Tldr; Have tested multiple different Ryzen 7000 configurations on various kernels, and the power draw just seems really bad.
Been looking for a decent new laptop workstation that fits various tasks. Phoenix chips check a lot of the boxes that I want, but the power draw on Linux for these chips seems a bit…crazy.
The product docs say these chips are 35W-45W, but I figured that was just the range of maximums. What I’m seeing on fresh installs of various Debian variants is a CONSTANT power draw of at least 35W on the low end at all times. I’ve stepped kernel point releases from 6.0 to 6.6 to test out, and the later versions are definitely better at using a bit less power thanks to the amd_pstate_epp being included directly in the kernel, but this power draw is still there for the CPU package on idle.
A few different laptop models I’ve tested will only get 90 mins on battery because of this. I’ve now tried four different models from three different manufacturers, and all show the same type of power draw.
Is this just a “thing” with these chips? I understand they were modified from desktop to be a more mobile platform, but this is just terrible from an end-user perspective. I want the CPU and iGPU, and hell, even the FPGA XDNA thingie, but not when the machine can’t run off of AC.
This is highly dependent on your machine and configuration.
I just got a framework 13 AMD with the 7840U chip. Seems to idle around -4-5W of total system power. Minimal loads with browsing etc will be around 7-8 watts. Windows still seems to be better optimized but it’s not bad at all considering.
I’d expect the Framework to perform better than most since it was designed around this specific chipset. I have an order in for the 16, but won’t be getting it til next year. Just looking for something until then.