Blade 14 2022 Thunderbolt Update Guide | Razer Insider

Blade 14 2022 Thunderbolt Update Guide

  • 19 September 2022
  • 16 replies
  • 711 views
ksosx86
Razer's guide to updating the 2022 Blade 14 from USB 3.2 to USB 4 ports

At the bottom are some test results with the Blade 14 2022 after the USB 4.0 BIOS update, connected to a Razer Core X using an AMD Radeon VII.

A couple of prerequisites.


  • [left]It would be best if you use Windows 11 (As much as I tried with Windows 10, it does not natively support Pluton)[/left]
  • [left]The BIOS update exposes Pluton after the update; Pluton driver support is required for TPM 2.0 to function.[/left]
  • [left]Due to a lack of driver support, the "Thunderbolt router" that runs off the USB 4.0 controller isn't "exposed" in Windows 10. Naturally, everything works OOB in Windows 11.[/left]
  • [left]I recommend changing your performance mode in the synapse app to reflect "cpu>boost" and "gpu>low," as you won't need your internal GPU when leveraging an EGPU, and you need your CPU as much as possible.[/left]
  • [left]Set your Windows power profile to "balanced" and change Switchable Dynamic Graphics to "Maximize Performance" for "Plugged In" Likewise, set "Link State Power Management" to "Off" (This ensures that the PCI-E Bus stays in 4.0 mode and does not engage ASPM)[/left]
  • [left]AMD Software: PRO Edition | AMD Windows 11 22.Q4 11/15/2022[/left]
  • [left]AMD Ryzen and Athlon Mobile (Chipset) Windows 11 4.09.23.507 10/12/2022[/left]
  • [left]NVIDIA Studio Driver Windows 11 RN-08399-526.98_v01 11/16/2022[/left]

Test was conducted on Windows 11 Pro fully updated (using a TB4 cable) running TimeSpy V1.2 Driver Version 22.20.44-221025a-385558C-(AMD-Software-PRO-Edition)




@Razer

Would you be so kind as to shed some light on this article that appeared on this tech news site some time ago reporting Razer is updating their 2022 Blade 14 with USB4 support and at least some Thunderbolt device compatibility?

Source: Razer Blade 14 laptop updated - Geeky Gadgets (geeky-gadgets.com)

Thank you

16 Replies

ksosx86
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C
I’d like to know about this as well. I had just bought the laptop after hearing about this feature and was on the fence about keeping it given the issues with connecting DP monitors with the dedicated GPU. Now that I haven’t heard anything sense, it makes me wonder if this feature will ever see the light of day.
ksosx86
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ksosx86
..............bump............
C
FWIW... I stopped by a razer retail in Las Vegas and asked them about this and they looked at me like I was crazy. They said only the Intel models came with Thunderbolt support and didn't know anything about this press release.
ksosx86
Catawbacoolbook679
FWIW... I stopped by a razer retail in Las Vegas and asked them about this and they looked at me like I was crazy. They said only the Intel models came with Thunderbolt support and didn't know anything about this press release.


Sorry for the late reply, I got a response that was kinda interesting - I'll just dump the email here. I think the press release was dropped a little early or perhaps Razer let the info out a little early.


To access your question from our support site, click here
Incident Reference # 221023-000471
Subject:
Razer Blade 14 - Inquire on USB4 about thunderbolt device
Response By Email (Harris) (23-Oct-2022 06:25 PM)
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for contacting Razer Technical Support, We appreciate your feedback and
interest in USB4.0. This is a new technology, and our team is aware of it. It will take
time for us to implement because the respective team is testing to see whether it is
acceptable for our end users.
I understand that this technology is already being used in various fields such as servers
and high-end computers. But don't worry, Razer will always be on the leading edge of
technology and provide what is suitable for our consumers.
Thank you again for your interest and feedback; if there is an update for our side,
please keep an eye on our website.: https://www.razer.com/
I hope this answers your concern, If you have any further questions or concerns, please
respond to this email with your case number 221023-000471.
Best Regards,
Harris
R Λ Z Ξ R Technical Support
Customer By Service Email (Kevin Scott) (23-Oct-2022 05:07 AM)
Are there plans to update those ports to USB4 through an upcoming BIOS update?
C
ksosx86
Sorry for the late reply, I got a response that was kinda interesting - I'll just dump the email here. I think the press release was dropped a little early or perhaps Razer let the info out a little early.


