Thanks for testing, well thats really bad, to see that this happened after a Mainboard Replacement. Did you try, removing it fully and reseating? Maybe there happened a Fault during Install? (Well possibly unlike as it worked fine for some weeks)
Just for Info, i also as mentioned before i redid my GPU with my “possible” Fake PTM7950 and my GPU Temps are really great. (Stats in the Top)
Thanks for doing all this work.
Do you have photos of the thermal pad applied?
I’ll give Mainboard removal and reinstall a shot, sure. I see no harm in doing so.
As an aside, I have noticed something a bit strange about the lower chassis and I wanted to get y’all’s opinions on this. Upon looking closely at the edges, it seems like the enclosure curves slightly upwards at the corners. I took some pictures to illustrate:
If you notice, you can see the keys on the keyboard and some light shine through the bend in the center of the chassis. I used the edge of my portable monitor (which is perfectly flat) to make sure it was properly visible in the pictures.
The same thing happens at the opposite side of the chassis, as well as the front edge. I wonder if this could have to do with the decaying thermals.
I have not looked into the dGPU yet, does it also have LM or something else?
Did you have thermals measured before you changed it out, did you see any difference?
I’m still in the process of testing. Did a couple of runs with the pads and later today will remove it again to get some sort of baseline.
The dGPU has normal Thermal Paste. It went down by 4-5C under full Load. When i set the Thermal Limit of my CPU to 65C during Gaming with Universal X86 Tuning Utility the Framework is pretty impressive how Silent it can be. BTW when Gaming the CPU only spikes to 35-40w (mostly below 30w) but for everyone affected by the Heattransfer Problem Thats Turbinesauna Territory.
As to your bending. I inspected mine and its hard to compare to yours. I aimed down the straight edge and i couldn’t notice any bending in the Bottom Case. My Screen is a little flexed, but not the Lower Casing. Sorry bad Focus 
Eventually you guys could setup a “script-set” so people can replicate the exact tests you did.
This would enable a decent comparison table. We could indirectly also identify bad setup with that?
Note: We’ll need to take into account Windows and Linux OS.
You can just do a Cinebench R23 Run in Linux or in Windows, they do not defer that much. With Monitoring Tools in Linux i got less Points then in Windows. But a good Rule of Thumb is: If you hare in High Performance Mode in Linux or Windows and you are below 15k Points in CB R23 you have very likely a Throttling Issue.
Tested with Nobara 40
There were 3 scenario’s I tested.
One with only the thermal pads beneath the core.
One with thermal pads beneath the core and on top of the heat-pipes, below the top plate.
And completely stock.
After running multiple tests and reviewing the scores, i cannot say I see any significant increase or decrease in performance running the benchmark.
I see better results on a cold start (no heat soak present in the system)
I see slightly better thermals on the over al lows with the pads installed, which makes sense as there’s more surface area to dissipate heat too that is outside of the laptop body.
Having both the pads beneath and at the top also disproves the theory that it might be an issue with the mounting pressure, as with this config the cpu and heatsink/heat-pipes are basically sandwiched, with both bottom and top pressure (not a lot, but if it matter I would see some differences).
So for conclusions, please note, only 1 system was tested;
You can use this type of padding to slow the rate of system heat soaking, but I don’t see much benefit from it.
Mounting pressure seems not to be the issue.
Cause for the uneven thermals still to be determined.
side note, on a cold start I have seen it pull as high as 79 corwatt and all cores average hit ~4400mhz on full load. I have the R9.
I have some other idea’s but I need more information.
If you know anything about CPU details, please check:
I Already did think about this Topic, I suspect Core 4-8 Are located in the Area nearest to the “Triangle” Edge, as those Cores are the hottest ones mostly and the Better cooled Cores are the ones more on the Edge of the Die.
As you can See on my Picture how the PTM is Spread. And where there is more PTM on the Heatsink/Core there is a “High Spot” as its Where the worst Heattransfer happens.
