Which Linux distro are you using?
Linux Mint
Which release version?
22
Which kernel are you using?
6.8.0
Which BIOS version are you using?
0.0.3.9
Which Framework Laptop 13 model are you using? AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series
Hi, I have been using Linux Mint 22 and so far I have been happy with my Framework 13, I bought some months ago, but I only have one complaint, and that’s the battery.
I get an average of 4 hours on it. is that normal? is there anything I can do to improve it? is it better on other distros? I’m willing to switch distros if that improves the battery. is it better with the Intel mainboards?
It’s just such a dractic difference with my previous Lemur Pro which average at least 8 hours.
I have the Ryzen 5 7640U with 64 GB of crucial memory and I have the 120 hz display but I tried running it on 60 hz to save battery.
anything else I should do?
what’s the average battery life on your configuration?
Just Josh and Elevated Systems have both done extensive battery life tests on the FW13 and, from what I remember and personal experience…it’s middling. But here’s a few things you can try:
Install auto-cpufreq. This I have found really helps tame battery use when you don’t need high performance.
Grab the 61wh battery. It’s about a 10% boost, but it helps.
I wanna say 64GB of RAM consumes more energy than a 32 at baseline, but I’m not sure on this. If someone can confirm/deny, 32 might save you a little.
Surprisingly, your choice of SSD can give you/take away up to ~30 mins of battery life from what I’ve read. Some of the most efficient seem to include several models from Samsung and one of the WD Black series.
After doing a lot of futzing around, I can get a projected run time of 9-10 hours according to Linux Mint battery estimates, although that number drops sharply when watching videos online. I found Windows battery life to be better on my Intel 11th gen board than with Linux, but I’ve stopped using Windows so I can’t compare on the AMD. Still, wouldn’t be surprised if Intel boards are a little more efficient. I’m also still running the baseline display over the 2.8K as I didn’t find it worth the battery hit. Not sure if rolling it down to 60hz brings it in line with base.
thanks, yes I will try buying the bigger battery when is in stock. I use a Samsung nvme 970 evo plus, and yes I think this screen probably use more battery, and maybe the intel version is more power efficient, I might swap it with an Intel one later on if someone confirms that is the case. I don’t use Windows at all so I don’t know how it is there.
the best way to check this is by measuring your average power draw during different workloads, using powertop and powerstat.
There’s also a long-running battery thread for the AMD 7040 series. Browse through that - a couple of people have posted “standardized” battery tests, like running a specific video file at X brightness level. You can then compare the measured power draw while running those tests to everyone else’s reported power draw to see if your machine is up-to-par.
What desktop environment are you using? KDE Plasma, GNOME, something else? Do you have a cpu governor like power-profile-daemons or tlp installed?
I just ran the powertop and powerstar commands and it came out with consumption from 11.3 W to 18.2 W
I was using Linux Mint Mate for several months with that issue and I just recently changed to MX Linux with XFCE but same thing, about the same amount of hours.
Yes, that was on idle and with firefox. I have tried changing from Linux Mint Mate to MX Linux, and same thing, then I tried CachyOS, very fast indeed but same battery, so I’m back on Linux Mint Cinnamon now, to see if the power saving helps, now I’m trying opera power saving to see if that helps. I heard that PopOS has really good power management so I will try that one next.
Is anybody here using PopOS? can you confirm? or do you think there is a problem with my laptop? I tried unplugging all my usb’s but that didn’t help either.