To access your question from our support site, click here
Incident Reference # 221023-000471
Subject:
Razer Blade 14 - Inquire on USB4 about thunderbolt device
Response By Email (Harris) (23-Oct-2022 06:25 PM)
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for contacting Razer Technical Support, We appreciate your feedback and
interest in USB4.0. This is a new technology, and our team is aware of it. It will take
time for us to implement because the respective team is testing to see whether it is
acceptable for our end users.
I understand that this technology is already being used in various fields such as servers
and high-end computers. But don't worry, Razer will always be on the leading edge of
technology and provide what is suitable for our consumers.
Thank you again for your interest and feedback; if there is an update for our side,
please keep an eye on our website.: https://www.razer.com/
I hope this answers your concern, If you have any further questions or concerns, please
respond to this email with your case number 221023-000471.
Best Regards,
Harris
R Λ Z Ξ R Technical Support
Customer By Service Email (Kevin Scott) (23-Oct-2022 05:07 AM)
Are there plans to update those ports to USB4 through an upcoming BIOS update?


Interesting... I guess that's better than the response I got. Now I'm just trying to troubleshoot my laptop since it's been randomly rebooting since the latest Windows 11 Driver (AMD) update.
worthymatt
See the news announced today 🙂
ksosx86
Can the admin / mods please move this to the "Systems" section please? Thanks
ksosx86
*log*
- added 3DMark results
- results are pretty good
- doesn't appear to be much (if any) loss compared to regular VII TimeSpy score (which is 8901)
- for a baseline of the non-oc see here (AMD Radeon VII 16 GB review (updated)
Basically USB4 emulating a TB3 connection works pretty damn good and saturates enough to score competitive results to that of a system using a Core i7 5960X CPU and a PCI-E 3.0 slot at 16 full lanes. This is pretty impressive.
ksosx86

Great article, explains why EGPUs lose around 10 to 15 percent.performance vs DGPU of a laptop or PCI-E GPUs of Desktops. Check it out: 7 Things You Need to Know About External GPUs (makeuseof.com)

Gamerfanz91

Hello, this is my first laptop via Razer and trying to learn, I have been in the process of updating everything, one of the updates take me to Razer Blade 14" (2022) Firmware Updater | RZ09-0427x. Now with this update is it going to give me USB4.0? The instructions on updating it makes it seem like you already have to have USB4 on your system before doing this update but when looking around makes it seem like that is the update to get access for usb4, I just do not want to start the process of an update and not having everything right for it and then my laptop gets messed up, I am starting out and learning and really could use the help? Also should I download the Razer Blade 14" (2022) EC Updater | RZ09-0427 ? All help would be very appreciated! I have tried contacting support via email but so far they keep wanting more info and not answering my question fully! Please help?

ksosx86

Hello, this is my first laptop via Razer and trying to learn, I have been in the process of updating everything, one of the updates take me to Razer Blade 14" (2022) Firmware Updater | RZ09-0427x. Now with this update is it going to give me USB4.0? The instructions on updating it makes it seem like you already have to have USB4 on your system before doing this update but when looking around makes it seem like that is the update to get access for usb4, I just do not want to start the process of an update and not having everything right for it and then my laptop gets messed up, I am starting out and learning and really could use the help? Also should I download the Razer Blade 14" (2022) EC Updater | RZ09-0427 ? All help would be very appreciated! I have tried contacting support via email but so far they keep wanting more info and not answering my question fully! Please help?

Hello there, congratulations on your new laptop! If you just purchased your Blade 14 chances are it may already have all the latest updates, on the off chance it does not we’ll cover that as you’ve asked! 

Download both the EC updater and Firmware updater from this page: https://mysupport.razer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5915

While plugged into your AC unit run the EC updater first. If the button “Update” appears in green as so you can click on it this means your computer needs this update and doesn't have it yet. If it is greyed out, it means you already have this update and can simply cancel and move on.

