Today, I can confirm that the system actually works. I went to the San Francisco office in Frame and became the first reporter to upgrade the entire laptop graphics card with my own hands In just three minutes – Includes the time required to restart. I pulled the AMD Radeon RX 7700s video card from the machine and inserted the brand new mobile NVIDIA RTX 5070 with only six screws and used the pen-shaped screwdriver that came with the machine.
And since seeing is believed, I filmed the whole thing to show you how fast and how easy it is. (Hey Senior PC Manufacturer: This looks better MXM modulecorrect? )
I can’t test everything I want to test in the Framework office. We can’t run benchmarks, only basic game samples can show that the card is working. (The framework claims that NVIDIA cards should be upgraded 30% to 40% over existing AMD; the game does run, and there seems to be no obvious problem with 1440p and high settings.)
Also, I can’t upgrade quite Start from scratch. I actually dragged it My original frame laptop 16 comment unit Go to San Francisco and see if I can turn around That One entered the new NVIDIA laptop, but CEO Nirav Patel told me it needed a software update, including at least one new BIOS version, and wasn’t fully ready yet. So when I upgrade myself, the laptop I upgraded is the one that the framework is prepared for GPU swap.
I also have to try the framework’s 240W USB-C PD 3.1 charger that meets the new standardsthis is the first on the market, letting the laptop 16 (the first 240W PD 3.1 laptop!) finally play and charge at full speed. I brought the power meter and saw the frame laptop 16 doing a stress test, pulling the 220W up to 220W while recharging the battery, and plugging several phones into it at the same time. 15 minutes later, when I came back, the new power adapter was just warm, not hot-to-pick up and hold comfortably. I’ll have a video next week.
For now, this is probably a niche technology with just 100W and the 8GB mobile RTX 5070 performing at $699. (GPU and second generation laptops are Make a reservationif you are part of this niche, ship in December. ) However, the framework proves this and I hope future upgrades will make it a niche market in the long run.
