Framework 16 Vs 4ish year old Gaming Laptop

Framework Laptop 16
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Hello All,

Feel free to delete if this doesn’t belong here.

I am looking to buy a new laptop. I have been leaning towards the Framework 16 and I’m hoping the community here might be able to give me some insight to help me decide.

My current laptop is an Alienware M17 R4, with an Intel i7 10870, 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 3070. It is still a decent laptop and normally I would probably keep it a few more years before getting a new one, but it has some issues that are getting me to look at alternatives (terrible battery life, huge power brick, a little too bulky, hard to fly with, soldered RAM). So I am looking to sell it and get something else.

My question is, how would the Framework 16 (with the dGPU, Ryzen 9 7940HS, and at least 32 GB of Ram) compare in terms of gaming performance to my current laptop. Performance wise I am pretty happy with what I have so if it were comparable that would be a point in favor of the Framework 16 for me.

I have read that for the same price I can probably get a gaming laptop that has better performance, but I am somewhat of a casual gamer, so as long as my experience on the Framework were at least as good as my 4 year old Alienware, I’d be pretty happy with that, especially if the Framework 16 addressed some of my gripes with my current Alienware (from looking into reviews it seems like it does, better battery life, small power brick, comparatively decently portable).

I would consider myself a tech enthusiast, though a bit of a novice (which is why I am having some trouble determining how performance would compare from specs alone, also not super familiar with AMD). My main use case for my laptop will probably always be gaming, but I do like the idea of a device that can be tinkered with and used to expand my tech knowledge. Recently, because of the Steam Deck and SteamOS I have become interested in getting something that uses AMD and can be Linux focused.

I really like the idea of supporting a company that has committed to the right to repair and upgradeability, and the price to performance ratio doesn’t seem as bad as some reviewers have claimed (especially because I can bring my own RAM, SSD, and OS and avoid those costs). I like the idea that in a year there might be new GPUs to upgrade with, though, to be honest, I feel a little hesitant there because I have been burned in the past. (Bought into Alienware over a decade ago because they kept promising upgradability and longevity and they kept abandoning those product lines).

I also like the idea that at some point in time a modular item might come out that I would like more than what is currently offered (I will miss the mechanical keyboard on my Alienware, but hey, maybe Framework will release one that I can change over to on the 16). I am onboard with the Framework sales pitch, I just don’t want to downgrade in terms of gaming performance.

Thanks for any help, and for listening to me ramble.

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Welcome to the community!

In terms of performance, the CPU in the Framework is a big step up, but the GPU is probably a sideways move, at best. I haven’t looked into framerate comparisons or anything. It’s possible the 7700S in the Framework is better in some games, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it traded blows in various games.

Theoretically, the big plus of the FW 16 is the modular GPU, which could be upgraded in the future. But that assumes that something faster and viable for use in a FW GPU module is released.

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If battery life is important then the FW16 with the dGPU probably isn’t what you are looking for.
Just like with all other gaming laptops, getting power usage under control comes from making sure the the dGPU stays asleep as much as possible.
I have had two Alienware laptops in my time and I can say the fw16 is about as bad when the dGPU is awake, and it’s for sure a struggle to make sure it stays asleep when not gaming

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Awesome, thank you that is helpful, I think I would be ok with a lateral move on the GPU. I was just watching Jarrod’s Tech on Youtube and he said something very similar about the games on the Framework, I feel like I’ve also had a similar experience on my Steam Deck, some games just work really well with AMD. Good to know the CPU would be a big improvement, I always struggle trying to figure out how AMD compares to Intel.

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Cool, thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep that in mind.

It’s not so much that battery life is important, it is that on the M17 R4 the battery life was SOO bad I’d be happy with any kind of improvement, but battery life is just one of the reasons I looking to change my current laptop.

Something about that M17 R4 model year, Alienware really dropped the ball on the battery. My previous model had decent battery, and from what I’ve read subsequent models have had decent battery, but I can’t do basic web browsing without having my battery die in like 40 minutes. I am constantly tethered to a wall socket or I basically can’t use my laptop, just for fun I unplugged to write this and I am already at 50%.

I understand gaming laptops are never going to get the kind of battery life other laptops get, I just want to make sure I get something that gets more of an industry average or slightly better. In the stress testing reviews I’ve watched and read Framework with the dGPU performed about as well as the Razer Blade, and Lenovo Legion, and doubled the 2024 Alienware model, and from what I understand AMD is just better with power efficiency than Intel and NVIDIA.

Battery life isn’t what is drawing me to the Framework, I am a big believer in right to repair, and I love the idea of a laptop I can configure to my current use case, like say if I was flying somewhere, and wanted the laptop to be a little more packable and have better battery, I could pull the dGPU and leave it at home. (And if batteries see a generational leap in performance, theoretically, I could replace the battery in the Framework). I’m leaning towards the Framework, because I want to support a company that I hope will push the industry away from soldering all their components down. All I’m really looking to be able to do battery wise is sit on my couch and browse without needing to be plugged in for a while, lol.

My main deciding factor is really just that I wouldn’t be giving up too much gaming performance from my current set up.

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Hi! Welcome to the forums!

I bought my FW16 to replace my Origin 17.3 inch laptop from early 2017 which has an i7-7700k desktop CPU and a GTX 1080 (mobile version, the weird MXM kind). The CPU on the FW16 is almost 3 times as fast as the i7, and I have noticed it a lot in games. The Origin was struggling with most recent titles, and the FW, while not perfect across the board, can handle demanding titles quite well. As others have mentioned, the GPU is probably not going to be much faster, but it gets the job done if you’re willing to tweak game settings to get it to where you’re ok with the balance between graphics and performance.

In terms of why I was looking to replace it, everything you mention was also in my list. The battery life on the Origin is pretty terrible (recently bought a replacement battery and it runs out almost immediately even though I’m running Proxmox on it to host a file share and nothing else), the power brick is smaller than the previous generation Origin laptops but it’s still massive, and it’s a very heavy and bulky laptop that isn’t great to travel with. The Framework 16 addresses all these issues very well, I’ve flown with it multiple times now, and it’s a lot less stress on my back, and on me when navigating airport security. The battery life, as mentioned, isn’t gonna be spectacularly better, but if you use power saving profiles or even the balanced profile, getting non-demanding office work done or watching some videos or similar won’t chew through your charge.

That said, I did have a hard time finding a backpack for it. I also wanted to buy a smaller backpack than the one I have for the Origin, since it was barely fitting under airplane seats. The FW16 has weird dimensions, most bags that say they fit a 16 inch won’t fit a FW16, especially not one with a dGPU. I ended up going with the Everki Glide backpack that advertises as fitting a 17.3 inch laptop. It fits just right on the FW16 (with some added wiggle room since the FW is so thin).

In general, I am very happy with my FW16. Looking at other people’s experience, I definitely got a good model. It’s hard to judge how much variability there is on the quality that end customers get, as the people having a rough time are more likely to post about their frustrations than the people happily working with their laptops. But I would take that into account; there might be things you need to contact support about that won’t be fun to deal with. My hope is that FW has been working on improving this and that with a year of the product being out and in people’s hands, production issues have been addressed. Just be advised there can be bumps in the road.

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Thanks for the input! Your situation sounds a lot like mine, getting some real world examples from other people helps a lot. I have seen some of the reports of issues and I’m hoping that being a year in those issues have mostly been worked out, but from what I’ve seen from others Framework customer service has been pretty decent, so hopefully if something does come up it’ll be easy to resolve.