Selling FW16 Graphics Module (AMD Radeon™ RX 7700S)

Framework Laptop 16
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Hello all,

BLUF: I am selling my FL16 Graphics Module. For reasons explained in the “Shipping” section below, I would prefer to sell domestically, to somebody else who has a shipping address within Canada. However, I am open to proposals from international buyers as well, if they are accompanied by an alternative plan for handling the transaction.

If you have any questions or concerns, please post them below!

Background

To provide context on this offer, when I rushed to place my FL16 pre-order, I did not realize how powerful the integrated graphics solution would be. I had naively assumed that discrete graphics would be required for anything more than the lightest of use cases, since this was the case for the nearly decade-old machine which I just upgraded from.

However, this assumption was quite inaccurate, as I quickly realized after having time to conduct some research on the matter. Since I do not play games or frequently perform other graphically intensive activities, I determined that the integrated graphics would be perfectly sufficient for my needs (as, indeed, they subsequently turned out to be). Unfortunately, by this point, it was too late. I had placed my order already, and editing it to remove the Graphics Module was not an option.

I decided to create a post asking the community for suggestions on what I could do with the superfluous hardware. As a result of that discussion and some further research, I ultimately opted to sell my Graphics Module to another Framework user (after confirming with Support that such a course of action was permissible).

Product Details

My Graphics Module is brand new and has never been used. It came pre-installed in the laptop when it was shipped to me, which presumably means that it passed all QC tests at the factory. However, I removed it and swapped in the Expansion Bay Shell before booting the computer for the first time.

I would be happy to install the module in my laptop and run benchmarks or other tests if requested (in either Windows or Linux). However, the performance is likely to be very similar to figures seen in reviews of the FL16, so this endeavor may not be of much practical value.

Finally, for clarity, the interposer for the Graphics Module is of course included in my offer; this allows the module to be installed and used immediately by the buyer, as one would expect.

Warranty

Unfortunately, I will not be able to accept returns on this product after shipping. However, the original 1-year warranty (11 months of which remain) which comes with it (in the Canadian region) will automatically be transferred to the new owner. Many companies have a policy of voiding a product’s warranty if it is sold secondhand. Fortunately, Framework’s philosophy is quite different and they actively encourage trading of their parts to reduce e-waste:

Therefore, if you encounter issues with the product (either immediately or at any point over the next year), you can work directly with Framework’s Support team to resolve them, just as if you had purchased the item firsthand. In any case, they have the resources to assist you much better than I ever could.

Pricing

Framework does not yet have stock of the Graphics Module on their marketplace, but the product page is available and the price is known to be $685 CAD. Though the exact shipping cost of the item is currently unknown, another item with a roughly comparable size and weight (the FL13 mainboard) ships for $20, so that figure will be used here. In addition, a tax rate of 10% (roughly average in Canada) is assumed, adding $68 to the total. Combining these, the cost of purchasing a Graphics Module directly from Framework (in Canada), once they become available, should be approximately $773 CAD.

Since my Graphics Module is completely new (less one month of warranty), I believe it’s reasonable to ask nearly full price for it. With a base cost of $675 ($10 off) and adding $30 for shipping (half of the estimated $60 shipping cost; see the next section), the total comes to $705. I am willing to sell for $700 CAD, bringing the asking price to a round number.

Shipping

I plan to utilize Canada Post for shipping. They offer a service called “collect on delivery” (CoD), which I believe provides reasonable protections for both buyers and sellers during the transaction process. Briefly, it works as follows:

  1. The package will be addressed to you, but it will be shipped to your nearest Canada Post office and held there.
  2. When the package is ready for pickup, you will receive a “delivery notice card” in your regular mailbox.
  3. Once you take the notice card to the post office, you will be asked to pay the requested amount (see the previous section) at the counter, after which the package will immediately be released to you.
  4. Your work is complete; Canada Post will take responsibility for transferring the funds to the sender of the package.

If you would like further details about the CoD process, please see this explanatory page. As noted in the section “Receiving and paying for a COD parcel”, you will not be able to pay by credit card, since the package value exceeds the $100 credit limit. Alternative payment options (including cash and debit) are given in a table at the end of the section.

The CoD service is only available for domestic shipments, which is why I would strongly prefer to sell to somebody with a Canadian shipping address. As mentioned above, though, if international buyers are interested in this offer and have an alternative plan for handling the transaction, I would be happy to hear it.

For now, I am assuming a $60 shipping cost, of which I will cover half (thereby adding only $30 to the item price). This value comes from Canada Post’s online rate calculator. On this page, I selected the following options (see the Graphics Module specifications here for confirmation of the numbers):

  • The “Regular Parcel” rate (for comparison, Xpresspost would cost about $20 more)
  • A destination postal code about halfway across the country from me (to obtain an average shipping cost)
  • Parcel size of 45 cm. wide, 15 cm. deep, and 10 cm. tall
  • Shipping mass of 0.5 kg
  • Collect on delivery service (as per the above)
  • Liability coverage of $700
  • Signature service (mandatory when liability coverage is selected)

The actual shipping cost may be slightly different, but the above constitutes a reasonable estimate.

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I’d be interested in buying this off you, I can arrange shipping internationally via FedEx myself, and I’m happy to pay in another method such as PayPal or an international bank transfer

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I stand corrected. I shouldn’t stay up so late :stuck_out_tongue:

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The poster mentioned having bought the expansion bay shell too, so it would be full price for the GPU.

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Yeah.
The price for adding a Graphics Module is $685 CAD. The $550 price is only when you give up the regular fan module, it includes a credit / reduced price. And of course, you can’t use the FWL16 without at least the regular fan module. You don’t get to pay $550 if you’re selling the Graphics Module.

