Hello togehter,
i have a Framework 16 Laptop and recently while iam gaming the charger cannot keep up with battery charging anymore. When I play games, I always plug the laptop into the charger, but it still discharges despite charging. Could it be that the charger is too weak, especially for demanding games? Is there a way to connect a stronger charger to the laptop without damaging it over time? Or is there a setting to make the charging process more efficient?
That is indeed the case.
The laptop is capable of consuming more power than the 180 W charger can provide.
The laptop fully supports 240 W chargers, however no 240 W charger is yet in mass production.
IIRC setting the system to Balanced instead of Maximum Performance power mode solves the battery drain issue while retaining >90% performance.
This is a known issue that Framework warned about before launch.
The system is designed to handle up to 240W chargers.
At peak (such as during demanding gameplay), the system may use ~200-220W (estimates based on my own use).
The power supply sold from Framework is currently the highest rated single port USB-C consumer available charger in the world and delivers ~180W.
I have gotten significantly longer usage switching Windows Power state to Balanced instead of Performance. I haven’t noticed significant differences in performance during gameplay with framerates in the games I play still over 120fps WITH AMD FrameGen and FSR enabled when available.
As always though, your mileage may vary.
Until a higher wattage charger is available, this is unlikely to change.
Thank you for your answers! Does anyone know if Framework or another company is working on a 240W charger?
I don’t think Framework would have made a laptop that can take a 240w charger without planning on making one; but we haven’t received any official confirmation this is the case. However, given that it’s using the newly minted USB-C PD standards, we should see more third party ones start coming to market, it’s just going to take a minute.