Which is the best slot (1, 2, 3 or 4) for the HDMI expansion card on the AI 300? Do they all work? Are they all equivalent?
The knowledge base explains which slots support DP 2.0 UHBR20, DP 2.0 UHBR10 and DP 1.4 HBR3 … does that matter to the HDMI expansion card (HDMI 2.0b 4k 60Hz)?
Thanks!
The HDMI card is a DP to HDMI converter. It only works in slots that support DP.
On the Strix Point FW13, all ports support DP output, as that KB entry explains.
The current HDMI expansion card only uses HBR2 DP speeds, so is more than good in any port.
The only difference the different ports could make are on power consumption (of the mainboard) and taking away a port that could otherwise do more.
It might be, that the port Framework lists as the lowest consuming for the USB-A expansion card is also the most efficient for the HDMI expansion card, but that is not completely certain (the Gen 3 HDMI card “unplugs itself” and then is only a simply USB2 device that can be put to sleep until you actually plug a monitor in. So it would be best in whatever port consumes the least power with a sleeping USB2 device in it. Whereas the numbers for the USB-A card are for a legacy adapter without any USB device in it that can be put to sleep).
Also, that kind of mainboard power consumption number is mostly relevant when the board is sleeping. Its likely negligable as long as the board is fully awake.
Edit:
Regarding the other DP specs listed in that KB article: I am highly doubting the UHBR20 indication, while the HBR3 and UHBR10 speeds listed seem accurate. But the fact that Framework lists “DP 2.0” is just so wrong, that I choose to believe the leaks of AMD-internal specs over what Framework says, because that is just plain wrong (and the AMD leak says only Strix Halo has UHBR20 support on its USB4 ports, Strix Point only has UHBR10).
You’re right, none of the Ryzen AI 300 processors includes UHBR20 under Graphics Capacilities — only the Ryzen AI Max processors do.
Since the slots are all faster than the current HDMI expansion card and power consumption is uncertain/negligible, I put USB-C cards in slots 1 and 3 (for speed) and a USB-A card in slot 4 (for power consumption) which leaves slot 2 for HDMI. Awesome thanks for your help!