2024-04-13_fwl16-gpu
2024-04-13_fwl16-gpu447×803 127 KB

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Price in USD to buy on the marketplace.

image
image443×583 68.2 KB

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Thank you for your interest. I’ve already had somebody else reach out to me about this offer via direct message, and I’m currently coordinating with them. If that deal falls through for whatever reason, I’ll send you another message so we can discuss this further.

Also, purely out of curiosity, may I ask what you’re planning on doing with the module? Most people would just install and use it normally, but I suspect your ambitions are greater. If you’re willing to share, is there a particular project you have in mind?

Having seen the wide array of Framework-related paraphernalia you’ve developed over the past few years, I must say - without at all intending to sound patronizing - that I’m extremely impressed. I certainly wish I had anywhere near that level of hardware design knowledge/experience when I was a teenager.

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I can see where the confusion would come from, but the Graphics Module is indeed priced at $685 CAD, as can be seen on the Marketplace (you will need to switch to the Canadian locale to display the appropriate currency). As a few others have already pointed out, the $550 figure in the FL16 configurator is the price delta between the Expansion Bay Shell (which costs $135 CAD) and the Graphics Module, since the former is already included in the base price. As nice as it would be, there is unfortunately no “bundle savings” when purchasing the module along with a laptop.

In any case, thank you for checking my calculations. It would certainly be questionable (at best) if someone were attempting to sell a secondhand product for over $100 more than it was worth when new. In actuality, I’m going to lose a bit of money through this transaction, since I’m not attempting to recoup the sales tax I paid for the module.

Finally, as a general comment, I sincerely appreciate that members of this community will go out of their way to highlight potentially problematic and/or misleading information, ensuring others are not deceived or scammed by it. Even in instances of false positives - as in this case - others who may have had the same misconception will be educated through the ensuing discussion, which also benefits the community.

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To ensure that my Graphics Module is operating as expected, I installed it and ran some tests. In summary, the hardware performs exactly according to spec. For more details, please see the report below.

Methodology

Three synthetic stress tests from the Geeks3D GPUTest utility were run, with the goal being to assess how the hardware functions when loaded through different graphics APIs. A rendering resolution of 1920 by 1080 was used (running in fullscreen mode), and each test was conducted for a 15-minute duration, giving plenty of time for the thermal system to be fully saturated.

For those who are curious, data was visualized using a tool called Netdata.

Data

For each test, plots of the GPU utilization, GPU frequency, GPU memory frequency, and temperatures (including the die’s edge temperature, the junction temperature, and the memory/VRAM temperature) are provided below.

Test 1_Furmark
Test 1_Furmark1875×1759 255 KB

Test 2_GiMark
Test 2_GiMark1875×1759 216 KB

Test 3_TessMark
Test 3_TessMark1875×1759 190 KB

Results

A summary table of the results is given below. All listed frequency and temperature values are averaged over the test duration.

Test name OpenGL version GPU freq. (GHz) Memory freq. (GHz) Edge temp. (°C) Junction temp. (°C) Memory temp. (°C)
FurMark 2.1/3.0 1.30 1.12 71 78 89
GiMark 3.3 2.00 1.12 69 78 86
TessMark X64 4.0 2.28 0.772 68 79 78

In all tests, the GPU utilization remained essentially locked at 100%, indicating that performance was not being impacted by thermal throttling or power limitations.

As seen in the table, the GPU clock frequency increases with progressively more “modern” tests. In FurMark, it maintains an average value of 1.30 GHz, with occasional spikes to about 1.50 GHz. With GiMark and TessMark, on the other hand, the clock hits or exceeds 2.00 GHz. The values here are favourably comparable to AMD’s expected “game frequency” of 2.20 GHz, as listed on the product page for the RX 7700S.

The memory clock is much the same. In the first two tests, it is locked at 1.12 GHz when under load, which is exactly in line with the maximum value of 1,124 MHz reported by amdgpu_top. In the final TessMark test, the frequency was reduced to 772 MHz but did not introduce any performance penalty, indicating that this test simply does not need to make as much use of VRAM as the others.

In all tests, temperature values rose over a period of about 90 seconds before saturating. The junction temperature (~78 °C) and edge temperature (~69 °C) values remained reasonably close to each other in every case, implying that heat is spread out over the die fairly evenly and providing further confirmation that the Graphics Module’s thermal interface is functioning normally.

Also note the consistency between tests; temperatures saturate at nearly the same levels regardless of the load being run (excepting the slightly lower memory temperature for TessMark, which correlates with the reduced memory clock for that test). Given that the values always remained well under AMD’s specified “critical warning” temperatures of 100 °C for the GPU cores and 105 °C for the VRAM (as given by amdgpu_top), the module’s cooling solution is clearly more than capable for the GPU it houses.

Once again, bear in mind that the tests run here were synthetic stressors; real-world tasks will not load the GPU quite as much or maintain the maximum load for such an extended period. Therefore, one could reasonably expect even better thermal performance during day-to-day use. This is good, since the fans do get quite loud (though not unbearably so) at full speed (this is a subjective statement as I do not have the equipment to properly measure noise levels).

In conclusion, the Graphics Module was confirmed to reach or exceed its rated frequencies under several different synthetic stress tests. Additionally, all temperatures of interest were found to be well within the maximum limits for this product. Ergo, the hardware is functioning perfectly.

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I have now sold my Graphics Module to another user on these forums. Thank you again to everybody else who expressed interest in my offer.

For those still looking to buy a module, please be aware that they are - as of recently - available for purchase on the Marketplace, directly from Framework.

For anyone in the future who is looking to sell their Graphics Module (perhaps when the next generation of hardware is released), please feel free to use anything I have written above for reference or as a template, should you find it to be of value.

@moderators, this topic can be closed now; thank you.

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