Help me decide what chipset to get, please if price were no concern (7640U vs 125H). Was originally set on 7640 but just seems more issues reported vs. mainly heat related for Intel. CPU/GPU performance seems similar-ish.
I know AMD is generally preferred in this community, but would like honest feedback. I acknowledge Intel sells less on FW so potential less reported issues.
Looking to finally upgrade from old XPS laptop. Use case: Productivity, a million chrome tabs and 4x games on lowest settings. Will be using W11, no Linux.
AMD Concerns
Wifi issues with MT card. I would buy Intel AX210 immediately and replace. I hope that solves any potential issues; I have read it is somewhat slow on upload. Any special drivers needed for the AX210? Battery drain issue (or just for AI chips)? Framework 13 AMD Ryzen AI sleep battery drain with Intel AX210 WiFi - #7 by dduan
vs. Intel - no wifi issues
Audio. One post had noted popping with audio, response was to buy 3.5mm expansion card which is a ridiculous solution. Counterpoint: only one post on this issue and on Linux. [RESPONDED] Sound card replacement?
Battery BIOS problems. Went on for months, seemed to have Battery extender finally sorted for 3.09. If not using extender, the charge limit was seemingly not respected on some individuals’ laptops. Seemingly the issue is back for AI chips, which is not necessarily confidence inspring.
vs. Intel - Batt extender seemed no issues from > year ago BIOS update.
Webcam - is the 1st gen webcam really bad? I don’t need it to be good, just working. All intels come with the 2nd gen whereas base 7640U is only first.
General firmware/stability problems seem like the crop up more on AMDs, but perhaps it is an influx of AI chip issues unresolved or rolled over (and previously fixed) from 7040 series. Counterpoint: AMD sells probably 10x over Intel in Framework.
Intel Concerns
Price vs performance. I think 125h and 7640U are about same price. GPU performance seems about same. Most comments I have read universally suggest 7840>155h but I am not using Linux or getting higher end chips.
The power flipping issue is still present but I think we mostly understand it now. Appart from 5v charging not working pretty much anything vaguely pd seems to work now. There seem to be a few new issues with the “ai” boards but that doesn’t matter here.
The battery extender thing is kind of a mess but is getting mostly sorted now it seems. I just set a battery limit and disabled extender and it seems fine.
Not sure if it’s fine on intel or there are just much fewer people that have them here.
Working at all it certainly does.
I think the biggest upside the intel platform has is all 4 usb-c ports are equal.
Your concerns are legitimate. I was in a similar situation. Upgraded from an 11th gen to the 125h. It’s a work machine for me so I prioritized stability, and Intel has the edge in that category. I run balanced mode. With no apps running (other than HWiNFO) P-cores idle around 45C. Same with most E-cores. The two LP E-core run a little warmer around 52. With a browser running and 4-6 tabs open the average idle temp are around 50-52C. Streaming video doesn’t make it jump more than couple degrees above that. Haven’t reinstalled Adobe apps yet (I just installed the motherboard a couple days ago). It ran a little warm the first day. Maybe it was indexing the ssd (?). What kept me from going the AMD route are all the persistent issue you mentioned, as well as the way AMD neglected to fix the 780M drivers for months after their initial release. It’s near the end of production for the 7840U and it’s still not right. I’ll wait and see how things work out with the lates Ryzen chips. In the meantime, the 125h is a great option.
Thank you for the honest feedback. Since my limited performance requirements (really just the old 4x games), my main concern besides standard battery life, etc. is the heat concerns and thus longevity.
This thread in particular addreses the main intel concerns I have with no real resolution. Again 155H used as example.
There are some benchmarks out there that basically state Ryzen AI high end >> Intel core = 7x40u on linux at least. Other more traditional benchmarks support intel being a essentially equivalent to 7x40u. The one linux one that is being referenced a lot, even by framework X account seems to indicate the heat is killing the performance. Again, not so worried I think 125h / 7640u would be great for me, but IDK what to get. I keep flip flopping.
Supposedly, (from my research) neither will support regedits to add option for s3 suspend. Intel supposedly was able to do this historically, not sure about ultra 125h specifically, but generally intel is much more in favor of modern suspend and ryzen 7x40 supports, but NOT for U series processors. This is just trivia, since I will likely just use hibernate direct (current use w10 xps and thinkpad) or suspend then hibernate with w11 ltsc (planned OS). Hopefully 32-48 gb paired ram doesn’t result in crazy hibernate wake times. My current 16gb ddr4 laptops seemingly take as long to hibernate wake vs cold boot wake.