This is awesome news! Anything else to take into consideration when ordering the new boards for FW16? Are we able to simplify swap out the existing boards for FW16 with the new ones? I am assuming all the screws, mounts, connectors will align correctly? My use case is to replace/swap out existing Ryzen9 7940HS board with the new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 board. Thanks!
Yes, they are drop in replacements
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That is cool… for someone, but not for me. Why there is no 4k option? Why there is no OLED options? For laptop with modularity as major selling point it is really weird to have just one display option.
I am using Lenovo P71 released in 2018. And even back then Lenovo offered different display options. I went with 4k and really like it. My main use cases: browsing internet, watch YouTube videos and programming, not gaming. I don’t’ care about high refresh rate(it nice to have though) or G-Sync. This year Microsoft stop releasing updates for Windows 10 and I can’t(officially) install Windows 11 on my laptop due to Intel i7-7700HQ processor. So, I start to look for a replacement. I really like idea behind Framework laptops, but I am not willing to downgrade. I hoped that Framework would add 4k option during next Framework 16 update, but no… that is really sad that Framework doesn’t have an option for 4k display which Lenovo had 7 years ago.
I think he’s referring to upgrading the 7700S. I would think if the parts are there we would be able to upgrade the 7700S with the better fans and such.
I have to say I’m really excited to finally have a GPU upgrade! Unfortunately given the 8 GB limitation and the high price (both I’d attribute to Nvidia) I won’t be upgrading any time soon. Not that I was going to since buying my FW16 (that was my “upgrade” I’ve got a few more years with the 7700S). But I’m certainly happy that I’ll be able to upgrade in the future! Hopefully there’ll be a GPU with more than 8 GB to upgrade to. I’m also really loving the upgraded USB-C port on the back of the RTX 5070. Too bad that can’t be implemented in the 7700S v2. I’m sure it would require an entire rework of the GPU. I’d like to see even more utility from that port. Having that port be used for a single cable solution to a dock would be awesome. I’m sure it’ll get there eventually (docks with 240W output will probably happen).
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Fantastic news. I have tried an AMD video card for the first time in Linux with FW 16 and I cannot understand how AMD’s drivers are labelled ‘mature’. Not only are GPU driver-related are now an regular occurence for me (for the first time), but ROCm, AMD’s solution to CUDA, does not even allow you to run an IGP:
ROCm doesn’t currently support integrated graphics. If your system has an AMD IGP installed, disable it in the BIOS prior to using ROCm.
AMD might be doing a great job by open-sourcing a part of their driver stack, but until such basic limitations are solved, this cannot be considered a mature product, and anyone advocating for AMD graphics without such disclaimer is not doing so in good faith.
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Love the 240W USB-PD adapter!
Huge kudos to the Framework team for pulling this off. It’s no mean feat! Only thing stopping me pulling the trigger on the 5070 is knowledge of the driver support in Linux. If that stands to improve, or at least be bearable I may drop the money…
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Yes and no? 
Yes, they have per-key RGB. As the current keyboard has that. They could not do any animations where any part of the keyboard was a different color, if not. But I don’t believe that’s what you mean.
Does Framework include a point-and-click GUI utility so that you can set any individual key to any color independent of every other key? No. Not as of today, at least.
A community member did make a keyboard firmware fork that includes GUI control via OpenRGB. For the ANSI/USA keyboard, and macropad when I looked. Adding ISO keyboard support shouldn’t be hard. Firmware not guaranteed to be fully stable / bug-free of course. And anyone who’s really into QMK keyboards, programming them directly, can do any individual per-key control they wish without a GUI. Some have shown things they did.
But there is the question of, if most gamers and other RGB fans presume any mention of “per-key RGB” means it comes with a point-and-click utility to set any individual key’s color independently?
I’m not a big RGB user, so I don’t know. Personally I don’t expect anything. Hell, I’ve seen that you can’t even expect to be able to simply turn them off! See fans, and other components that come with zero control beyond a screwdriver and soldering iron, or pliers!
But anyway, should Framework add a link or something that describes the point-and-click controls it currently has? I sure think so, at least. How about a video that demonstrates the Via control utility? Feels odd that some illustration isn’t provided or linked to.
What do you mean?
I have ROCm running on the AMD 7840HS without the dGPU and it works…ish.
