called a 'geek feature' (like OTG).

 

On top of that, my mate runs a business from his phone.

I've seen 'stutters' on new iphones with enough social media running (they're RARE, yes, but they're there).

 

Knock, hell, lets be generous, 25% of the speed off, and you'll have a stuttery mess.

 

SELL SELL SELL

Edited January 16, 2018 by Master_Scythe

[Jeruselem 637]

I've applied the ARM spectre patch on my Windows phones and there's a hit but it's not like 40%. Maybe 10%

[SceptreCore 93]

It sorta eliminated the performance increase of having an Apple designed ARM processor

[Jeruselem 637]

Apple will now give you a choice with the battery slow down, put up a bad battery or run it slow

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/18/iphone-apple-users-turn-off-feature-battery-slow-down-devices-ios-tim-cook