Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop
phoronix.com

The upgrade experience from the Intel 12th gen to a Ryzen 5 took about a half-hour, doing only the mainboard and no display or hinge upgrades, and I was already familiar with the internals from assembling it as a DIY. It's not trivially easy, and there were a few frustrating moments that aren't unique to the Framework (ok, I'm just talking about the goddamned wifi antenna connections), but I've had a harder time upgrading or repairing just the RAM or storage on some ultrathin laptops.

The firmware limitations on ports imposed by AMD are frustrating in concept but less so in practice; for me it meant just swapping expansion cards from the rear slots to the front slots. I can imagine for people who had very specific setups it could be more disruptive.

But the OS experience was sloppy, and I'm not surprised that Phoronix waited until Fedora 39 left beta. AMD GPU issues necessitated kernel patches that wouldn't land in Fedora 38 by launch, and I still hit GPU-related memalloc issues with the updated kernel _and_ the BIOS update that Phoronix also waited for.[1] I've also hit the wake-while-lid-closed problems specific to the AMD mainboard that have onerous udev workarounds.[2]

The weird power supply limitations for using the board standalone, requiring at least a 100W supply for still less than full performance unless any battery is attached, also limits the flexibility that makes these boards attractive outside of the laptop case, whether bought for that intent or as a post-upgrade reuse.

1: https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-graphical-corruption...

2: https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-framework-amd-ryzen-...