[dist-epoch]

Both Intel/AMD CPUs produced in the last 5 years or so support full transparent (to the OS) memory encryption. So cold boot attacks are a thing of the past if you enable this feature (it's typically disabled because it reduces RAM speed by about 0.5%).

[tredre3]

The impact on performance is more along the lines of 1-2% on AMD (though it likely varies by generation (I did extensive benchmarking on Renoir wrt throughput/latency/gpu). But yes small enough to be insignificant unless you run LLMs or game on the iGPU. I imagine that it also uses marginally more power.

AMD also has a second encryption mode where the OS decides what gets transparently encrypted, it doesn't have to be everything. But that mode is poorly documented (or at least the documentation isn't accessible to peasants like me)

[m3047]

Recent news is that this isn't shipping on some consumer-grade CPUs from AMD. There, made it explicit enough there's no room for conversation. Here's the link:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/06/users-cry-foul-afte...

[dlcarrier]

AMD backtracked on that strategy: https://www.techpowerup.com/350142/amd-to-restore-tsme-memor...

Future AGESA updates will still include memory encryption for all processor models. It's one of the rare instances of consumer backlash creating a clear and immediate response.