Gaming Performance - PoE 2

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Which Linux distro are you using?

arch

Which release version?
(if rolling release without a release version, skip this question)

(If rolling release, last date updated?)

today (2026-04–06)

Which kernel are you using?

6.19.19

Which BIOS version are you using?

04.03

Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)

AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS + AMD 7700S

I’m having a weird issue relating to gaming performance with Path of Exile 2.

I play this game on my SteamDeck without issue, so the game shouldn’t be having issues on this hardware, but after ~5 minutes of playing, the game starts to “stutter” really bad.

The in-game FPS counter is showing 120+ FPS, but the display lag makes the game mostly unplayable. What’s strange is that input commands, mouse movements, and in-game windows don’t have any noticeable lag. It’s hard to describe, other than “stuttering”.

I’ve tried tons of combinations of settings, and right now most of them are on the lowest setting possible just to see what might work, but it doesn’t seem to help.

I’ve tried Steam’s Proton Experimental, and Proton-GE 10.34. I’ve tried various command suggestions on ProtonDB, but nothing seems to help.

I used the framework_tool command to monitor for thermal issues, but nothing popped up in the console; I even ran fans at 100% just to force more cooling, but that also had no impact.
There was a similar thread from a while ago suggesting it might be the Power Saving feature? Something about it switching between performance/battery-saving, so I tried playing on battery, with performance, power-saving, and balanced settings (both on and off PSU), but no change.

I just can’t for the life of me figure out what’s going on here, and the fact that it runs just fine on my SteamDeck makes it more frustrating – it’s the same OS with similar AMD based hardware.

I’m hoping someone can help me dive into this more, or just have some suggestions on how to fix it.

2

What class are you playing? I’ve had a similar issue, except reversed. I’ll get performance issues on Deck but not on my FW 16, though I haven’t played for a while, so if the issue is tied to an update patch, I wouldn’t have seen it.

I main a summoner and like builds with many many minions. The steam deck just doesn’t have the CPU capacity to handle that build unfortunately, so if I’m on that spec I normally have to use a PC.

You also cite the “battery flipping” issue. You can use a tool like mangohud to see if this is your problem. If it is, the performance stutters should be tied to the battery going between charging and discharging at some percentage threshold. E.g., for me when playing BF6 on Windows, my battery will alternate between charging and discharging once a second when the battery hits something like 90%, and the game becomes unplayable after that. There are a few ways to get around this, the simplest one is to use the “balanced” profile assuming you have a 240W charger.

3

What power supply are you using? I know the 240w will cause something similar because the power profiles keep flipping. Something framework has yet to fix.

4

I’m playing ED/Contagion Lich, but the game performance is fairly consistently bad, even just walking around town.

I have the Gen1 Framework 180W power supply.

I haven’t tried this and know nothing about it, but I suppose I should look into it to see if it can help provide some insight.

I did try playing on and off battery power, and toggled the power savings features between all 3 positions (power save, balanced, performance) and nothing made any notable difference.

5

Are you able to replicate the issue in any other games?

6

In general, no, but I also haven’t test anything of similar system requirements. I’ll have to see if I can check this.

7

I installed mangohud and it seems to confirm that temperatures aren’t super high (and the fans aren’t even at full blast as far as I can tell).

What I do see is that the GPU is maxed out at 99-100% when the issue is observed, but I don’t know why it be struggling so much – again, the Steam Deck handles this fine (albeit at a lower resolution). I did manage to eek out a little more performance by dropping sharpness from the default 15% to 5%, but it’s still not great overall.