Welcome to the FAQ collection of TUXEDO Computers! Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about our InfinityBook Pro 15 - Gen9.
Questions about technical details
Driver for Motorcomm YT6801 LAN chipset
The Motorcomm YT6801 LAN chipset installed in the device requires a driver that is already integrated into TUXEDO OS but is often missing in other distributions. You can add the driver to Fedora and Ubuntu using the following packages. Please note that Secure Boot must be disabled in the BIOS/UEFI for the driver to load successfully.
Power Consumption in Sleep Mode with a Samsung 990 Evo NVMe (only Intel)
On the InfinityFlex platform, a Samsung 990 Evo NVMe SSD may exhibit high power consumption of up to 4 watts in the s2idle sleep mode.
Cause: Issue with the „Simple Suspend“ Mode
This behavior is caused by an issue with the „Simple Suspend“ mode of the NVMe SSD. A patch enabling the „Force No Simple Suspend“ flag is set to be integrated into an upcoming Linux kernel. With this patch, power consumption in s2idle sleep mode can be reduced to approximately 1.4 watts.
Temporary Solution: Use a Boot Parameter
If you are not using TUXEDO OS or are running a custom kernel, you can resolve the issue by using the boot parameter nvme.noacpi=1. This parameter disables the ACPI integration of the NVMe SSD and reduces power consumption in sleep mode. Adding the Boot Parameter to GRUB:
- Open a terminal and edit the boot manager configuration with root privileges:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
- Locate the line starting with [GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=] and add [nvme.noacpi=1] to the existing parameters. Example:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvme.noacpi=1"
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Save the file (in nano, use CTRL+O, then Enter, and close with CTRL+X).
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Update GRUB with the following command:
sudo update-grub
- Restart your system for the boot parameter to take effect.
Future Solution: Kernel Update
Once the upcoming kernel with the fix is available, the boot parameter will no longer be necessary. Make sure to update your kernel regularly to benefit from the official solution.
Device Immediately Wakes Up After Suspend
With Tomte version 2.39.0, a fix was introduced to address this behavior using the boot parameter acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1. If your distribution was not installed via TUXEDO WebFAI and therefore does not use Tomte, you can manually add this parameter to your boot manager.
We’ll explain this using Grub as an example: Open a terminal and edit the /etc/default/grub file with a text editor that has administrative rights.
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Locate the line starting with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and add the parameter acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1. The line will often look like the following example:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1"
Save the file with Ctrl+O, then press Enter, and close the editor with Ctrl+X. Then run the following command to apply the changes and restart the system:
sudo update-grub
If you are using a different boot manager, such as Systemd-boot or rEFInd, you will need to add the parameter according to its specific configuration.
Background on design and configuration
Why did you change the chassis design?
We consider the new design to look a bit more modern, while the predecessors had a more classic design. While this is of course a matter of taste, from a technical standpoint, the new chassis design has several advantages:
Ports placement / cable management: The new chassis allows us to place ports also on the back. On the IBP 14 - Gen9, ports, which are usually unplugged less frequently (LAN, external monitors via HDMI or USB-C DisplayPort), are placed backwards to route the cables to the back to free desk space on the sides for your mouse hand and for a more pleasant and clean setup of your desk.
Less hindered airflow: On the old design, the hinge was pretty close to the fan exhausts. It did not block them, but it had the fans blowing the hot air against the hinge and the bottom display bezel where the panel electronics are located. The new design allows the hot air to be blown out of the exhausts unhindered.
While cooling still consists of two small fans due to its unchanged extremely thin chassis (height for cooling is barely more than 7 mm!), this unhindered airflow, combined with slightly thicker rubber feet to create more space between desk and bottom panel and additionally sucking air through the keyboard, allows to increase CPU power/performance to up to 60 watts (IBP 14 - Gen8: 40 watts). Presumably (not tested yet), these improvements could also be re-invested for quieter fan noise when you limit the CPU to the same 40 watts like on the predecessor.
Wider opening angle / less hinge torque resistance: The predecessor’s classic design constraints the display’s opening angle to around 140° while the new designs allows an angle of nearly 180°. While not everybody needs this, this gives more flexibility for laptop stands, where the notebook is in an almost vertical position.
But there is another advantage, too: With the old design, we had some hinge problems in the RMA department because many customers do not open the display gently to the max angle, but rather with a swing, which puts quite a bit mechanical force on the hinge. When opening the new InfinityBook’s lid to the same 140°, the hinges are far from their stop position, so that less mechanical resistance force acts on them.
Why did you go from magnesium alloy to aluminum?
The new InfinityBook Pro 14 and 15 feature very rigid and high-quality all-aluminum chassis. This is a clear step forward in quality into the premium range which our InfinityBook Pro series stands for. The new series of laptops (IBP 14/15, Stellaris Slim 15, upcoming Stellaris 16) are the best laptops we ever had in terms of build quality! Of course, the magnesium chassis was also of good quality, but the focus with that material is on absolute minimum weight at the cost of some rigidity.
