Framework Laptop 16 now with RTX 5070 12GB and launch event re-cap

Framework Team Blog
1

GeForce 5070 12GB Blog
GeForce 5070 12GB Blog2048×1494 146 KB

The response to our Framework Laptop 13 Pro launch last week was bigger than we ever could have imagined. Far more of you pre-ordered than we had originally forecast, and we’re already into Batch 10. We’re just wrapping up validation and final software and firmware for the Pro now, and our operations team is getting ready to ramp into manufacturing. In addition to Framework Laptop 13 Pro, we got a ton of positive feedback around the improvements to Framework Laptop 16, the OCuLink Dev Kit, and the Framework Wireless Touchpad Keyboard. If you missed the announcement, we have it up on our YouTube Channel, along with a recording of the community Q&A we did later in the event.

We built Framework Laptop 13 Pro to be the “MacBook Pro for Linux users”, and the initial sales metrics and post-purchase survey results are showing we’ve landed that. Configurations with Ubuntu pre-loaded are vastly outselling Windows ones, and we’re seeing >1/3rd of pre-orders come from people moving off of MacBook Pro’s. We got some excellent feedback from developers in the Linux space who we seeded pre-production hardware to, like this run-down from the team at CachyOS. We also saw a number of excellent hands-on videos and write-ups from reviewers, community members, and YouTubers who came to the event. Some of our favorites are:

There is one announcement that we couldn’t share during our launch event. Today, NVIDIA introduced a 12GB version of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 5070 Laptop GPU, and we’re happy to share that we have variants of Framework Laptop 16 available for pre-order with it. Shipments start this June alongside the One Piece Haptic Touchpad and Keyboard. We also have the Graphics Module itself available for pre-order in the Framework Marketplace for those of you who already have a Framework Laptop 16. We’re continuing to live up to graphics upgradeability in a laptop, now with our third discrete GPU option!

We also snuck in one other mini product launch last week that we didn’t get a chance to share much detail about, which is the USB-A (2nd Gen) Expansion Card. This has a custom USB-A receptacle that detects whether a device is plugged into it. When nothing is plugged in, the card is invisible to the system. This improves power consumption specifically on AMD systems, where the rear two Expansion Card slots have retimers that can’t otherwise automatically enter a lower power state if an empty 1st Gen USB-A Expansion Card is plugged in. The 2nd Gen card is available with pre-orders of Framework Laptop 13 Pro, and will be coming to other systems and the Framework Marketplace later this summer.

If you want to try out Framework Laptop 13 Pro and our other new products too, we’ll be at a few events over the coming months:

6 Likes
Fw16 - 5070 12gb?
Why Framework is the best laptop manufacturing company - and why more VRAM should come next
2

This is great! Hope to see the pricing get a bit more reasonable in the future :sweat_smile:

3 Likes
3

1200 USD… wow

2 Likes
4

The ram market really sucks right now. But still great to see a 12GB graphics card option!

Truly excellent!
And interesting to see such a large number of Apple converts.

1 Like
5

The price doesn’t make sense

Assume the VRAM costs X dollars each GB, the rest of the GPU costs Y dollars, so we have:
8X+Y=699
12X+Y=1199
The solution is:
X=125
Y=-301

The VRAM costs $125/GB and the rest of the GPU costs -$301

6

Framework doesn’t have to charge a fixed percentage premium. To play off of your system of equations, let’s assume Framework charges a markup W on the 8gb version and Z on the 12gb version.

8X + Y + W = 699

12X + Y + Z = 1199

While I can’t guess specifics, Z > W is highly probable considering that 12GB ram unlocks a lot more experimentation with AI models, games, etc.

1 Like
7

So Framework is becoming Apple?

8

I think we are forgetting that the 12GB version uses higher density VRAM chips, that will be sold at a higher price. The VRAM bus is the same with on both versions so it’s the same number of chips, but of different density, and therefore price.

4 Likes
9

That makes sense

10

There is no sane way to justify a $500 price increase based on the BoM of using 50% higher-density VRAM chips. It’s that expensive because everything has gotten more expensive, and Framework knows they can charge this much and people will still pay.

11

Every company charge what customer pays, that is how a free market works. I’m not trying to justify anything, I’m raising a short coming in the Charlie_6’s maths, as their exist no reason to belive that 3GB chips would cost no more then 150% of 2GB chips.

In the past Nvidia has hid different core specs behind VRAM numbers, I don’t know if that is the case this time. edit: I can confirm they did not.

4 Likes
12

Point taken

13

image
image927×278 30.2 KB

Just bringing this here for more visibility.

8 Likes
How would y'all rate your experience with the 5070 module? Might get one soon
14

The price is ridiculous (and I don’t say this lightly as a supporter of Framework), but it is obvious it is not their fault at all. It’s the current situation. Quite unfortunate that the current situation destroys upgradability, considering that you can now upgrade to a 5070 for the price of just 2 entire Framework 12 laptops.

1 Like
15

I have to agree that not only is that pricing ridiculous, but isn’t Framework’s doing. That’s clearly NVIDIA pricing. Unfortunately given that NVIDIA is dominant in the GPU market they can charge pretty much whatever they want. They’ve been doing this long before the RAM shortages. I would love to have my first over 8 GB GPU to be on my FW16 but I’m not spending that kind of money on one.

That’s part of the reason my desktop GPU is still a GTX 1080. I didn’t want to pay the $100 increase for the 20 series, or get the RTX 2070 for a lateral movement in performance for the same price. 30 series cards got even more ridiculous and started breaking $1K and the pricing has only gotten worse. So I’m not surprised when I see a laptop NVIDIA GPU going for $700+.

It’s unfortunate that AMD just isn’t competitive enough (refusing to compete at the high end) and I was REALLY hoping Intel could compete in the GPU market. Unfortunately without either of them being able to compete NVIDIA makes their own rules and sets the prices they want.

5 Likes