LatencyMon Benchmarks

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w-u-2-o
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:23 pm

Ah yes, the processor vulnerability bug. I have a custom build using an EVGA motherboard. I monitor their forum, and when the released the new BIOS with the upgraded microcode to address the bug people reported a substantial drop in SSD performance. I did not upgrade and accepted the security risk instead.

I suspect that anyone running the new microcode is screwed, whether due to an upgrade or a brand new purchase.
W4WMT
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby W4WMT » Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:48 am

Is that the “speculative branching” microcode vulnerability that everyone was freaking out about not long ago?
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w-u-2-o
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Aug 22, 2018 10:09 am

Afaik, yes.
K9RX
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby K9RX » Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:27 pm

Gentleman: Hopefully this will be the last report to this thread.

So - I got the replacement i7-8700 in, this is a Pavillion 590-p0070. The first one had reasonable PassMark PerformanceTest marks for the CPU coming in at 14840 (the "nominal" over what appears to be hundreds of submissions for this processor is about 15200). But then after doing some stuff to the computer it dropped by as much as 30% and never again showed any closer than -21%. The suspicion was, as submitted by someone here (thank you!) that it was caused by my upgrading the BIOS to the latest version. There is a bug in Intel Processors that make them 'hackable' referred to as Spectre and/or Meltdown (2 different attach methods I believe). The "fix" requires the BIOS to be upgraded as part of the fix - and the result of this has been reported as performance hits to the tune of, as much as, 30%!

This is where I say BINGO!

So I exchanged that unit for a new one. That unit on first test just after the very first power up showed not much better at 12600 ... a huge disappointment as its closer but still NOT the performance you pay for.

HOWEVER after both cycling power several times and running it i noticed that the HDD was running constantly at 100% ... so I can only assume that Windows was doing HUGE updates while the computer was running (the NETWORK was also going up and down as if things were being downloaded). So I let this run waiting for the HDD to go to 0. This took a good HOUR. Finally I checked it again after all this and BINGO - 14941!

so the caveat here is - on new computers do NOT run this test right away. Let the computer come up, run for several minutes, restart it and repeat several times, then let it sit connected to the web for at least an hour or two... then try the test.

I'm going to now start loading in the needed programs and changing the Windows performance settings - I'll check the CPU results often along the way just in case it gets hit again so I know the before and after and cause.

The final Passmark results, this is with the onboard video (which apparently needs a driver update as it failed part of the test due to this) gave me 14941 for the CPU and 17700 for the disk! The disk being now the Samsung 970 EVO NVMe PCIe 4-ch.... it ROCKS big time and is at the 99% of all systems. Memory came in at 3043 which was I believe 95%.

Gary
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Joe-W4WT
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby Joe-W4WT » Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:13 am

HI Gary,

I just had a problem and thought about you when I found and fixed it and wondered if it might pertain to your problem where you can't get the resampler to work or help you at all.

Tonight I got on 160m and had a terrible problem with overflows/underflows going crazy. This was something new as my system has been working fine for quite a while. My first thought was Microsoft did something that caused it as that is usually the case. I couldn't see that any updates had been done so I looked everywhere else to look and couldn't find the problem. I sat back and started thinking about what I had done lately and I remembered that I hadn't used the system since I had removed the CPU and put new thermal paste on it as I had noticed the fan running harder lately. This seems to be something that needs to be done every few years. Anyway, this made me look to make sure I had all the cables tight as they should be and I discovered that my ground wire to the computer case was loose. I had failed to tighten the screw adequately. I tightened it and all the problems went away.

Do you have a ground from your RF ground to your computer? If not, give it a try and see if it helps. Sure helps me on 160m where I have a lot of RF due to shunt feeding the tower which is right next to the house.

Just a thought,

Joe W4WT
K9RX
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Re: LatencyMon Benchmarks

Postby K9RX » Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:11 pm

Joe,

thanks for that - I'll recheck to make sure all is good in that regard. For the most part i've given up trying to get reliable operation using anything other than the default settings. I still have clicks and pops that disturb the FT8 signal as I'm transmitting as seen in the DUP waveform ... didn't have that near as much with the previous slower computer. Go figure.

I'm finding other very frustrating issues not related to this - they're related instead to the use of RX2 (with a separate RX antenna) and running DIG mode. It seems to screw things up BIG time as it gets screwed up regarding activating VAC2 and remembers that on ALL bands ( RX2 off on all bands other than 80/160) ... frustrating. On other bands when I hit the bandstack and it goes in to or out of a DIG mode (VAC set to enable with DIG) BOTH VAC's will turn on - so there are FOUR POWER OFF/POWER ON cycles going in - 4 going out ... Its painfully obvious a lot of these 'features' were not tested ... I've submitted problem reports but get not even a confirmation they were received ... let alone at least perused. The love/hate dichotomy is getting worse. I'd miss too many features going to a 7610 but it is tempting at moments of extreme frustration. I'm sure there are those that would prefer I move on ... which if so would be an indication not of a desire to fix things but just to ignore them. I would hope and prefer that the focus would NOT be on Thetis - and/or on adding new features but on FIXING what is there already. I've offered to help - testing - never had even an acknowledgement of that let alone taking me up on it. Sorry - my frustration is real... I'll get off my soapbox.

Thanks for the info.

Gary
K9RX

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