[HN Gopher] Strix Halo's Memory Subsystem: Tackling iGPU Challenges
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       Strix Halo's Memory Subsystem: Tackling iGPU Challenges
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 54 points
       Date   : 2025-11-18 16:41 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (chipsandcheese.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (chipsandcheese.com)
        
       | dontlaugh wrote:
       | If only you could buy the hardware. There are very few laptops or
       | similar with the chip. Even the Z13 is difficult to find and (at
       | least in Europe) only with 32 GB of RAM.
        
         | throw848494 wrote:
         | HP ZBook Ultra is in every eshop in czechia. Just got 128GB for
         | 3200 euro :)
        
           | green7ea wrote:
           | Those are very good prices, it's 3700EUR in Austria
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | I was disappointed to see an endless stream of nearly identical
         | mini PCs using it while the options for an actual laptop
         | remained "do you want one of two small touchscreen tablet?".
         | Even Framework only made it available in mini PC form factor!
         | 
         | That said it wasn't too hard to grab a HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14,
         | just not the ideal model I had in mind. The hardware is great
         | though!
        
           | dontlaugh wrote:
           | Is HP ok these days? I've been avoiding them because of the
           | atrocious build quality I've experienced in the past.
           | 
           | That particular laptop also seems very heavy.
        
             | PaulHoule wrote:
             | I had a friend come over with a recent low end HP laptop to
             | print something and I was shocked at the poor build
             | quality.
        
               | wmf wrote:
               | Low end everything has poor build quality (they're
               | probably all made by Quanta).
        
               | dontlaugh wrote:
               | Not only. I had a look at a coworker's Framework 13 and
               | was shocked at the poor build quality. The keyboard flex
               | in particular was terrible. That's not a cheap laptop.
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | I was looking at a school-issue Chomebook from Dell the
               | other day and thought the build quality was pretty good
               | even if the parts inside were weak. I like the build
               | quality of corporate Dell laptops and their 1.5 liter
               | desktops -- though an Alienware 15 I had died earlier
               | than it should have because the battery swelled up and
               | damaged the circuit board. The machine still sorta but
               | made a chime every 30 seconds or so because it thought
               | USB devices were being plugged or unplugged or something.
        
               | BoredPositron wrote:
               | From envy upwards they are usually fine besides the x360
               | hinge problems.
        
             | pmontra wrote:
             | The last laptop I bought from HP was a ZBook 15 in 2014.
             | I'm still using it. It's rock solid.
        
           | SomeHacker44 wrote:
           | I have the Zbook Ultra G1a since it came out. The USB-C PD
           | implementation is very bad, badly broken. I have not been
           | able to get it to charge or even use anything but the HP 140W
           | charger while on. While off, anything works, but once powered
           | on into Ubuntu (from HP!) of Windows... It does not charge or
           | use the power at all. Even with 140W 3rd party chargers from
           | Anker, Ugreen, Insignia, etc.
           | 
           | Super limits its usability.
        
             | nicolaslem wrote:
             | For me the firmware 0x01030b00 solved most of the problem.
             | It now runs well on my previous laptop 65W HP charger,
             | which is much lighter than the literal brick the G1a came
             | with. It still does not work on an Anker 140W power bank I
             | have.
             | 
             | However this firmware was only available on HP's website
             | for a few days. It has now been retracted, but it works
             | well for me so YMMV.
             | 
             | My last remaining hurdle is getting color correction
             | working for the DCI-P3 OLED screen. Maybe it's a
             | Gnome/Wayland thing but I cannot get full display
             | correction to work so colors are ultra saturated.
             | 
             | Edit: the fan curve is also bad, it makes fans spin up/down
             | continuously under certain conditions. Not a deal breaker
             | but quite annoying when it happens.
        
               | green7ea wrote:
               | The fan curve also drives me nuts. It seems to be related
               | to the processor's speed so I turn off boost -- I don't
               | notice a perf diff for my workloads. The fan noise is
               | much better.
               | 
               | echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
        
             | hmry wrote:
             | The AMD Framework laptops have the same issues, I've heard
             | from several people. It seems AMD's implementation of USB
             | C/4/PD is just broken (or at least extremely difficult to
             | write firmware for)
        
             | green7ea wrote:
             | I have one as well and haven't had this problem. I've been
             | using mostly the HP G4 dock and a Dell dock at the office
             | with an occasional use of the charger. I'm running Linux
             | 6.17.8-arch1-1, it could also be fixed in newer kernels.
             | When I play demanding games, it pulls quite a few watts and
             | all the chargers are keeping up.
             | 
             | It might be your device that is unlucky, maybe contacting
             | support might help.
        
             | sspiff wrote:
             | I had the same issue, where it would only charge with my
             | 100W or above chargers. It worked with Dell USB-C 130W
             | chargers (both genuine and knock off) and the HP charger,
             | as well as a Baseus 100W charger. I have noticed yesterday
             | it was working with my other chargers as well, something it
             | certainly didn't do before. Maybe fixed through firmware
             | update?
        
         | Bairfhionn wrote:
         | Framework Desktop Mainboard only, mini itx, 128gb, delivery in
         | Q4 (which we are in)
        
           | pixelpoet wrote:
           | I set mine up today, what an amazing and beautiful machine.
           | Goodbye Windows, hello Arch btw!
        
             | lizardking wrote:
             | My Windows box has been a dust collector since receiving
             | mine last month. Such a fantastic little machine.
        
               | rts_cts wrote:
               | Ironically, I'm not keeping my Windows machine around for
               | gaming but rather very specific CAD tools that, despite
               | the developers best efforts, will probably only ever be
               | windows tools.
               | 
               | That said, I'm super close to pulling the trigger on the
               | FW desktop and just installing a second drive for
               | windows.
        
         | green7ea wrote:
         | I have an HP ZBook g1a ultra in Austria. I've had mine for
         | about 4-5 months and I got the 64gb version because I needed a
         | new laptop and the 128gb wasn't yet available. It should now be
         | widely available everywhere.
         | 
         | It's pricey but I have to say it's the best Linux laptop I've
         | used. I'm a Linux user so for me that's as good as it gets :-).
         | 
         | https://geizhals.at/hp-zbook-ultra-g1a-v193148.html
        
       | hart_russell wrote:
       | If LPDDR5X's latency is a limiting factor, I wonder if something
       | like HBM would have show significant improvement to speed.
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-18 23:00 UTC)