Alright, looks like Ubuntu just isn’t ready for AMD 7040. Decided to go to Windows 11 just to have a working computer. Good news is I can test some games…

Alright, an update. I’m an idiot. I reseated the RAM, and the board now works. I’m running Ubuntu 23.04, and it is not stable. The instructions provided from Framework say to install linux-oem-22.04c for the kernel, but this is not available in 23.04. I am upgrading to 23.10 to see if it is any better.

Well, I was hoping to have pictures and video to share, but after installing the new board, RAM, and Wi-Fi card, the system throws a display error post code (12th flash is red, all others green) and won’t output to the built-in display nor a monitor connected via HDMI. I plug the display back into my 11th gen board to be sure I didn’t damage anything, and it still works. Looks like I’m waiting on support to reply to my ticket.

I believe multi-core performance is higher in some benchmarks, and I’ve found that the iGPU on AMD has more performance and is more reliable than Intel in most situations. I’m upgrading from 3rd batch 11th gen Intel, so the change to DDR5 adds cost, but may serve well in a future upgrade.

Not saying that the 13th gen Intel is a bad option. I’ve bought several as a business user, and they are great. But my personal preference is AMD in my use case, and I’m excited!