Core2Quad system useless after Intel Meltdown bug patch

[XpJAY]

So I have an Intel Core2Quad Q8400 with 4GB DDR2 ram, a 560Ti 448, and a SSD boot drive running Windows 10 Home I USED to use as a daily driver PC for general web use, streaming netflix and sports, and watching videos from a portable drive. After the WIndows Meltdown patch, I have a brutal performance drop, rendering my PC mostly useless. OS and webpages so slow to load. Streaming and downloaded video choppy. I hope they can fix this with a future patch. My gaming rig is fine, but this is so disappointing. Looks like many consumers and businesses may need to upgrade.

 

[drtweak]

Wow you got that much of a performance drop? I will have to take a few Core 2 Machines I got and install 10 and see how it is. Most Core 2 Machines i know are still running XP-7 lol

 

[Math Geek]

my q6600 system has a noticeable slow down browsing. not tried anything else yet with it.

but firefox is noticeably slower after the patch. win 7 and win 10 both are effected the same.

 

[XpJAY]

I also have a Core 2 Duo Toughbook I updated, but I shut it down after because I had enough performance loss disappointment for one day. I'll see if it's the same later. I'm still in the "just, wow" phase. Ryzen build coming soon I think.

 

[jaslion]

So I have an Intel Core2Quad Q8400 with 4GB DDR2 ram, a 560Ti 448, and a SSD boot drive running Windows 10 Home I USED to use as a daily driver PC for general web use, streaming netflix and sports, and watching videos from a portable drive. After the WIndows Meltdown patch, I have a brutal performance drop, rendering my PC mostly useless. OS and webpages so slow to load. Streaming and downloaded video choppy. I hope they can fix this with a future patch. My gaming rig is fine, but this is so disappointing. Looks like many consumers and businesses may need to upgrade.

q6600, 8gb ddr2 and gtx 650. Used as the attic media pc. It now hitches sometimes on youtube 1080p 60fps video's and is just slower overall. After an oc to 3.2ghz it's almost back to how it used to be.

 

[XpJAY]

So I have an Intel Core2Quad Q8400 with 4GB DDR2 ram, a 560Ti 448, and a SSD boot drive running Windows 10 Home I USED to use as a daily driver PC for general web use, streaming netflix and sports, and watching videos from a portable drive. After the WIndows Meltdown patch, I have a brutal performance drop, rendering my PC mostly useless. OS and webpages so slow to load. Streaming and downloaded video choppy. I hope they can fix this with a future patch. My gaming rig is fine, but this is so disappointing. Looks like many consumers and businesses may need to upgrade.

q6600, 8gb ddr2 and gtx 650. Used as the attic media pc. It now hitches sometimes on youtube 1080p 60fps video's and is just slower overall. After an oc to 3.2ghz it's almost back to how it used to be.

Oh yeah? I was thinking about getting a cost efficient cooler upgrade and trying an overclock anyway, so I will now. Thanks.

 

[jaslion]

So I have an Intel Core2Quad Q8400 with 4GB DDR2 ram, a 560Ti 448, and a SSD boot drive running Windows 10 Home I USED to use as a daily driver PC for general web use, streaming netflix and sports, and watching videos from a portable drive. After the WIndows Meltdown patch, I have a brutal performance drop, rendering my PC mostly useless. OS and webpages so slow to load. Streaming and downloaded video choppy. I hope they can fix this with a future patch. My gaming rig is fine, but this is so disappointing. Looks like many consumers and businesses may need to upgrade.

q6600, 8gb ddr2 and gtx 650. Used as the attic media pc. It now hitches sometimes on youtube 1080p 60fps video's and is just slower overall. After an oc to 3.2ghz it's almost back to how it used to be.

Oh yeah? I was thinking about getting a cost efficient cooler upgrade and trying an overclock anyway, so I will now. Thanks.

Still having to da a 800mhz oc just to get back to where it was is stupid. This is going to end up in a disaster for a lot of people and company's that have specific workloads that get heavily affected by this.

 

[XpJAY]

UPDATE
My Core2Duo laptop was ok so I checked into it more. There was a firmware update for my SSD and that fixed the issue for me.

 

[jaslion]

Did some tests and when running a mirror of windows without the oc on an ssd it seems to almost perform the exact same but on the generic wd blue 1tb hdd it is really slow suddenly unless oc'd. Wierd.

 

[Satellite 20]

my q6600 system has a noticeable slow down browsing. not tried anything else yet with it.

but firefox is noticeably slower after the patch. win 7 and win 10 both are effected the same.

I was under the impression that the Kentsfield chips (which includes Q6xxx) were immune.
https://www.techarp.com/guides/complete-list-cpus-meltdown-spectre/
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/60411/heres-list-intel-cpus-affected-spectre-meltdown/index.html
Am I mistaken? (I hope so. I recently acquired a beaten-up old Q6600 machine and turned it into a zippy little XP twin-screen websurfer.)

 

[Math Geek]

not seen any of those lists yet. initial reports said all chips made this century for the most part. even the old q6600 is still only 10 years old now.

but i did note a noticeable slowdown when the patch was applied which is consistent with benchmarks i have seen. the older chips seem most effected by the patches since they are the weakest of the bunch.

i'd not classify it as "unbearable/broken/useless" or any other such words. pc is still plenty usable and works well for what it is being used for still. but there is a clear pause when executing something that was not there before. 1/2 sec or so pause if i had to guess.
for a websurfer, i'd not worry at all. it runs win 7 and win 10 fine as well as mac os. still a good little pc.

 

[The Paladin]

Ill have to test my Q9400 later on, I notice no real slow done on my 4790k

 

[caffemocha]

So I have an Intel Core2Quad Q8400 with 4GB DDR2 ram, a 560Ti 448, and a SSD boot drive running Windows 10 Home I USED to use as a daily driver PC for general web use, streaming netflix and sports, and watching videos from a portable drive. After the WIndows Meltdown patch, I have a brutal performance drop, rendering my PC mostly useless. OS and webpages so slow to load. Streaming and downloaded video choppy. I hope they can fix this with a future patch. My gaming rig is fine, but this is so disappointing. Looks like many consumers and businesses may need to upgrade.

I concur with XpJAY. My Core 2 Quad system ran 3D programs just fine and after the latest update, all 3D performance went out the door. Even the most basic 3D program like 'minetest'. I'm going to add an external video card and see if not using the built-in helps.

 

[The Paladin]

I tested my Q9400, P5Ql/VM, 8GB DDR2, HD7850 2GB system before and after patch, and I noticed very little benchmarking differences (less by 15 points) - ran test 5 times before and after patch) and I guess running the HD7850 doest care as COD WW seems to run just fine and get the same amount of FPS .

 

[Abedoss]

OK guys, I know I'm late to this dicussion, but for the benefit of you and others who may end here. The folks in Gibson Research made an app called InSpectre to check Win machines for Meltdown and Spectre protection, and because of that Meltdown protection is a software patch, and it makes the performance hit for PCs, this app gives us the ability to disable it.
https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm