[jamesdutc]

I am very surprised to hear reports of poor Linux support for AMD devices. I recently purchased a GPD Win Max 2 [1] and a GPD Win 4 [2] for work. Both devices are AMD 7840U with Radeon 780M (and 64 GiB RAM at 6400 MT/s since I saw what appeared to be instability at 7500 MT/s.)

I installed Archlinux on both and the support has been very solid with the `linux-lts` kernel and only one kernel flag (`amd_pstate=guided`.)

The following work: touchscreen; suspend (s2idle, which correctly enters S0ix state giving ≥100h battery life suspended but requiring I disable entries in `/proc/acpi/wakeup`); audio; media keys; game controls; wifi; Bluetooth; USB; SecureBoot (with `systemd-boot`); webcam (available only on Win Max 2.) The TPM2 works, but I haven't done anything with it yet (and it's an fTPM.)

Battery life is quite good (8~10h with the `acpi-cpufreq` `powersave` governor.) If I dial down the TDP, I can eke out even more battery life than that. If I dial it up to performance, I get 1~2h of battery life (and the exhaust from the fan port runs very hot.) I plan to try the `amd_pstate` governor (kernel flag `amd_pstate=active`) once support is available in the LTS kernel, though I like being able to control TDP via the CLI with AUR packages like `ryzenadj-git`. (This sounds like a lot of work, but I have a short shell script where I dialed in the right `cpupower` and `ryzenadj-git` commands optimal for my use.)

Hibernate works perfectly on the Win 4; I haven't tested it on the Win Max 2 (since s2idle works so well!)

On the Win 4, I can't get `xrandr` modes at anything other than native resolution (1920×1080) to work, but I am content with scaling via `xrandr --scale-from`. All resolutions display properly on the Win Max 2. Rotation works perfectly on both devices, but I rotate manually (and I haven't bothered to see if there is a gyroscope sensor.) There is minimal to no screen tearing. The displays present to the OS as landscape (i.e., rotation is not necessary from the Linux console.)

The only hardware that outright doesn't work are the fingerprint readers (but I believe Linux support for fingerprint readers is limited to very few devices.)

In short, my recent experience with AMD 7840U/Radeon 780M has been nothing short of amazing, and these devices have been an absolute pleasure to use.

[1] https://www.gpd.hk/gpdwinmax2

[2] https://gpd.hk/gpdwin4

[3] https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ryzenadj-git

[starkparker]

Framework's been transparent through the process about firmware issues being part of their mainboard development. A lot of their problems are specific to the intersection of their expansion slot/USB-C port capabilities, particularly power draw and PD/DP capabilities, and AMD's firmware for mainboard components. I'm not surprised that GPDs have a more solid experience as they're not expected to be as flexible.

And I want to emphasize that the "support" as in Framework responding to and shipping fixes has been good. The "support" as in the hardware working consistently, particularly in Linux and without distro-specific workarounds, has had holes which sound common enough outside of Framework devices that I'd wager the GPDs are the exception more than the rule.

I'll say at least that the Framework's fingerprint reader and display settings Just Worked through the upgrade.

[jamesdutc]

That makes sense.

My assumption prior to purchasing these devices was that AMD support would be the main reason for me returning them.

I was quite surprised to see just how well everything worked, and, in fact, these devices have given me much less trouble than my i7-1165G7 Dell XPS 13".

In fact, these devices has worked so well that it's really made me more excited about consumer technology and new laptops and portables than I have been in a long time!

I am worried that I may be mistakenly generalising this to all AMD devices. I have even been considering ditching Intel for my next laptop upgrade…