Ryzen based laptops that aren't kneecapped at the factory?

What Ryzen based laptops are out or will be out that aren't gimpped by the manufacturer by locking it into it's lowest power state in firmware, soldering in slow ram or locking it to single channel mode or giving it a garbage quality screen and battery?

I'm looking for something with the 2700U or faster with an IPS screen for doing photo and video editing on the go with a little light gaming thrown in. But absolutely will not touch anything Intel or NVidia.

 

The first business class Ryzen notebook should be the Dell Latitude 5495, about to become available in both 2500U and 2700U SKUs. Currently, you can get the Acer Nitro 5 and Dell Inspiron 15 5575, but I doubt they meet all of your criteria.

I'd suggest asking in a different subforum: http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/what-notebook-should-i-buy.16/

 

Specifically because photography was mentioned:
The issue is the Dell Latitude 54xx series usually come with quite subpar IPS panels. Yes, they have wide viewing angles (of which I am happy with) and no PWM, but the deltaE and overall gamut coverage are usually quite poor.

 

Yes, and the upcoming 5495 appears to be a Ryzen rehash of the 5490, which has an sRGB coverage of 54.4%, DeltaE > 5, and subpar brightness. A panel swap shouldn't be impossible, but then again, why buy a brand new laptop with a display you can't live with? The big proplem is the lack of interest from manufacturers in creating premium 2700U machines. The 5495 appears to be as close as it gets.

 

The Nitro 5 isn't coming to the US market as per the conversations on the Acer forums.

I asked here because I only intend to run Linux, I haven't had a Windows install, even in a VM, since 2006.

 

I understand that you do not wish to use another operating system, but you are still asking for hardware in a software subsection.

EDIT: There is an overlap of hardware and software in the question, and you can definitely ask here since the aspect of compatability is highly relevant. I was merely suggesting to ask elsewhere as well to obtain more options and/or news on the hardware front, given the specificity of the OP's hardware criteria and how the amount of Linux users on 2700U machines is currently low. For instance, the "What notebook should I buy?" form includes a question for the OS that will be used (#11), so that's a good place to ask too. But like I said, that was only a suggestion and I didn't mean to come off as hostile. Carry on.

 

The forum is for Linux compatibility(and software) under a Hardware forum. With the possibility of lack of Linux software drivers for keyboard lighting control, LCD brightness settings, fans, wifi adapters, over clocking, etc. in a laptop, it is fine to ask about laptops and Linux support in this forum.

You'll have more Linux-centric eyeballs here than in any of the other forums. And the odds of getting an answer here for these types of questions are higher than anywhere else.

@intok, if you had not sworn off Intel and NVidia, and we're looking for something that works right out of the box, I would've recommended taking a look at System76. In regards to a Ryzen based laptop offering components you can find Linux drivers right out of the box, I think results at this time may be spotty.

 

Old news I had forgotten about: HP's upcoming 5th gen EliteBooks will supposedly be available with the Ryzen 2700U. Perhaps they'll also have displays suitable for professionals. We'll hopefully hear more about high-end Ryzen offerings at Computex, June 5 - 9.



https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-vega-laptops-hp-elitebook,36613.html

 

GL702ZC uses an uncapped Ryzen 1700 (which can be undervolted and overclocked using Ryzen master).

The RX 580 in the said laptop however has been downclocked by about 30%... resulting in both lower performance (though not too severely downgraded) and limited to 68W (while offering same performance like GTX 1060 mobile limited to 80W).

The GPU can also be undervolted via MSI Afterburner to -93mV (usually) on the core which improves temperatures by quite a bit (along with the noise) when it is stressed.

But for the CPU... the 1700 is not limited in any way.


Most of the Ryzen APU's with igp Vega's however (the 2500u and 2700u respectively) are limited usually to 15W by OEM's.
The 2700 in particular can be set to go up to 25W, however OEM's choose to cap it to 15W (as predicted) and ends up producing virtually same performance as 2500u in games (which is quite frankly not fair to AMD, as the power requirements are minimal, and here we see OEM's capping them intentionally to cover up their own laziness in not designing better cooling).

