FW16 (AMD 7040 / Ryzen 7840HS) + RX 7700S: dGPU power appears capped to ~35–40W under sustained load on Linux (firmware 0.0.4.2/0.0.4.3b)

[ChristophSchmidpeter]

Device Information

System Model or SKU

Please select one of the following

• Framework Laptop 12 (13th Gen Intel® Core™)
• Framework Laptop 13 (11th Gen Intel® Core™)
• Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel® Core™)
• Framework Laptop 13 (13th Gen Intel® Core™)
• Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)
• Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series)
• Framework Laptop 13 (Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 1)
• Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)
• Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series)
• Framework Desktop (AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 PRO Series)

BIOS VERSION

Firmware: 0.0.3.2, 0.0.4.2, 0.0.4.3b (still reproducible).
04.03

DIY Edition information

Memory: 64GiB
Storage: 8TiB + 2TiB

Port/Peripheral information

Charger (peripheral): third-party USB-C 140W adapter.
Port used: [PLEASE FILL IN: which expansion bay USB-C / which numbered port per KB]
Adjacent port device(s): [PLEASE FILL IN if relevant]

1. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]
2. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]
3. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]
4. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]
5. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]
6. [ Fill In device / expansion card ]

Standalone Operation

Are you running your mainboard as a standalone device. Is standalone mode enabled in the BIOS?

• Yes
• No

Describe the bug

On Framework Laptop 16 (Ryzen 7840HS, RX 7700S module), the dGPU appears to be hard-limited to ~35–40W under sustained load on Linux. Even when the dGPU is clearly active (e.g. Steam/Proton game launched with DRI_PRIME=1; radeontop shows dGPU near 100% utilisation and iGPU relatively low), real-world performance is often nearly identical to running on the 780M iGPU. Power reported via sysfs (power1_average) does not exceed ~39W in my testing.

This severely impacts my primary use case for the RX 7700S module: local compute workloads on Linux (LLM inference / LoRA training, etc.). The cap can be "silent" and waste significant time because workloads just run much longer without an obvious error.

This is not obviously Linux-only: there are reports of a similar ~35W cap on Windows, and a separate issue about not reaching full dGPU power even with a 240W PD 3.1 charger.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Boot Linux (Arch; KDE Plasma Wayland).
2. Ensure on AC power (third-party USB-C 140W charger).
3. Start a sustained dGPU workload:
   • Example: Steam/Proton game with launch options: DRI_PRIME=1 %command%
   • (Any sustained GPU stress test works as well.)
4. Observe GPU utilisation (e.g. radeontop / amdgpu_top):
   • dGPU high utilisation, iGPU lower utilisation.
5. Observe power and clocks:
   • cat /sys/class/drm/card*/device/hwmon/hwmon*/power1_average
   • cat /sys/class/drm/card*/device/pp_dpm_sclk
6. Result: dGPU power remains around ~35–40W and performance is close to iGPU.

Evidence from my system (under load):

• Power (uW):
  $ cat /sys/class/drm/card*/device/hwmon/hwmon*/power1_average
  29000000
  39255000
  (= ~29.0W and ~39.3W)

• Clock tables:
  $ cat /sys/class/drm/card*/device/pp_dpm_sclk
  0: 255Mhz
  1: 794Mhz *
  2: 2208Mhz
  0: 800Mhz *
  1: 1100Mhz
  2: 2700Mhz

Expected behavior

On AC power, the RX 7700S should be able to exceed ~35–40W under sustained load (or, if there are intended caps based on charger/battery/power policy, they should be clearly documented and ideally configurable). The dGPU module should deliver a meaningful performance improvement over the 780M for GPU-bound workloads.

Screenshots

N/A (can provide MangoHud/amdgpu_top screenshots if requested).

Operating System (please complete the following information):

• OS/Distribution: Arch Linux
• Version: rolling (fully up-to-date at time of reporting)
• Linux Kernel Version: [PLEASE FILL IN: output of uname -a]

Additional context

• Current charger: third-party USB-C 140W adapter.
• This does not look like a simple “charger wattage too low” issue:
  • Similar ~35W cap reported on Windows: https://community.frame.work/t/7700s-wont-go-past-35w/50030
  • Not reaching full dGPU power even with 240W PD 3.1 charger: DGPU isnt using full power limit on 240W charger while in performance mode #27
• My community post (more context + data points request):
  https://community.frame.work/t/fw16-amd-7040-ryzen-7840hs-rx-7700s-dgpu-seems-capped-to-35-40w-under-sustained-load-on-linux-firmware-0-0-4-2-similar-35w-cap-reports-on-windows-too/79445

Questions:

1. Is this considered the same underlying issue as DGPU isnt using full power limit on 240W charger while in performance mode #27 (EC/firmware/PD negotiation / power-policy behavior), or a different issue?
2. Is a ~35–40W cap expected in any power/charger state? If yes, where is this documented and how can users control/raise caps on AC?
3. What exact diagnostics do you want (dmesg, amdgpu logs, ectool chargestate output, specific charger tests, supported distro test)?

I can provide full logs and test with additional chargers if you tell me which configurations you consider valid.