Today, we introduced the Framework Desktop, a tiny 4.5L Mini-ITX desktop powered by AMD’s massive new Ryzen AI Max processors. Pre-orders are open now, with first shipments in early Q3 2025. When AMD shared the Ryzen AI Max with us, we immediately knew we had to use it. It has up to 16 CPU cores at 5.1GHz boost clock, discrete-level Radeon 8060S graphics, and support for up to an insane 128GB of unified LPDDR5x. That enables 1440p or higher gaming on the heaviest titles, big creative and workstation workloads, and true local AI use cases. This is an absolute monster of a processor, and we shifted our roadmap a year ago to make space for it. In a desktop form factor, we get to unlock every bit of its performance with 120W sustained power and 140W boost while staying quiet and cool.
You may still be wondering, why does Framework need to build a desktop? Aren’t desktops already modular and upgradeable? They are. In fact, the desktop PC ethos is part of what inspired the Framework Laptop to begin with. The desktop world is amazing. There is a broad, long-lived, interoperable ecosystem with hundreds of brands and hundreds of millions of consumers participating. You can build, upgrade, repair, and personalize to the limits of your imagination (and budget, and desk space), and share your amazing creations with all of the other true believers. We want to make this space as accessible as we possibly can by building a desktop that is simultaneously small and simple and incredibly powerful and customizable. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the culture around PCs and PC gaming first-hand.
With that in mind, we leveraged all of the key PC standards everywhere we could. Framework Desktop’s Ryzen AI Max-powered Mainboard is a standard Mini-ITX form factor with ATX headers, a PCIe x4 slot, and a broad set of rear I/O (including 2x USB4, 2x DisplayPort, HDMI, and 5Gbit Ethernet), so you can drop it into your own case if you prefer. We developed a semi-custom 400W power supply with FSP in a standard Flex ATX form factor. We use standard 120mm CPU fans with a thermal system co-developed with Cooler Master and Noctua, and you can choose to bring your own fan as well if you prefer. We enabled two PCIe NVME M.2 2280 slots for up to 16TB of storage and Wi-Fi 7 through an RZ717 Wi-Fi module.
Framework Desktop brings the PC ethos around customization as well. You can choose between black and translucent side panels, select an RGB fan, and attach an optional carrying handle to bring it with you to LAN parties (or just to your living room). We also designed the front panel of the case to be made up of 21 color-customizable tiles, and we’ve open sourced the design so you can 3D print your own too. We also brought over the Expansion Card system from Framework Laptops, with two slots at the front of Framework Desktop enabling front port customization.
There is one place we did have to step away from PC norms though, which is on memory. To enable the massive 256GB/s memory bandwidth that Ryzen AI Max delivers, the LPDDR5x is soldered. We spent months working with AMD to explore ways around this but ultimately determined that it wasn’t technically feasible to land modular memory at high throughput with the 256-bit memory bus. Because the memory is non-upgradeable, we’re being deliberate in making memory pricing more reasonable than you might find with other brands.
The top-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 configuration with 128GB of memory starts at just $1999 USD. This is excellent for gaming, but it is a truly wild value proposition for AI workloads. Local AI inference has been heavily restricted to date by the limited memory capacity and high prices of consumer and workstation graphics cards. With Framework Desktop, you can run giant, capable models like Llama 3.3 70B Q6 at real-time conversational speed right on your desk. With USB4 and 5Gbit Ethernet networking, you can connect multiple systems or Mainboards to run even larger models like the full DeepSeek R1 671B.
The base Framework Desktop comes in even lower, with the 8-core Ryzen AI Max 385 configuration with 32GB of memory starting at $1099. All of the systems are DIY Editions, meaning you can choose to bring your own storage and operating system. This is the easiest PC you’ll ever build, and we’ll be publishing step-by-step guides and videos to get you there. Framework Desktop supports both Windows 11 and a range of popular Linux distros like Ubuntu and Fedora, along with gaming-focused OS’s like Bazzite and Playtron. You can also pre-order the Mainboard on its own today, starting at $799. This is truly a game-changing processor from AMD, and we’re excited for you to see what we’ve done with it in the Framework Desktop!
