E-GPU Best Practices? Hot Swapping, Displays and Poor Wi-Fi

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Recently hooked up a Framework 13 12th Gen (i7 1260P on Windows 11 23H2) to an RX6800 over Thunderbolt 4. Performance is surprisingly good with no setup issues, about 70-80% of what my desktop had. Have a a few gray areas.

  1. AMD XConnect allows hot swapping to some extent; by disabling the iGPU in device manager, XConnect will kick in and automatically start up the GPU. When you want to disconnect the GPU though, enable the iGPU and eject the GPU in XConnect. This causes the GPU to shut off when unplugging TB4 which doesn’t seem safe. Is this correct?

  2. XConnect seems to only run properly when windows is set to external display (and performance is better this way allegedly), but the laptop screen backlight stays on. Hot air also blows directly onto the display and seems like it will damage things over time. Is this maximising performance?

  3. When the display is closed Wi-Fi signal is extremely poor. It seems the Framework 13 doesn’t have great placements for the antennas or am I doing something wrong? This is redundant if performance is better with the screen on.

Thanks for any help with one or any of these!

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The WiFi antennas are located behind the LCD at the bottom of the screen, between the hinges (close to the right hinge). By closing the LCD, they are basically stuck between the metal lid and base.

While the Framework 13 can be used in a closed/docked mode, I believe it is not recommended as thermal performance is reduced as is WiFi performance.

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