Apple’s Spectre fix reportedly has a huge impact on device performance
Apple’s Spectre fix reportedly has a huge impact on device performance
While these results show substantial decreases in device performance and the benchmarker blames the performance reduction on Apple’s Spectre patch, it does not get away from the fact that the results here can be easily attributed to Apple’s battery/performance scandal and the testing methodology here is flawed. Â
Below is a table which highlights the drop in performance seen by Melv1n Tech Product Management, who has already stated that it is his results “could be influenced by the battery throttling”.Â
  
While many news outlets have already released stories blaming this performance decrease on Apple’s Spectre patch, most have omitted the fact that these results come from an iPhone 6 with an old battery and that the user tested iOS version 11.1.2 vs 11.2.2, rather than 11.2.1 vs 11.2.2. These two factors make the performance drop here attributable to Apple’s existing battery/performance issues.Â
Please note that iOS version 11.2.0 is where iPhone 7 devices were first throttled by Apple to prevent battery issues and that Geekbench found that more iPhone 6 series devices were affected by battery throttling after the same update. This fact alone makes this performance dip seem more attributable to changes in iOS version 11.2.0, rather than the spectre patch included in iOS version 11.2.2. Â
  
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We have already seen multiple reports from users who have tested these new patches to find much lower performance hits on their iOS devices, with Howtogeek finding several Geekbench results on iOS 11.2.2 that showcase a much smaller performance impact than Marv1n’s benchmark numbers.
 While this makes for an anticlimactic story, the truth here is more important than the hype. The “40% performance decrease” that you have heard about is likely due to battery issues, not Apple’s Spectre security fix.Â
You can join the discussion on Apple’s Spectre fix reportedly having a 40% performance impact on the OC3D Forums. Â
Apple’s Spectre fix reportedly has a huge impact on device performance
While these results show substantial decreases in device performance and the benchmarker blames the performance reduction on Apple’s Spectre patch, it does not get away from the fact that the results here can be easily attributed to Apple’s battery/performance scandal and the testing methodology here is flawed. Â
Below is a table which highlights the drop in performance seen by Melv1n Tech Product Management, who has already stated that it is his results “could be influenced by the battery throttling”.Â
 Â
While many news outlets have already released stories blaming this performance decrease on Apple’s Spectre patch, most have omitted the fact that these results come from an iPhone 6 with an old battery and that the user tested iOS version 11.1.2 vs 11.2.2, rather than 11.2.1 vs 11.2.2. These two factors make the performance drop here attributable to Apple’s existing battery/performance issues.Â
Please note that iOS version 11.2.0 is where iPhone 7 devices were first throttled by Apple to prevent battery issues and that Geekbench found that more iPhone 6 series devices were affected by battery throttling after the same update. This fact alone makes this performance dip seem more attributable to changes in iOS version 11.2.0, rather than the spectre patch included in iOS version 11.2.2. Â
   Â
We have already seen multiple reports from users who have tested these new patches to find much lower performance hits on their iOS devices, with Howtogeek finding several Geekbench results on iOS 11.2.2 that showcase a much smaller performance impact than Marv1n’s benchmark numbers.
While this makes for an anticlimactic story, the truth here is more important than the hype. The “40% performance decrease” that you have heard about is likely due to battery issues, not Apple’s Spectre security fix.Â
You can join the discussion on Apple’s Spectre fix reportedly having a 40% performance impact on the OC3D Forums. Â