that’s awesome, can you please try MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020?
These have been my results with 4 lane oculink/5090
MSFS 2024
Ultra settings, 10-20 FPS (and randomly crashes)
High-End settings, 30 FPS but dips to 10 (and randomly crashes)
MSFS 2020
Ultra settings, 30 FPS but dips to 10
High-End, 30-60 FPS and very much playable
sorry but i don’t have that game…
Yes, its niche. But the hotplug side is not electrical. Its software. Electrical can be done hotplug, as its supported by the PCIe.
But I assume its hard to get AMD or NVidia to fix their drivers…
I mean, Framework is supposedly to have great relations with AMD, perhaps some AMD designers helping them as part of their job or something. So, how about the GPU hotplug?
Is hotplug really that important for eGPU? I can stomach having to wait the 20ish seconds it takes to reboot.
Yeah I dont consider it that big of an issue either. Using USB4 on my FW16 currently and I can plug the GPU in after turning on, sure. But if I try to unplug it without first ejecting it, the laptop immediately bluescreens.
Thing is however that the hotplug is not a hw issue, as many would like you to believe.
It works with TB docks, so…
Yes, that’s true, no GPU hotplugging and no power delivery, but I personally am willing to trade it for a couple of fps ;). But indeed, that’s what makes thunderbolt so impressive (and difficult to do, which is the reason why thunderbolt 5 took so long). But I am already used to it, so my preference is OCuLink 8i.
Problem is, as far as I know, it potentially involves software that neither us nor Framework directly control, like the BIOS.
I’ve tried to get some semblance of hotplug working, but to no avail. Rescanning the PCIe Bus does not seem to work, so I assume somewhere on the firmware level (likely BIOS) there’s something not implemented. To be fair, PCIe hotplugging is only really used in some server motherboards, and I’ve heard it’s not uncommon for desktop motherboards to not support it in the BIOS. Not sure about laptops.
Maybe, perhaps, that is why Framework is holding back. They know hotplugging will be an issue, and they have no direct control over fixing it (neither on OS side nor BIOS side), so they don’t proceed. Not saying that’s a good way, but could be.
IF it was implemented in BIOS, I do think there’s a good chance you CAN get it to work on linux at least. Even if it may require logging in and out again.
The best I’ve gotten is that linux won’t crash when you unplug it (provided no monitor is attached anymore, didn’t test with one connected). But it certainly is not a clean state (GPU is still shown in PCIe List, for example) and I wouldn’t trust it to run forever (e.g. after resuming from sleep, forgot to test)
In Thunderbolt Dock NVidia drivers support plug/unplug as it almost instantly show that NVidia connected / disconnected overlay window. So, maybe could be used for OcuLink as well somehow… But not a big deal - I unplugged/connected it just once - just to check how it works and type here this message 
@Gu_tally
Are you planning to make them available somehow? Looks like you did a great work and I definitely would be interested in getting something similar…
Yes, and I fully understand that. My hunch, although of course I do not know, is that management at Framework believes that OCuLink is simply, as a technology, not mainstream/mature enough. And this is where I would seriously consider Framework to be one of the few companies that could and should contribute to making it more mainstream. It’s an incredible chance to do something new. It would make Framework the company that built the incredible Framework 16 with new features. And it would allow it to be the only company that makes an OCuLink 8i EGPU connection possible.
And I get it, hotplugging, sure. But this did not prevent ASUS from offering a much celebrated EGPU solution for years successfully. And other companies (e.g. Minisforum) are building entire product lines around OCuLink nowadays (albeit still 4i only, hence the chance for innovation).
OCuLink 8i just needs a little push, and they could do it so well. Custom cable solution that’s more professional, custum EGPU (allowing to also connect their expansion cards), custom 8i board for the dual m.2 board… Companies like Minisforum are already successful with the DEG1. I am sure the 8i EGPU could be sold successfully too. People would take it due to the speed, as it will be simply faster than thunderbolt 5, so competitive for the foreseeable future.
PS: I am writing this mostly as Framework themselves mentioned they would like to enter the EGPU business.
it is going to be. but for now development will pause for a while because I have a dissertation coming up… and I aim to resume it after June. But a second version of the board is already sketched.
Great!
Good luck with your dissertation!