How often would you upgrade the mainboard?

Framework Laptop 13
1

Hi,

I’m trying to plan financially. I have an AMD 7840u mainboard with 32GB RAM as my main computing device (instead of the desktop and laptop I used to have), and I use it primarily for programming/productivity work, with some GeForce Now gaming on the side.

How often would you say it is reasonable to upgrade the mainboard, given the above?

I’m currently planning for every 2 years, aiming for the top-tier model available (estimating about £700 based on current predictions), but unsure if this is too frequent/not frequent enough for my use case. I know everybody’s mileage may vary.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

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I’m upgrading every 6 years or so.
Without you telling us what your actual computing demands are, there is no telling.

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3

It also depends what’s on offer and what it will get you for your hard-earned money.

I started out with an 11th gen Core i7-1165G7. The 12th gen was the first upgrade offered, and the difference between the two was huge. The 12th gen (somewhat) doubles cores, the Core i7-1260P is like a Core i7-1165G7 with a slight generational improvement but 8 more cores bolted on. With a proper scheduler, the performance difference is huge. It was a good upgrade.

The AMD upgrade was interesting - no more heterogeneous cores! But the performance difference was small, 10-15% maybe. It’s the graphics performance that had a huge increase. I’m not a gamer, so it didn’t matter. I’ll wait the AMD upgrade out.

The 13th gen Intel upgrade was also not very useful for me. It’s a 10-15% performance improvement and an efficiency improvement, but that’s about it.

If there’s another huge performance increase released this year or next year I’ll consider it.

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4

I get in line with Fraochs response. I started with the 12th gen and while I enjoy the AMD option, it makes no sense for me or the environment.

Once there will be an bigger upgrade I will probably get the NAS enclosure so my old mainboard doesnt go to waste.

That one I will use for my future dumb TV, hopefully sold by Framework then (I am an optimist :D).

In general, like for my phone as well, I now think about what my old devices will do once I get a new one.

Because a drawer full of old unused devices aint cutting it anymore.

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That’s the curse I’m feeling right now. Started with 11th gen, then upgraded to 12th. But unlike a couple of our responders, I do game. So I’m sittin’ here drooling over the AMD board’s doubled iGPU speed. At the same time, however, there’s also the idea of just going “hecc it,” and just running an eGPU until I see what comes next for both Intel and AMD on FW.
Past that, I’m usually a ~2 year upgrader.

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I dont have time for gaming anymore, but I do have an eGPU that will last me 4+ years for media transcoding and alike.

Can recommend it with the intel variant.

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I plan to keep my mainboard for at least 5 years but I don’t do any gaming on it. FSR and other similar technologies should make it easier to keep the mainboard for gaming for at least 3 years

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For document productivity, no need to upgrade. For graphics work or gaming, upgrade to AMD, but you’ll lose 4 X Thunderbolt 4 port. I would advice keeping the Intel mainboard and, using a Thunderbolt 4 dock w/ external GPU for gaming.

If you want a top-model gaming Framework, wait for FW16 with a better dGPU. The current dGPU is not very energy-efficient (high power consumption at a given performance) and throttling/battery drain is a problem.