ASUS TUF Laptops With Ryzen Are Now Patched To Stop Overheating On Linux

[Guest]

I have FX505DU model, and with this device the problem is even worst, the display here is nvidia card - but with some asus "hack" and on windows you can't use normal nvidia drivers (you must use the one that prepared asus "hacked one") but with linux its !#^!#$^$&$ because you cant make nvidia card work at all - and there are problems with screen resolution

Sounds like I dodged a bullet by not getting this laptop...

I almost bought that laptop a little while back, but ended up going for another laptop for around the same price that had a 144Hz screen instead.

[eggbert]

Gaming laptops are ridiculous. Never understood the appeal. Inferior gaming performance, flakey drivers, poor battery life, and searing heat. If you want to play video games, why not use a desktop computer? Your games will run better. Not to mention it's more affordable, more comfortable, and just an overall better experience.

[funtastic]

I'm an owner of a GA502DU and it's true that there is an issue with heating/throttling, but this issue is not exclusive to Linux. This laptop is a mess, the exact same issue exists in Windows. I just don't know how this laptop was greenlit for release on its current status. You can search for the model, there are many owners suffering these issues and sharing workarounds that work to some degree.

It's really bad thermal dissipation plus the fans not working when they should (I think that is the silent mode the article talks about) plus a 1.4GHz or 400MHz throttling that the laptop is *unable* to get out of (well, rebooting does the trick), plus having the holes for the fan output that all the G15 series have *blocked* in this specific model, god knows why.

[aht0]

Gaming laptops are ridiculous. Never understood the appeal. Inferior gaming performance, flakey drivers, poor battery life, and searing heat. If you want to play video games, why not use a desktop computer? Your games will run better. Not to mention it's more affordable, more comfortable, and just an overall better experience.

When your life itself is "mobile", like traveling a lot - you can game while away from home.
Alternatives are either dragging PC along or going without gaming.

Btw, TUF seems to be budget brand. Get ROG.

[xorbe]

Weird, I have the FX505DV with 3750H + RTX2060, and Linux seems to work fine, and I installed drivers from nVidia's website for Win10. Given that I have the latest with 2060, maybe the acpi was patched on Asus' end.

To answer the one's poster's question of "why gaming laptop": Yes I have a killer desktop game rig. But I'm on the road a lot too. It games in Win10, and compiles code decently fast in Linux (dual boot). I've got VirtualBox Linux too if I just need to take a peek at something in a Linux environment.

I am a little confused how my RTX2060 is working in Linux actually. I never installed the closed source nVidia driver.

What bugs me on this laptop is that there are no USB ports on the right side, so the wireless mouse glitches sometimes. It seems to work best in the port nearest me. If I plug it into the farthest port, then plug in a USB drive, the wireless mouse damn near stops working.

[funtastic]

Laptop manufacturers should check for Linux compatibility exactly "why"?

Only officially supported OS by TUF-series is Windows, they come pre-installed with it - when you choose to be "one-percenter hippy" and install something else on it, you are on your own. In times past, with certain manufacturers it even voided warranty (incl. hardware warranty)

Just be glad you are not locked out from installing anything non-Windows on it. It's technically possible to implement.

The same issue that GA502DU has, which does not come with an OS. They've released laptops with completely broken BIOS, there is no excuse.

[plinkyplonky]

I have read on reddit that all Ryzen laptops have problems on linux. So I don't think its ASUS specific. Lenovo and others have same problems.

I have a Lenovo V155 AMD Ryzen 3500U laptop. I am using Ubuntu 18.04, the only issue I have noticed was that I had to install some drivers manually, but the main one I have is that when watching some videos, there is screen tearing. Other than that, it has been running fine. I did update the BIOS from Windows which made the laptop a bit faster.

[aht0]

The same issue that GA502DU has, which does not come with an OS. They've released laptops with completely broken BIOS, there is no excuse.

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/GA502DU/HelpDesk_Download/

When you go and check "Please select OS" drop-down under Driver & Tools. you'll only see "Windows 10 64-bit". It's support starts and ends with Windows 10. About BIOS-breakage I can't comment, I don't own one. There only seems to be few releases for BIOS tho.
Fact it was sold without Win doesn't mean much, it might be price-reduction measure, TUF is "cheapskate" lineup afterall. Potential buyer might have old Win7 (upgraded to 10) license around (I have half a dozen + few for 8/8.1).

[funtastic]

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/GA502DU/HelpDesk_Download/

When you go and check "Please select OS" drop-down under Driver & Tools. you'll only see "Windows 10 64-bit". It's support starts and ends with Windows 10. About BIOS-breakage I can't comment, I don't own one. There only seems to be few releases for BIOS tho.
Fact it was sold without Win doesn't mean much, it might be price-reduction measure, TUF is "cheapskate" lineup afterall. Potential buyer might have old Win7 (upgraded to 10) license around (I have half a dozen + few for 8/8.1).

Of course they are only going to have download links for Windows drivers, i don't know what does that demonstrate. I was just pointing out that not all those laptops come with Windows preinstalled, as you implied. But in any case, I don't agree that this laptops are having issues with *Linux*. These are $1000 products of abysmal quality. Just check some of the links of Windows users suffering the same issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/df5nfk/zephyrus_g_ga502_thermal_throttling_down_to_400/

https://community.amd.com/thread/244625

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1114806-rog-zephyrus-g-ga502-asus-frame-drops-in-games/

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?112399-GA502DU-Performance-issue

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/efea1l/asus_rog_zephyrus_g_ga502du_excessive_thermal/

Regarding the BIOS, they have released more versions than what you see there. Take the link of 208 and change it for 206, 205... you can download them even if the links are not public. Some people have had luck with older versions. I'm on 207 because for me 208 is completely unusable, getting to 400MHz even with the laptop idle. They know they have an issue when half of the reviews are 1 stars and when they are getting an ton of returns of these models. The cherry on top of it is contacting support to ask them if they are going to fix it and getting a dumb response on how to reset Windows.

I could go on and on, but basically, ASUS are covering themselves in shit.

[Meteorhead]

I have FX505DU model, and with this device the problem is even worst, the display here is nvidia card - but with some asus "hack" and on windows you can't use normal nvidia drivers (you must use the one that prepared asus "hacked one") but with linux its !#^!#$^$&$ because you cant make nvidia card work at all - and there are problems with screen resolution

Thank you for confirming my fears. This is exactly the reason why I would never buy equipment with mixed vendors: being stuck on stock drivers for the device's lifetime and even then, having to deal with issues like yours likely never getting a fix.

I thought all Ryzen + NV laptops are a dead end, but now I'm certain. Have Linux people not learned from Bumblebee? Cross-vendor on Linux will never work. Windows WDDM solves a lot of issues.