If your laptop becomes unresponsive during updating - wait - even up to an hour, never force the machine off eventually it will ask you to reboot, when it does I recommend doing so. 

Following your reboot, proceed with your Razer firmware update; V1.1.1.3 from March 30th includes USB4.0 plus additional fixes. This guide I wrote was prior to Razer having had created V1.1.1.3, I recommend V1.1.1.3

You will need to be running Windows 11 to get USB 4.0 functionality fully working and in addition may need to run an AMD chipset driver install: https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/socket-fp5-mobile/amd-ryzen-and-athlon-mobile-chipset

 

Gamerfanz91

Hello, this is my first laptop via Razer and trying to learn, I have been in the process of updating everything, one of the updates take me to Razer Blade 14" (2022) Firmware Updater | RZ09-0427x. Now with this update is it going to give me USB4.0? The instructions on updating it makes it seem like you already have to have USB4 on your system before doing this update but when looking around makes it seem like that is the update to get access for usb4, I just do not want to start the process of an update and not having everything right for it and then my laptop gets messed up, I am starting out and learning and really could use the help? Also should I download the Razer Blade 14" (2022) EC Updater | RZ09-0427 ? All help would be very appreciated! I have tried contacting support via email but so far they keep wanting more info and not answering my question fully! Please help?

Hello there, congratulations on your new laptop! If you just purchased your Blade 14 chances are it may already have all the latest updates, on the off chance it does not we’ll cover that as you’ve asked! 

Download both the EC updater and Firmware updater from this page: https://mysupport.razer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5915

While plugged into your AC unit run the EC updater first. If the button “Update” appears in green as so you can click on it this means your computer needs this update and doesn't have it yet. If it is greyed out, it means you already have this update and can simply cancel and move on.

If your laptop becomes unresponsive during updating - wait - even up to an hour, never force the machine off eventually it will ask you to reboot, when it does I recommend doing so. 

Following your reboot, proceed with your Razer firmware update; V1.1.1.3 from March 30th includes USB4.0 plus additional fixes. This guide I wrote was prior to Razer having had created V1.1.1.3 I recommend V1.1.1.3

You will need to be running Windows 11 to get USB 4.0 functionality fully working and in addition may need to run an AMD chipset driver install: https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/socket-fp5-mobile/amd-ryzen-and-athlon-mobile-chipset

 

Thank you so much for the help!! So just to make sure run the EC Updater first if I have it installed already then move to firmware update V1.1.1.3 which will give the use of USB4.0 and additional fixes, I do have windows 11 and I believe my AMD chipset driver is up to date but to make sure where can that be located to check? And as for the step by step guide should just follow the steps via the guide you wrote even tho it was before firmware update V1.1.1.3 or should I follow the steps on update process on that page, the reason I was confused about the firmware update to V1.1.1.3 was because on the page for it in the steps before step 3 days to check for usb4 support and if it doesn’t show then it isn’t supported yet but clearly your answer about firmware V1.1.1.3 is the update to get USB4.0 and again thank you for all this assistance!!!

ksosx86

Yeah you can alternatively follow the guide, that’ll work too, good point, far as the chipset drivers… I am not sure off top of my head. alternative case you can just grab the updater in the razer guide I linked in first post which has lots of good steps and the firmware updater in there will check everything including EC and BIOS/UEFI…. following that if you reboot and still don't see any mention of “USB4” under USB devices in device manager… I'd download latest AMD chipset driver and run it for good measure… It would be the last thing left at that point.  

Gamerfanz91

Yeah you can alternatively follow the guide, that’ll work too, good point, far as the chipset drivers… I am not sure off top of my head. alternative case you can just grab the updater in the razer guide I linked in first post which has lots of good steps and the firmware updater in there will check everything including EC and BIOS/UEFI…. following that if you reboot and still don't see any mention of “USB4” under USB devices in device manager… I'd download latest AMD chipset driver and run it for good measure… It would be the last thing left at that point.  

Thank you so much for all the assistance! You and to everyone happy gaming !!

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