FW16 Curve Optimizer, Ram Speed & Timings, Advanced BIOS & Overclocking

Just got my FW16 DIY with a 7940HS but cant find any way to access the curve optimizer or change ram speeds (currently ram is stuck at 4800) Is there a hidden BIOS menu for overclocking?

As far as I’m aware there is no way to change ram speed or timings, there’s no EXPO or XMP and framework, as I’ve read, have no intent on supporting either. You could have up to 5600, but it entirely depends on the “default” JEDEC profile of your ram. Can’t help with the CPU, maybe Universal X86 Tuning Utility could work on the FW16?

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XMP and overclocking is only an option is very high end laptops. Laptops are engineered with very strict voltage limits so you need to ensure your memory meets the JEDEC profile need. There is limited CPU overclocking available in the AMD Adrenaline Driver software on the framework 16. I was able to get +0.2 MHz. No GPU OC as far as I can tell, probably because it’s locked to a 100w envelope.

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That was a question we had and was never answered by Framework, probably because they were trying to hide this fact as away to get people to chance it and by the 7940HS over the 7840HS.

Unfortunately you’ve confirmed that while AMD states that the 7940HS supports Curve Optimizer, I told users to beware - while the CPU supports it, it’s up to the motherboard/BIOS to support it and make the feature available to the end user.

I’m sorry you were burnt there. :frowning:

Maybe in a future firmware update they may add it in?

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Man that does really suck, kinda was a big reason for me choosing the R9 too. I’m surprised, Framework of all companies seems like one that would want to enable user customizability/tweaking. Really hopeful it gets added in a future update.

Id really like to hear from someone at FW tho who would have a bit more insight as to why it wasnt included and if its something impossible to do moving forward or if it could just be a future BIOS update.

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The current BIOS seems very basic to me. I hope it gets improved with more settings in general.

So far, Framework have been very poor/slow at providing BIOS updates (over a year with other mainboards, and still waiting for a FW13 AMD update with bug and security fixes).

In any case, they have previously stated that they do not intend to provide feature additions through updates

“On general philosophy is to have complete firmware out of the box when we launch a product. In general, we don’t plan to have new features that we add post-launch. Instead, post-launch updates are for issues that are found in the field or for security updates that we receive from our upstream firmware suppliers, which include the silicon vendor like Intel or AMD along with our BIOS supplier, Insyde.”

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https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1asfch9/official_request_to_the_framework_team/

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That seems like a flawed philosophy and almost contrary to their main goal. The whole point of Framework is to build products that not only last and can be repaired but upgraded and improved over time. Especially when the firmware it’s shipped with is so limited in functionality

The really frustrating part is its not even like AMD restricted these options, but actually specifically state that they are enabled for this processor and just arent available in the BIOS

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It seems to me to be a serious mistake and contrary to the product’s own philosophy.

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All the more reason to finally get coreboot going.

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I would imagine because it would take more time and effort to test and validate. Every feature added is just one more thing to test. In the interest of time, I can understand why they may skip this. HOWEVER, it is a pretty good differentiator between the R9 and the R7, especially since the raw frequency bump of the CPU and iGPU is minor.

Because of this, I hope after “going gold”, they will have time to revisit the firmware and improve things (as they would normally). Having more time and resources, I hope they would be able to validate and test features officially available per the spec sheet on the R9.

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How are you getting into the BIOS ?

F12 or Delete on startup

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I’m pressing F2 actually. Also recommended in the knowledge base How to check the BIOS version on Windows/Linux/BIOS

F2 doesn’t work for me but the Framework key works perfectly

Thanks all for your help