Modular laptops with upgradable GPUs have been a thing for more than a decade at this point, but that trend lost momentum in the last handful of years, until now. Framework, the company that came on to the scene with its modular laptop designs, is keeping a promise it made years ago and delivering a new Laptop 16 with a fully upgradable discrete GPU.
Specifically, the new Framework 16 laptop now comes with the option to upgrade it with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 8GB laptop GPU module. It’s a milestone for the company, given that this is the first time in modern memory that a laptop is able to offer consumers the option of upgrading their discrete graphics to a modern and current-gen GPU. And yes, NVIDIA is fully supportive of this.
That isn’t to say Framework never offered a GPU option to its modular machines. Last year, the Laptop 16 came with the option to ship out with an AMD Radeon RX 7700S, which AMD is also fully supportive of.
And installing the new RTX 5070 module into the Framework Laptop 16 isn’t all that difficult, based on the company’s promotional video for it. All-in-all, it takes about two minutes to swap out the top of the Laptop 16 and slot in the discrete GPU. That said, the company makes it clear in its copy that installing it will increase the thickness of the back, but hey, what’s a little extra thickness for power?
At the same time, the RTX 5070 module also has a built-in USB-C port that serves as the charging port for both laptop and GPU, as well as a Display Output port. More importantly, Framework is touting it as the world’s first fast-charging 240W USB-C charging port.
Price-wise, Framework is selling the RTX 5070 module for US$699 (~RM2,959). Folks who purchased the original Laptop 16 when it launched in 2023 will still be able to upgrade their machine with it, and at the same time, the company is also reducing its base price to US$1,299 (~RM5,500).
Now comes the bad news: Framework still isn’t officially shipping out its modular laptops to Malaysia. Worst, it still doesn’t have an official timeline on when it intends to include our country in the list.
