Gen 1 + 5070: Still Cursed for Gaming?

Framework Laptop 16
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Hey, friends!

I would love to hear some feedback from those who upgraded their OG framework to the 5070. I dropped the new expansion bay in mine and it’s made a nice improvement to performance overall, but I am still running into throttling issues after a few minutes of gaming. It mostly happens with the old 180w adapter, but seems to occasionally throttle with the new 240w as well. I’m on the latest BIOS version and Windows 11. I have the 7840hs and 5070.

Games (Valheim, Helldivers 2, BF6) start out working well, CPU is pushing 35-40w and GPU 100+. About 5-10m in, the CPU wattage drops to 20w and GPU to around 60w.

Just curious to hear if this upgrade has resolved any or some of the power delivery/throttling/performance issues while gaming for others. I don’t want to be too doom and gloom, but after two mostly exasperated years trying to game and create content with this machine and hoping that the 5070 would make it more viable, it feels like a kick in the Chiclets to still run into the same frustrations. I’m cool with mediocre power and don’t even mind spending $700 for another mid-tier GPU with 8gb of VRAM, I just need it to deliver that middling performance consistently. Unfortunately, I’ve had 3 FW16s and none have been able to do that.

The OCulink setup is god-tier but I split my time between two different workstation areas, so having all of my GPU power tied to one desk is a no-go. There’s so much that I admire about this machine and I just need it to perform “good enough” to justify keeping it.

Update: Balanced seems to work fine with the 180w adapter and best performance is working fine with the 240w, so all seems to be okay for now.

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I read your post a few times - its not clear what you currently are running.

Are you using a 7700s and seeing the power drop? Or are you seeing it on a 5070 and asking if others are seeing the same issue?

FWIW, I run my 7700s with no throttling for extended periods of time with no issues.

Just to make sure (I haven’t gamed in a while, been mostly LLM stuff) - I did 5 back to back benchmarks on Cyberpunk 2077 - my GPU held 95-105w the entire time (I have an OC to 110).

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Added some clarification to my original post. Thanks for the consideration.

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I upgraded my OG Framework 16 to the 5070 and I see similar throttling after a few minutes of gaming. The 180W adapter struggles and even the 240W sometimes dips under load. Keeping the laptop cool and making sure BIOS and power settings are updated helps a bit but it still does not hold sustained high performance like a desktop GPU.

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Mine has been working okay over the past couple of days, but this whole power delivery saga is incredibly frustrating.

Update: Nevermind. Tried to play some overwatch with a friend while connected to the 240w fw adapter and it slowed to a powerpoint deck after about 5m.

(at least when trying to use the GPU) This is the most infuriating computer I’ve owned before.

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With the Delta 240W adapter and the recent 4.03 BIOS, I have not seen my 16 discharge the battery while gaming or during heavy use using High Performance.