I am looking at preordering a FW 16 but don’t really want to buy the GPU up front. will the GPU expansion card be available to buy in the store (Marketplace) to order down the line as an individual purchase?
1 Like
Yes. We just don’t know when.
6 Likes
While it wasn’t addressed specifically, this was part of a question I asked Framework support in an email some time ago. It seems like it will be available at some point, but no word on what the availability timeline will be.
For my side of things, ordering without the GPU is what I did too. Being able to buy a big workstation laptop without also being forced to buy a GPU is a breath of fresh air! By comparison, it’s frustrating how an RTX 4050 or whatever is automatically forced on you when you move up from a Dell XPS 15 to an XPS 17.
1 Like
I ordered mine without a GPU. Right now, I don’t want a dGPU in my laptop, but I also know that at some point in the future I might change my mind. FW let’s me do that without having to buy a whole new device down the line.
1 Like
I also didn’t buy the GPU. I am using an EGPU and just need a new laptop, so this is one of the occasions where EGPU saves you money ;). And hopefully the laptop itself will end up saving money for people as well down the line, it should be one of the strong points.
1 Like
Thank you all for the responses,
I’ve also been thinking about doing the eGPU thing, but I feel at that point my desktop starts loosing its purpose. For portability and travel I would love to get the GPU expansion card when it comes out.
Same. I’ve got a lot of duplicate tech in my sphere right now, currently trying to figure out where everything belongs.
2 Likes
If you have a desktop EGPU is not for you anymore, that’s true. But otherwise I can only strongly recommend to jump on the EGPU train, especially with tb5 around the corner next year. It is a dream come true that people have been waiting for for many years.
2 Likes
My problem with all these attachments is that, like for apple desks, you start to have loads and loads of stuff connected through loads and loads of cables.
Nah - I prefer to have it all in one device, period.
The reason I don’t like having the gpu always in the laptop is because I’ve found getting the darn thing to stop drawing power when it’s not in use is near impossible long term on both Windows and Linux. Hybrid graphics battery optimizations are just not there yet, and battery life is very important to me.
1 Like
That is alot of the reason I went with a macbook 2 years ago when I did. Because of the battery life. When i close the lid i know it is “asleep” and I never have to shut it down or put to sleep I can throw it in my backpack and pull it out the next week. Itll have lost maybe 2% battery and its ready to go as soon as I open it. I love this laptop but I am sick of apple producing eWaste and paying their tax for something I cant upgrade.
To get a good amount of ram with a respectable CPU you are required to get it with a dedicated GPU. So battery life sucks. And windows cant seem to figure out how to get this S3 sleep working properly. im more than likely going to install ubuntu on metal and then VM everything else. Im going to miss alot of macOS but not enough to keep paying apple tax.
3 Likes
That and they design their hardware to catastrophically fail, destroying all the chips, and them doing what they can to prevent repair, etc… The repair part is far more costly and is a deal breaker.
1 Like
I recently found out part of it is by design. They started doing this fake sleep thing where even when the device is asleep it can still wake up in order to perform system updates. I’m 100% against this practice and it’s on of the reasons I switched to linux.
2 Likes
My work laptop is a dell precision with a t2000 in it, i had even put it to sleep before putting it into my backpack, when i got home it felt like it was sitting in an oven. im shocked it my backpack didnt catch on fire. ever sense then idk if i will ever trust windows again.
But you are saying linux works? You can just close the lid and itll stay in a sleep/off mode till you open it? Ive never daily drive linux on metal. only in VMs, so my experience is limited.
Microsoft must do it to compensate for their horrible, broken update system. If you don’t let MS do their fake sleep, then frequently it makes you wait for it to “apply updates” when you start your computer. Takes forever. In addition to it sitting there to “apply updates” when you ask it to shut down. When I start my computer, sometimes I need to get things done right away. I don’t know how that’s just tolerated.
Coming from Linux it’s just insane. Updates are just seamlessly applied, without even demanding a reboot.
3 Likes
My Ubuntu 22.04 sometimes wants a reboot after doing core updates to activate them. To say Linux never needs a reboot is not correct.
2 Likes
I said it never demands it. I have never been forced. I shutdown only when I wish. And when it starts up, I never see it make me wait to “apply” an update.
2 Likes
It mostly depends on hardware support. It can be flaky depending on certain situations. Mostly with updates breaking or adding support. In my case, 80% of the time when I close it it works. 10% of the time it does a weird glitch where it acts like it is asleep when you open the lid and not when the lid is closed, which I am fairly certain is due to calibration of the sleep sensor. If I press the lid and body of the laptop together and quickly open it it goes back to normal. 10% of the time it does not go to sleep but going to power and hibernate makes it work as normal. Granted it could just be that the sleep sensor is starting to fail, but this is what I am experiencing. It is not really random as it depends on updates, but you can always decline things like kernel updates that may break it and wait a couple months or so. Given the attention this company has by Linux users, it is unlikely to have those kinds of issues for more than a couple months.
1 Like
Often Windows will silently do updates without requiring a reboot too. Trouble is it tends to upset applications when doing so.
1 Like
More importantly, will the selection increase or will it only be AMD cards?