We don’t rule out to bring laptops with this material again in the future, but especially ultra light and portable laptops are normally constantly on the go: They get “thrown” into bags, slapped out and on the table, handed to someone, moved to different locations and it is not always easy to take the care it deserves. So in total, we consider the material change to the more robust aluminum as a clear step forward, especially since the weight has increased virtually imperceptibly compared to its predecessor.
How do the colors look like?
Depending on the keyboard (ANSI or ISO), the InfinityBook Pro 15 - Gen9 is available in two colors: The variant with ISO keyboard comes in a dark anthracite which - depending on the incidence of light - has a slight purple metallic tint. The variant with ANSI keyboard comes in “metallic grey/gunmetal grey”. Depending on the incidence of light, a very slight blue metallic tint or - in warmer light - a slight pink metallic tint is also perceptible. In our opinion, the chassis color reflects unobtrusive yet professional business elegance without appearing „boringly gray“. It is clearly darker than the bright silver from the previous InfinityBook Pro 14/16.
Why no powersaving CPU for better battery life?
Actually, IBP 14 - Gen9 still plays in the same performance class - which we would call “fast/upper mainstream performance” - like its predecessors. The Core Ultra 7 155H is the successor to last gen’s Core i7–13700H. AMD’s pendant in this performance class is the Ryzen 7 8845HS.
On the one hand, we have a very limited CPU choice for certain devices from the manufacturers, on the other hand, the InfinityBook Pro series stands for strong CPU performance in a maximally thin and light form factor.
Please also note, that both Intel and AMD have improved their low power efficiency quite a bit during the last few years. You CAN throw heavy workloads at them, but you can also lower CPU power limits to your liking via our inhouse-developed and pre-installed TUXEDO Control Center.
Last but not least: IBP 14 - Gen9 is charged via USB-C. The 100 watts power supply is really handy and very light.
If you seek for extreme levels of portability, but also rigidity (aluminium chassis) and very good performance to also get some heavy workloads done without slowing down, the InfinityBook Pro 14 is the way to go.
Why no dedicated GPU anymore?
There are several reasons for this design decision:
Reason 1: The large majority of IBP 14 laptops we sold, were the version without dedicated graphics.
Reason 2: The chassis design/cooling was/is not meant for dedicated GPUs: Due to the extremely thin and light build, we had to throttle down the predecessor’s RTX 3050 to 45 watts which is just slightly above NVIDIA’s lowest allowed power target (official range: 35 to 80 watts). While this meant still much better performance than the old Intel Xe graphics, the price-performance ratio was pretty bad, because despite paying the RTX 3050’s full market price, customers were not getting even close to the full and paid performance.
Reason 3: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and Ryzen 7 8845HS feature much better graphics than the predecessor’s Intel Xe graphics. On both new units, we talk about ** a roughly doubled performance**. Therefore it was decided to not additionally integrate a dedicated GPU.
If you need (significantly) more graphics power, we simply have to refer to physics: You need a bigger chassis which can cope with the additional heat.
Solution 1: Connecting an external desktop GPU enclosure (eGPU) via Thunderbolt4/USB4 allows you to massively boost graphics performance at stationary use while maintaining the InfinityBook’s extremely portable form factor on the go.
Solution 2: If you prefer the all-in-one laptop solution while maintaining the thinnest and lightest form factor possible, we recommend to take a look at our Stellaris Slim 15. Please bear in mind though, that this is accompanied by very significantly increased fan noise.
Stellaris Slim 15 aka „InfinityBook Pro 15 - Max Performance“
Don’t be irritated by its name. Actually we originally planned to launch the Stellaris Slim 15 under the name “InfinityBook Pro 15 - Max Performance” (in reference to the InfinityBook Pro 16 - Gen7 Max Performance Edition from 2022)
This is actually obvious, as the Stellaris Slim 15 only has a very marginally larger and slightly noticalbly heavier case. To be precise, the Stellaris Slim 15 is 2(!) mm “thicker” and around 400 grams heavier than the InfinityBook Pro 15 - Gen9. Even though the weight difference is clearly noticeable in a direct side-by-side comparison, we were surprised how small it is in real usage.
Our recommendation: Please do NOT only pay attention to weight figures on paper and do not base your decision solely on those. There is more to a well-thought purchase decision: chassis quality, rigidity, battery capacity, cooling and noise. If you need high mobility AND high graphics performance, the Stellaris Slim 15 (aka “InfinityBook Pro 15 - Max Performance”) is the right choice. Of course - that much power in such a slim chassis comes with high fan noise under load (but this is something that the former InfinityBook Pro 14 and Pro 16 models had to face as well - just on much lower performance level.)
