Framework created a modular laptop design that allows discrete graphics cards to be swapped by end users. An entire laptop GPU was replaced in three minutes, including reboot time, at Framework's San Francisco facility. An AMD Radeon RX 7700S was removed and a mobile Nvidia RTX 5070 installed using just six screws and the supplied pen-shaped screwdriver. The swap was filmed to demonstrate its speed and simplicity. Both Nvidia and AMD mobile cards fit the system, providing practical futureproofing for gaming laptops and a simpler alternative to MXM modules.
I traveled to Framework's San Francisco offices to be the first journalist to upgrade an entire laptop graphics card, with my own hands, in just three minutes - including the time it took to reboot. I yanked an AMD Radeon RX 7700S video card out of the machine and plugged in a brand-new mobile Nvidia RTX 5070, with just six screws and using the pen-shaped screwdriver that comes included with the machine.
And because seeing is believing, I filmed the whole thing to show you how quick and easy it was. (Hey veteran PC builders: this looks easier than MXM modules, right?) This is the proof point we've been waiting for. It's one thing to build a laptop that can swap its graphics card, and another thing entirely to actually get both Nvidia and AMD to actually deliver upgrades that fit. Alienware built such a system in 2019, the Alienware Area-51m, but a year later
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