Support for discrete cards (nvidia/AMD)

It will require an external GPU dock, but it is possible. Thunderbolt 3 has equivalent bandwidth to PCIe 3.0 x4, but on average that will give 90%+ of the performance of PCIe 3.0 x16 like found on desktops: TechPowerUp

Future GPU generations may have more of a performance hit from the limited bandwidth, but it will depend on your workload.

So question on the USB-C on the board are they 2 lane or 4 lane?

4 lanes of PCIe 3.0

They use the Thunderbolt 4 standard

Hi there.
Have a look in ASUS ROG devices. This one is under 2 kg with RTX3060. So it should be possible without graddle or other unhandy stuff.
Regards, harald

Yes that would be a very good option. However I think the chassis and the cooling may be somewhat limited because of how small the body is. I mean there are laptops out there with a little bit thicker body, but it is still not enough to cool both cpu and gpu for gaming. I would rather have a different but thicker body design and cooling design that is specifically for higher TDP if you wanted dgpu.

Iā€™m going to pop in here to say a few things.

A) I can confirm a Razer Core X works with the Framework Laptop as an external GPU enclosure (I currently am using the i7-1165 model with 16 gb RAM with a 2060 super in the enclosure)

B) Definitely cpu bottle necked when playing games at times, but otherwise ran quite well. I tried out No Mans Sky running at the native screen resolution of the laptop at fairly high graphics settings and except for a few frame drops to around the 30s (usually when loading in assets and whatnot), I got 60 fps the rest of the time. Iā€™d say a pretty decent gaming experience

C) slightly separate but, (as I was typing this post up on the laptop it happened), the laptop will randomly freeze up and the only way to force it to shut down is the good olā€™ holding the power button until it shuts off. Itā€™s so far only happened when on my desktop and not running any games or anything. I donā€™t know if itā€™s because itā€™s connected to the external GPU yet but Iā€™ll get back to your guys on that

7 Likes

@FaultedBeing Let us know what you find on the freezing issue. We havenā€™t seen that occur before, but we also havenā€™t done extensive use of eGPUs and havenā€™t tested the Razer Core X specifically. One recommendation would be to make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers installed.

3 Likes

@nrp Iā€™ll make sure to keep you guys updated. I had the same thought and already updated the Nvidia drivers to the most recent versions, although the issue happened again with those drivers. Iā€™ll check again later tonight if I can replicate the freeze again

2 Likes

Ok so the crash happened again. @nrp

All I had open at the time (and I had just hooked everything up) was task manager and another cpu temp monitoring software. Nothing heavy. I had plugged into the topmost left port with the thunderbolt cable at the time. I also had my headphones plugged into the laptop.

(photo of task manager at the moment it froze)

I then switched the side of the laptop that I plugged the egpu into and itā€™s working smoothly on the other side (so far). Scratch that, it just crashed again ( Literally as I was writing this :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: ) All screens frozen (I had two displays hooked up to the graphics card) still displaying everything but audio just cut off and I canā€™t move anything or type anything. The fans in the laptop have gone on full (or at least it sounds like it.)

Iā€™d also like to add that when I have the egpu plugged In, and Iā€™m listening to audio through the built in port, thereā€™s a strange crackling. I tried different aux cords, then tried the same cords in a different computer and the issue only happened when I was plugged into the audio jack with the egpu.

If you need more info let me know!

Edit: Iā€™ll also add that I had an Ethernet cord hooked up to the egpu box but Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s relevant or not

3 Likes

Thanks for the detailed report. Could you also share which Thunderbolt cable youā€™re using with the eGPU?

3 Likes

Itā€™s the cable that came with the Core X, about a 2.5 ft thunderbolt cable. I could switch it out for a different cord and see if it happens again.

I forgot to mention that I had switched the GPU inside the egpu box to a different 2060 super and the same issue occurred

1 Like

The freeze happened again. This time I had a roughly 6 foot 4ā€ cable (while it looked to be the same type of cord that I was using before, simply longer, Its the cord my brother has been using on his egpu set up for a year now so it should be good).

Instead of unplugging the GPU, this time I turned the GPU off first, and the laptop gave me a blue screen instead.

I currently have the blue screen, it says itā€™s done and will restart (but it isnā€™t restarting)

Edit: I may force shut it off and hope for the best

1 Like

Ok so update. Whenever I have Rocket League running it doesnā€™t crash, soooooo, if I leave rocket league running, and just put the window mostly off the bottom of the screen, I donā€™t have any issues. I think this applies to any program that requires some graphics power, but, I have a hacky solution and am happy :grin: (would still love to get to the bottom of the issue though)

Very interestingā€¦ One other thing that would be interesting to test if it fits is plugging one of the cables directly into the laptop, rather than through the USB-C Expansion Card. That would help to determine if this is a signal issue or a software compatibility issue.

4 Likes

laptop with discrete cards usually needs a good cooling system. So, the fan canā€™t get too loud and get toasty. So, many manufacturers solve this by soldered the memory/storage parts to save spaces and I hope framework with modular laptop philosophy can solve the issue without soldered important parts

2 Likes

Just tried it, same issue. I plugged directly into the recessed laptop port, with out the expansion card, and Iā€™m afraid it crashed as well.

Edit: I will be away from the egpu for a couple weeks starting Monday so I will probably be of less help for a bit

1 Like

Thanks for all the attempts! The bad news is that it is still crashing, but the good news is that it seems like it may be a solvable driver or firmware issue rather than something in the hardware setup. Weā€™ll try to replicate it on our side.

7 Likes

Good find @FaultedBeing Iā€™m looking forward to this issue being resolved and Iā€™ll likely buy my own discrete external gpu as well. Good work!

Good find @FaultedBeing Iā€™m looking forward to this issue being resolved and Iā€™ll likely buy my own discrete external gpu as well. Good work!

2 Likes

I also want to ask about the possibility of a discrete card. I donā€™t want to have to carry external gpu so are there any plans for a thicker version with GPU?

2 Likes