I currently have the Framework 16 with the gpu expansion kit and I love it!
But there are two things that have been slightly bothering me.
First is the size. A 16" laptop is already quite big, but with the additional gpu expansion kit it becomes quite a handful. It was difficult to find a backpack with a large enough laptop section and it is also quite heavy.
Fortunately the framework team released the Oculink port for the FW 16. I use the gpu mainly for gaming so I just need it at home so technically I could build myself an eGPU setup. Apart from that I use my laptop for University and Programming.
Because they also released the beautiful FW 13 Pro I thought about switching in the hope that they also release an Oculink port for the 13 sometimes in the Future. I am not that well versed in Hardware to know which prerequisites are needed for this port. So here is my Question.
Question
What are the chances that the FW 13 gets an Oculink Port or something similar to make an eGPU setup useful?
Occulink requires the PCI lanes to be exposed which takes up quite a bit of space on the FW16 main board. I’m not sure of a way they could free up that space on the FW13 without negatively impacting cooling or other functionality.
I think the best hope for this would actually be additional m.2 slots with an occulink adapter.
That being said, I’m not sure how long occulink will live on for given the new connector on the GPD Mini Box is supposed to perform even better / better more forgiving. I believe there have been incidents of folks damaging their hardware by incorrect handling of the occulink connections. (Aka, occulink is not a hotplug technology).
I think overall it would be a benefit for Framework to have a single mainboard that fits both the 13 and 16 but I’m not sure that the technology currently exists to allow for it to do so while retaining the same functionality as both current laptops.
Okay damn thank you for the insight!
That is unfortunate, but to see that there is at least some hope with the MCIO8i. At least it sounds good on paper.
Hope that we see some development for eGPUs in the future. My setup would be so much better ahh