This Picture was taken after my First “Lapping” Attempt, but its nearly Identical to before Lapping. In The Later Lapping Runs i tried removing more Material on the Inner Area and the Other Sides, that helped a bit with better Spread Heattransfer.
No snark intended with the following question. It looks like those who have had their boards exchanged have seen a performance increase of 10-15 percent. Is that accurate? Are there other benefits beyond better performance at full load? I finally restarted to windows and tested my system, just curious about the pros and cons. Thanks all.
Yeah, I’d say that’s accurate. The main benefit is CPU performance finally reaching the range expected from the 7840HS/7940HS at the power draw Framework themselves are targeting (45W sustained, somewhere between 55-65W burst peak).
However, just a bit of warning: I already had my Mainboard replaced once and, while it did perform within spec initially, it has dropped about 10% of its total performance after a little over a month AND now the core-to-core temperature delta has increased massively from 6.8°C to 20°C now. Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of this development, and clearly neither does Framework, since they’re now requesting that I send in my entire laptop for them to inspect. The cause of the thermal issues (which in turn cause the performance deficiencies) is apparently undetermined, at least to our knowledge.
Thank you for the reply. My test numbers weren’t great, but for my use case I’m very rarely taxing the machine, so I think I will sit tight for now, rather than go through the hassle of swapping things out and potentially winding up where I started. I appreciate the insight. Have a great day!
The greatest Benefit if it works as intended, the Laptop is staying alot quieter during Low to Medium Use. The Cpu is only Hitting 70C at 30W instead of 100C at 30w is quiet a Jump on Noise. Why i started Testing is that i was annoyed, that the Framework was a Turbine even on low end Tasks and even Hitting 90C during Startup. which i did not expect after the Great Reviews.
That makes sense. I am not questioning any issues that you or others had or have, I’m just trying to understand things so that I can make an informed choice. My machine doesn’t run hot or noisy, but again, I typically do not tax it very much. I have the 7940 and 96 gb of ram. I got just over 14k in cinebench r23, so presumably that is lower than what it should be, but if the system is working for my use case, and if going through the hassle of swapping things out may have me still in the same place, I don’t know if I will pursue it. Others may make a different choice in the same circumstance, and that’s fine. I’m in waffle mode at the moment.
Same, I started wondering what was happening with my system, fans blowing while basically it was doing nothing.
Then I stumbled on different topics in these forums and did the bench-marking and found this is not right. The board is replaced and it is hitting the numbers it should.
I am not sure if this was happening from the start as I wasn’t using the system as often as I had been more recently.
I will be on a quest getting the temps down in normal use just lower the rate for the fans to spin up, or just lower rpms in general prolonged use.
Laptop cooling can be a bit finicky. It’s common to have certain pastes diminish in performance over a certain temperature. You can also get pump out which is when heat cycles kind of move the paste around. I wonder id putting in a pad from Thermal Grizzley would solve the issue. Carbonaut or Kryonaut.
The main reason for using Liquid metal:
- Durability: Once applied correctly, liquid metal TIMs can last longer than traditional thermal pastes because they don’t dry out or degrade over time in the same way. However, they do require careful handling due to their reactivity with some metals like aluminum.
It also has a better heat conductivity, but that doesn’t matter if it’s not making sufficient contact with the IHS and head-sink. So imho that doesn’t apply in the current implementation by framework.
I’m considering one of those Honeywell PTM7950 pads or one thermal grizzly products. To see if it improves the contact which would indirectly increase the heat dissipation and lower temps or decrease fan rpm.
For a laptop that is so easily serviceable, the downside of paste isn’t really that bad.
I’ve used liquid metal before and also had to repair board due to use. It definitely can mess up things due to its conductivity and messy thin nature. I haven’t taken off the heatsink or checked to see what my thermals are yet. My fan does pulse sometimes though. My thinking is carbonaut reusable pad would fit the spirit of the device. You can check out the cooling and just put back the pad. Wont pump out. Doesn’t require any intense care when installing. Maybe this is something framework could deploy via support that is cheap and mailable too.
Ill check out my thermals later. Maybe Ill be a guinea pig.