See this thread:
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The US-ANSI keyboard and the macropad only. As has been discussed at length regarding the missing numlock indicator, the numpad does lack the capability to illuminate individual keys. And neither does the German language keyboard I’m using (or any other keyboard besides US-Ansi and clear). That is not a software limitation.
The product page for the 2nd gen numpad https://frame.work/de/en/products/16-numpad?v=FRAKDQ0001 clearly states that it has got Black keys with a togglable white backlight, 1.5mm key travel and NKRO support. The same applies for non-US-ANSI keyboards. So the Every FW 16 keyboard has per-RGB lighting statement is not true, almost no keyboard has!
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There are so many issues with ROCm. Let me know if I am wrong -
- The most obvious one, the GPU is not supported. We have Radeon 7700S, which is not the same thing as Radeon RX 7700 XT, and AMD very clearly says that if the GPU is not on this list, it not supported
-
we’re using laptops, not desktops, for a reason. We need portability, sometimes we need low power consumption (when not running LLM workloads obviously). However, IGPU’s are also not supported:
-
if you reach out to Framework support about any GPU issues (and I have plenty even on a replacement one, full system lockups are common, Framework support will tell you that Ubuntu AMD drivers are outdated, and that you need to use Fedora, or Atomic option like Bluefin/Bazzite instead. The problem? All of those options are unsupported:
Are my eyes deceiving me? Or am I right in saying not meant to be used on FW 16?
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While I agree, “not supported” is a problem. AMD need to support ROCm on every GPU or APU/IGPU they sell.
What I was trying to say is that although it’s not fully supported, it is possible to run ROCm on not supported GPU/IGPU and it can produce results. It is not impossible to run ROCm on them.
AMD are making moves towards supporting more GPUs in their “TheRock” source code on git.
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Right, for sure. This is why I say:
not a mature product, and anyone advocating for AMD graphics without such disclaimer is not doing so in good faith
Maybe it can work and produce results, or maybe it’ll crash your system and that will be your fault because you clearly are doing things you are not supposed to. At the end of the day, from the lens of FW 16, this is not a mature product for this platform.
Different story with RTX 5070 and so I’m happy to see the news!
I really did not expect to see anything nvidia from framework for a while so that is a pleasant surprise.
First party 240W psu and expansion bay power delivery also mean they will have to fix some ec issues.
With some relationship with nvidia existing now getting an nvidia arm platform (assuming that’ll suck less than qualcoms attempt) is less unrealistic than before.
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Ahhh, if I had need of a laptop this would definitely be the first on my list. Though, I have issues with keyboards, I have had ongoing rsi / carpal tunnel / shoulder issues with normal keyboards, have gone on a long journey through the lands of split ergo keyboards, landing briefly on ergodox ez, then the moergo glove80, and finally landed on the Svalboard. none of these integrate well with laptops. it seems such a waste to purchase a keyboard that I am never going to use.
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Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were asking about the per-key aspect of RGB keyboards.
I see I missed that you said “localized” keyboard, and that it would be the different language keyboards. And so I didn’t see the error you were pointing out.
You’re right of course.
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That is not the bottom cover or mid plate, which are the parts that suffer from sagging. I don’t have a FW16, but I’ve found a thread about the issue: FW16 Chassis Bending and I’ve read reports that input eventually stops making good electrical contacts.
That seems like a very limited issue. I didn’t look heavily, but I couldn’t find another thread in the forum and didn’t find any on Reddit. I found one frustrated person, amongst reports of several other issues they said they had, reporting a bent midplate, but it’s unclear what they meant by that and there was no proof.
I’m curious about the ‘reports that input eventually stops making good electrical contacts’ thing you said - where was that reported?
Personal experience with the product:
- I purchased FW16 in batch 3.
- It’s my daily driver for work/not work.
- I take it in a backpack nearly everywhere and there’s no bend to my chassis.
- I’ve upgraded several things (WiFi card, thermal interface, spacers under keyboard, input modules, RAM, SSDs) without incident.
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Three additional questions to describe the backpack situation better.
- What’s the backpack brand / model?
- What other items do you usually have in the backpack?
- What’s a typical week like for the laptop while in the backpack? (e.g. Do you take public transport? Do people bump into you? Or do you take the backpack on a commute bike to/from work, with more bumps than taking public transport / buses / subways?)
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Still need a trackpad with buttons and a keyboard with a track point for me to buy one.
Those are why I buy laptops, all the other stuff is optional.
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