Just wondering how it manages thermals. I know this gen AMD is really great for graphics, but I know thermals also plays a big role.
Right now im on a X1 carbon with 1165g7, and it supposed has pretty good graphics for intel. But even if im getting 100fps ill get dips down to 2fps at times because it starts to throttle.
So while the CPU and igpu are good enough for me on paper, the performance really isnt.
I dont game a ton on it, but its nice to have for the random esports title every so often (so i wish it was better).
So how is FW? And is there a big difference between the 7640U and 7840U?
Thanks.
It’s a Notebook with an iGPU, it’s not meant to play heavy games. It’s thermal is quite high while gaming but that’s because the default fan curve is very high. On most titles, 1080p 60fps is pretty consistent(Linux).
Elevated Systems did a comparison of gaming on the FW13 natively, docked, and with an eGPU. Short answer: you can game on it, but this is not a gaming laptop, and shouldn’t be treated as one. For starters, the 60 Hz display will cause ghosting if you’re pushing high frame rates (though you still have the option of playing docked to an external gaming monitor). You can get decent performance on some games with the graphics dialed down, but the fan will spin up like crazy for demanding titles.
If gaming is important to you, the 7840U has 50% more GPU compute units compared to the 7640U - and while performance doesn’t scale linearly, that does represent a pretty significant difference.
It performs better than a steam deck. I repasted with PTM 7950 and it seems to be ok thermally.
The display is atrocious for gaming though, the ghosting is really bad.
Lately I’ve been using an egpu (GPD G1) with glasses (Xreal Air) and quite like that setup
Ugh, well is there is one company that would offer an upgraded screen - im hoping FW will be the ones to do it. Is the panel good enough for light gaming? Or is it bad even for a non-gaming display?
Have you checked to see if there are any drop in replacements available on panelook.com?
Here’s all the 13.5" panels - maybe one of those would work? https://www.panelook.com/sizmodlist.php?sizes[]=1350
Light gaming is… fine. I think if you’re playing an fps (or anything with lots of motion) it’s noticeably bad.
Those panels you linked are all 60hz I believe, but they may? have less ghosting but IMO may not be worth the effort unless they have 120hz or are oled
I think the hardest part of finding a panel is to find one in the uncommon 3:2 aspect ratio the framework uses
I remember some people were looking at alternative panels but they’re usually for replacement and not upgrade, and I don’t recall a high refresh alternative being used successfully (yet)
Those panels you linked are all 60hz I believe
oops, yea on second look they all are 60hz, except for a few which dont list it (so im assuming 60hz).
Maybe Ill eventually just get a FW16 instead.
7840u w/ 780M is pretty beastly considering this is integrated. Well optimized titles run really well on it. I play on external monitors.
It does struggle to drive higher resolutions, probably due to low VRAM. Normally I cap out at 1080p. If you find it chugging just consider lowering the resolution to 1080p or 720p.
Make sure you’re using two RAM sticks, it’s super important.
Fans whir but I never noticed any thermal throttling, even when my cat takes naps on it.
How do you think the stock panel is for light gaming? A few others were complaining about ghosting.
Well I don’t really play using the panel, but from when I do use it I don’t think that that ghosting is really that bad is bad enough to really care. It hasn’t really changed anything for me. The graphics quality is usually lower anyway so your expectations aren’t going to crisp graphics.
What OS are you running btw? Linux support is high priority for me, and ive heard sleep states arent great on the FW. Hoping it was fixed with the AMD version.
I run NixOS, which is linux. I haven’t noticed any sleep problems, but the AMD processor is also a lot better at sipping power.
I am gaming on a 7840U connected to a Razer Core X Chroma with a 4070 inside. Just played a session of Marvel’s Midnight Suns (so not *too* demanding) at 4K high settings, achieving an almost locked 60 fps. Even when relying on the eGPU for graphics, the FW understandably still gets a little loud, but not overwhelmingly so. I’m guessing if I dropped resolution to 1080p and capped framerates etc. then it would be cooler.
This will be my setup, but with a 3080.
I’ve mostly only played Rainbow 6 Siege on my 7840U so far, but performance in that title is excellent. I’m able to get around 100 fps at 1080p medium settings and 100% render scale. I haven’t had any problems with thermals either – temps stay in the 70s under sustained load.
Note that I’m playing on an external 1080p 75 Hz monitor, so I haven’t run into any sort of ghosting issues that some other people are talking about.