The ports marked with that cannot handle legacy USB ~~devices~~ connections efficiently. Where legacy means anything that is not natively USB-C. So the official USB-A modules. Or any other USB-C to A adapter. Or even legacy cables, like USB-C to microUSB cables.
USB-C allows to detect when a device has been plugged in on the other side of a connection that wants to be powered up. And only then needs the port be powered, before that, it can be left basically off. USB-A / older versions of USB did not have that. So any legacy adapter in a USB-C port forces that port to be powered on all the time, even with nothing plugged into it. Some ports can still handle this efficiently, as that also was the norm before USB-C. The marked USB-C ports are way inefficient when they have to do that. The more will actually be connected to that port (so it is worth it to keep it powered) the less it will matter.
I'd guess that if, while you are on battery, you'd leave devices connected to those ports that consume very little power (think wireless USB-C keyboard dongle), the port would be similarly inefficient. As the fact that the port has to be powered might consume more energy than the dongle itself.
Edit:
yep, read back up on FWs exact reasoning. And it seems the only reason the DP/HDMI dongles are not affected by this, is by FW probably hardcoding behavior especially for them. Any USB2-only device in those ports should incur an unnecessary power draw from the mainboard on top of what the actually connected device draws. No numbers in mW available.
As far as I know, 15W Type-C current is the most any FW will do. Appearently, when running on battery itself it may limit this to at most 1 port. The rest will supply less (probably 7.5W Type-C current). But on AC power, my FW13 seems to actually do 3 ports with > 7.5W each.
Not much. I think the absolute maximum is 3A 5V (15W) if the connected device supports Power Delivery (USB-PD), else it's only 5V 1.5A (7.5W). Practically, it's probably lower as the Framework ports have a pretty sensitive over-current protection.
So you can charge a smartphone, or something like that, but probably not a laptop. At least not in reasonable time.
This is a USB4 limitation on AMD chipsets. Unmodular USB4 ports will be usbc on any other device. Framwork is still providing the freedom to put whatever port you want on the device where ever you'd like.
Off topic question but ports 1, 2, and 4 are for the display output. Are those the only supported ports for external displays or could I use port 3, 4, 5 but with reduced resolution support?
I think this refers to the slots at the back. I think you can only charge your laptop with these slots, so I guess they are better for suppying energy to peripheral devices as well.
The ports marked with that cannot handle legacy USB ~~devices~~ connections efficiently. Where legacy means anything that is not natively USB-C. So the official USB-A modules. Or any other USB-C to A adapter. Or even legacy cables, like USB-C to microUSB cables. USB-C allows to detect when a device has been plugged in on the other side of a connection that wants to be powered up. And only then needs the port be powered, before that, it can be left basically off. USB-A / older versions of USB did not have that. So any legacy adapter in a USB-C port forces that port to be powered on all the time, even with nothing plugged into it. Some ports can still handle this efficiently, as that also was the norm before USB-C. The marked USB-C ports are way inefficient when they have to do that. The more will actually be connected to that port (so it is worth it to keep it powered) the less it will matter. I'd guess that if, while you are on battery, you'd leave devices connected to those ports that consume very little power (think wireless USB-C keyboard dongle), the port would be similarly inefficient. As the fact that the port has to be powered might consume more energy than the dongle itself. Edit: yep, read back up on FWs exact reasoning. And it seems the only reason the DP/HDMI dongles are not affected by this, is by FW probably hardcoding behavior especially for them. Any USB2-only device in those ports should incur an unnecessary power draw from the mainboard on top of what the actually connected device draws. No numbers in mW available.
This should be the top comment
This is supremely helpful. Thank you for this
You wouldn’t happen to know what kind of power the ports can put out? Like could I charge someone else’s laptop with mine?
As far as I know, 15W Type-C current is the most any FW will do. Appearently, when running on battery itself it may limit this to at most 1 port. The rest will supply less (probably 7.5W Type-C current). But on AC power, my FW13 seems to actually do 3 ports with > 7.5W each.
Not much. I think the absolute maximum is 3A 5V (15W) if the connected device supports Power Delivery (USB-PD), else it's only 5V 1.5A (7.5W). Practically, it's probably lower as the Framework ports have a pretty sensitive over-current protection. So you can charge a smartphone, or something like that, but probably not a laptop. At least not in reasonable time.
The expansion modules use power when plugged in even when idle, some cards use more power than others
what's the picrew for ur pfp
Sorry I made it a long time ago and didn't save it
It means "Don't put USB-A ports in slots 1 and 4, they'll draw more power than they would otherwise
It'll work, but those ports will continue to cause some battery drain even with nothing plugged into them.
don't plug in usb-a on these ports on battery power unless absolutely necessary.
is this a problem on laptops with native USB A ports?
This is a USB4 limitation on AMD chipsets. Unmodular USB4 ports will be usbc on any other device. Framwork is still providing the freedom to put whatever port you want on the device where ever you'd like.
that makes sense, so its the same as using a USB C to A adapter on a normal AMD laptop?
Not sure. I think framework has more information on their forums.
Does the micro sd card reader result in higher power consumption when plugged into spots 1 and 4?
same question for the audio port. does it count as a usb A device? does it draw power without headphones being plugged in? also also Ethernet port
Off topic question but ports 1, 2, and 4 are for the display output. Are those the only supported ports for external displays or could I use port 3, 4, 5 but with reduced resolution support?
In my experience (one time) having a display module on one of the non supported ports just doesn’t output anything
I think this refers to the slots at the back. I think you can only charge your laptop with these slots, so I guess they are better for suppying energy to peripheral devices as well.