 

A bit more power than a 2700U...but it is AMD CPU + GPU with no Intel / Nvidia.

Acer just announced a Ryzen 2700 + Vega 56 variant of their new Helios 500, and hopefully Asus will announce theirs soon too.

[Next@Acer 2018] Acer Predator Helios 500, Helios 300 Special Edition gaming laptops announced
Asif Iqbal Shaik, May 27, 2018
https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/2...laptops-announced-specs-price-next-acer-2018/

"Acer Predator Helios 500, is a completely new high-end gaming laptop.

"There will also be a variant with AMD Ryzen 7 2700 GPU, AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 GPU, and FreeSync display."

AMD RX Vega 56 & Ryzen 7 2700 featured in a future variant of Acer Predator Helios 500 laptop
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/8mhvw9/amd_rx_vega_56_ryzen_7_2700_featured_in_a_future/

FURIOUS POWER - Helios 500 - Ryzen 2700x + Vega GPU!!
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-series-features/predatorhelios500

 

Open source drivers are a must, as is security, Intel chips have a new deeper than root level exploit every few weeks and the patches to mitigate them all cause a good sized performance hit, each. What is the total net loss in performance with them all enabled because Intel it telling OEMs to ship the microcode patches installed but disabled to keep the benchmarks looking good.

Any word on if there will be an updated version of the GL702ZC with the 2*** series Ryzen CPUs?

 

Someone posted in the GL702ZC thread Asus response on the matter, and to summarize, they stated that the future BIOS revisions will include security fixes, but no support for Ryzen+ (I don't think anything was commented on Zen 2 however).
This is quite rude of Asus to limit GL702ZC CPU upgrade path in such a fashion (and unless they change their practices down the line, I don't think I will be buying any new laptops from them).

While Ryzen 1700 is no slouch and will definitely be quite capable for some time to come for both gaming and productivity, I would have appreciated upgrade path to at least Zen 2 (as that would definitely signify a much better upgrade in terms of CPU speed, assuming AMD retains the core amount and raises the clocks by 40% as allowed by the 7nm manuf. process - that and unknown IPC gains).

I really don't see what Asus has to lose by providing a microcode update to Ryzen+ and Zen 2... it would make it an even more attractive laptop for many people.

 

You need to ask to speak to a supervisor or program manager, as the default is to not put in support for future CPU's since for years they have had only soldered BGA CPU's. This is new territory for them and their thinking needs to grow into the new options.

This will be the same for all vendors until they get "re-trained".

 

Whenever I asked to be put through supervisor or program manager, no one ever did. How would I go about with such a request?
Phone won't work as customer services are limited and don't have that option (I tried). As for sending them an inquiry... what would you suggest to write in order to get in direct contact to the program manager?

 

Not over phone, via ticketing interface, ask to forward your request to a supervisor or program manager. This is a decision that can't be made at the 1st level ticket support, so it has to be passed up the chain.

And, remember the world is a changing place for them too. Keep asking every few weeks, or month, and they will hopefully be more receptive later than they are the first time you ask.

Hopefully some vendor will do this first, so you can quote them as an example to another vendor.

It might not be until another generation Ryzen AM4 laptop comes out that they start competing with each other over advantages like upgradeable CPU BIOS updates.

Good thing Acer is shipping Ryzen + Vega, hopefully more will follow.

You might be tempted to ask Asus 2 questions in the same request, when is Asus going to match Acer by releasing a Ryzen 2700 + Vega 56 laptop and asking about the BIOS updates. Might be worth a try to suggest one or the other, or one follows another... or make independent tickets for each question, which is what I usually suggest.

Sometimes multiple questions distract or allows them to only answer one question, but sometimes the synergy of both questions hits some button and you get a better response.

Let us know how it works out