MAJOR DISCOVERY
This post gave me the idea:
I switched the power supply out. I was using the framework power supply and I swapped it for a
RavPower PD Pioneer 90W Model RP-PC128
which supports the following PD modes:
5V3A, 9V3A, 12V3A, 15V3A, 20V4.5A, 90W Max
and my performance issues are all gone!
Here are the results: Plugged in, starting with 100% power
Trial 1: Framework Laptop - Geekbench Browser
Thermals:
Trial 2: Framework Laptop - Geekbench Browser
Trial 3: Framework Laptop - Geekbench Browser
Trial 4: Framework Laptop - Geekbench Browser
Trial 5: Framework Laptop - Geekbench Browser
I ran 5 trials just to be completely sure there was no fluke. You can see the scores went up significantly compared to all other tests I’ve run.
Some thoughts:
- My performance numbers may go down when the laptop needs to charge as I’m using it.
- My framework power adapter may be defective? Or perhaps it has something to do with how it negotiates what PD spec to use, which could be an issue with the adapter, or on the laptop side. I know its not the USB-C cable that plugs into either end because I used the same one with both adapters.
- I also noticed that all of the cores were able to sustain their max 4.1GHz boosts during the multicore tests much better than before (pretty much 90-100% uptime), which explains the increased thermals, and the significant difference in multicore scores, and maybe why the single core scores weren’t affected that much comparing the two plugged in tests when the battery is fully charged.
- The reason the unplugged battery scores were so much better than the plugged in scores is because the battery is able to deliver the required power, whereas the power adapter couldn’t supply it.
- Maybe there is a short somewhere and the additional power that this adapter puts out was able to overcome it? This could be a problem, though I would expect that much power would produce a hot spot that’s very obvious on the board.
- My battery health is reporting that it’s at 98% again.
In closing, this could be an issue for people who are using under-powered power adapters, I’m very curious to see what power adapters the other people reporting the problem are using.
Can someone from the framework team test this and confirm? Also, what PD specs does the laptop itself support for charging?