wrote: MtothaJ,
This may be the exact information I need.
I'd appreciate a clarification on a key aspect: what you mention "It is a fact that performance using the updated Spectre microcodes takes a hit." and "On both I have reverted to the pre-Spectre fix codes." In reference to "microcodes" to which specific "pre-Spectre fix codes" are you referring?"
The comments referring to a greater negative effect on overclocked systems agrees with my observation of certain current systems such as i7-7820X and i7-8700K running at 5+GHz but that appear to have especially low 2D benchmark results- CPU -related , while the 3D- GPU-related is closer to standard.
All along I've assumed this is related to the 3.92 BIOS, but if it is firmware of chipset driver-related that changes everything.
Thanks!
BambiBoomZ
Below some info on the Ivybridge-E microcodes for the Xeon E5 v2 CPU's:
Z420 / Z620 3.91 bios (pre Spectre Fix):
║#│CPUID│ Platform ID │Revision│ Date │Type│ Size │ Offset │
╟─┼─────┼────────────────┼────────┼──────────┼────┼──────┼────────┼
║1│306E4│ED (0,2,3,5,6,7)│ 427 │2014-04-10│PRD │0x3000│0x580060│
Z420 / Z620 3.92 bios (post Spectre Fix):
║#│CPUID│ Platform ID │Revision│ Date │Type│ Size │ Offset │
╟─┼─────┼────────────────┼────────┼──────────┼────┼──────┼────────┼
║1│306E4│ED (0,2,3,5,6,7)│ 42C │2018-01-25│PRD │0x3C00│0x580060│
Last pre Spectre Ivybridge-E microcode - this is the one I use on Asus P9X79 Pro:
# │CPUID│ Platform ID │Revision│ Date │Type│ Size │ Offset │
╟──┼─────┼────────────────┼────────┼──────────┼────┼──────┼────────┼
║1 │306E4│ED (0,2,3,5,6,7)│ 42A │2017-12-01│PRD │0x3C00│0x6814A8│
Changing microcodes is simple enough, but with the various bios protections HP has in place you need to have a failsafe way to recover in case things go wrong. I would think getting the bios socketed is your best bet if you still want to get a few more years usage out of your machine - could then add NVMe and do a few other mods.