I have a Framework 13 with an i5-1135G7 CPU, from batch 5 if I remember, and am finally looking to upgrade the mainboard. Very happy with it except for the thermals. When doing anything CPU intensive, I’ll get warnings that the CPU is getting above 88 C. I’ve been doing a lot of video encoding while running a media server (and also using the web browser or doing other work at the same time). If I get anything full HD encoding without using hardware acceleration, it’ll give me a temp. warning. With acceleration on, it’s around 57-68 C if it’s cool in my room. I’ve also had long write cycles on the NVME thermal throttle pretty quickly.
I was originally looking at either the i5-1340P or Ryzen 5 7640U to stay in budget, or maybe the i7-1360P. I think the integrated GPU in the Ryzen is supposed to be better, but I don’t use too much of the Iris Xe anyway, even with the little bit of 3D designing I’ve been doing for printing. I have no experience with AMD CPU’s anyway.
Any thoughts on what might give me the best performance in thermals, or any other insights? I’ve had this thing running nearly 24/7 since I got it, and don’t like how careful I have to be monitoring temps, especially during seasonal changes or when my apartment’s heat decides to turn this place into an oven.
Thanks.
Current specs:
Framework 13 DIY Edition batch 5
Running Win 10 (uprgrading to 11 after mobo swap)
i5-1135G7
Crucial 16GB RAM (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL22
Sabrent 500GB Rocket 4 Plus NVMe - Gen4
I’m likely going to upgrade anyway, I was trying to keep the price pretty low with the original CPU to try out the laptop (switched from an old thinkpad). But I am definitely putting my current mobo in a case to replace an existing chromebox for more functionality. Haven’t used a pad like that but I’ve read about that specific one before, seems impressive. I’ll keep it in mind for when I pull the board out.
If I have the time for it, I may do the repaste first as you suggest. It would be easier to evaluate any performance change. But I’m currently putting a tower I built recently back together after it almost succumbed to water damage when my bedroom ceiling caved in. Luckily it was out of the way and off, but got a lot goopified sheetrock spattered on it so I at least have to dismantle to fans get any grit out.
Modern CPUs are rated for 100 C and are programmed to keep increasing performance as high as possible until the CPU hits either 100 C or the power limits.
You don’t have to. The system will automatically scale back performance if necessary to keep within the rated temperature range.
If you really want to reduce temperatures you can change the power profile in Windows (to reduce power limits). You can also repaste with PTM7950, however if the power limits are high that will just result in the CPU taking advantage of the better cooling to increase performance/power consumption while maintaining the same thermals.
I’ve had temp spikes below 80% CPU mean utilization (with spikes to >90%). It’s not simply hitting max temp at full utilization. I feel like it may have had a bad paste to begin with, and I have changed power plans before with little change. I also have the laptop on a blower-style cooling pad, mostly to make sure the bottom vents aren’t obstructed.
I miss the unlocked CPU I had on another laptop, setting limits was much easier with how CPU’s operate now. While they may tolerate sitting at 100 C, you don’t exactly get stable operation from all programs in that state. My current CPU is definitely underpowered for some of the things I’m asking of it, which is why I am looking for something with a little more overhead. The video transcoding (not encoding as I previously stated) is in real time so it’s not like it’s trying to finish writing the whole file all at once, it’s just processing a batch of a few seconds at once in a buffer. A better performing CPU should operate at a lower utilization at least with that use case.