My latest benchmark is running the idrive binary (https://idrive.com) on my Thinkpad X1 Gen 8 (Intel) vs the same process on my Framework 13" AMD to run a full backup. Both on “Balanced” power profile. Both using GNOME and the TopHat extension to monitor CPU usage.
Thinkpad: ~35%
Framework: ~25%
Fan noise…
Thinkpad: silent; not a peep
Framework: not the loudest I’ve heard, but constant and audible in my office with a strong breeze blowing in.
Apples to apples? Maybe, maybe not. As for qualitative assessment, not good.
The saga continues. I just came home from a dinner, having left my Framework closed, plugged into my external display and locked. Nothing open other than Firefox, Alacritty, and Discord. I walked past my home office and heard a whirring around. It’s the laptop.
Fans are ramped to the hilt, and the exterior of the lid is very warm. I wake it by tapping the external keyboard. CPU meter reads 13%. I open the laptop, and the keyboard is hot to the touch. Not warm, hot.
How does thing produce that much heat at 13% CPU utilization?
It is likely that the device isn’t able to get enough airflow with the lid closed. The Framework 13 intakes from the bottom of the device (and possibly a little through the keyboard), but the exhaust is directed up in the same direction as the lid when it is open.
The exhaust was likely blocked and the Framework could not push much air through causing a lot of heat to generate. The CPU is also possibly throttling at those high temperatures which is why you are seeing low CPU usage.
Try keeping the lid open when using it and change it to use 2nd display only if you only want to use the external screen.
As it happens, I have a little riser that I keep laptops on connected to this display, so it has plenty of airflow underneath, so that wouldn’t be a valid reason. And again, there was nothing running that would have reasonably driven up internal temps.
Bottom line: we shouldn’t have to make excuses for Framework devices that we wouldn’t reasonably make for other similarly priced laptops. It’s just bad design, be it hardware, firmware, or some combination.
The airflow underneath is not the major issue. It is that the exhaust is being choked off by keeping the lid closed. This design is standard in many thin-and-lights, so Framework was just following the industry norm.
You can also try changing the power profile of the computer in settings which will significantly reduce power and heat.
Some of the MacBook Airs do not even have a fan; regardless of that it is well documented that Apple lets their systems cook themselves to death even before they kick in the fans. I watched a video a while ago that Louis Rossman (Rossman Repair Group) showing a MacBook nearly frying itself before it even spun the fans a little.
Just a little more context on the Apple side of things paints a different picture.
As a side note, some of the repair videos that dive into the root causes of failures of Apple products are astounding given the amount of money/engineering they spend to make their products.
It’s a little bit odd that it’s fanning that hard, even if it is closed. Mine does ramp the fans up slightly in Most Performance mode only but it’s only audible close to the laptop.
I suppose it depends what you’re running on those apps. Did you check the GPU usage as well as CPU usage? For example, my CPU can stay at 10% but my GPU ramps up and causes the fans to spin.
The idea that airflow is significantly restricted with the lid closed on the Framework 13.5 is incorrect and has more than once been stated as such by nrp:
I also noticed the issue with high temps with light loads even just downloading a large file it would need the fans and so I exclusively use the laptop on the lowest power profile unless needed.
I believe the CPU boosts unnecessarily high when unrestricted on light loads sending temperatures way up, it was one of the first things I noticed when I got my Framework and the only solution is beefier cooling or limiting the CPU clocks IMO.
While writing this post I change from power save to balance, fan now audible as temps went up.
