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The Framework Desktop is a beast

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Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#41

Post by richardw »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #19
onli wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is still right. It is a desktop PC that is less repairable than all other desktop PCs, from a brand that is known to champion repairability. They had a reason for it, but could've chosen to not create more throwaway things.

The 128GB version wouldn't be throwaway, since that's the maximum the platform as a whole supports anyway- more memory than that would require a new mainboard and CPU at the same time.

That applies to all computers when you buy the fully specced versions on day 1. A maxxed out iPad isn’t throwaway, but framework represents a higher standard of upgradability.

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#44

Post by monster_truck »

kristianp wrote: post #15

> There's at least a little flexibility with the graphics card if you move the board into a different case—there's a single PCIe x4 slot on the board that you could put an external GPU into, though many PCIe x16 graphics cards will be bandwidth starved. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/review-framework-des...

There are no situations where this matters yet. You have to drop down to an 8x slot on PCIe 3.0 to even begin to see any meaningful impact on benchmarks (synthetic or otherwise)

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#45

Post by ElectricalUnion »

wolfgangK wrote: post #34
kristianp wrote: post #15

> There's at least a little flexibility with the graphics card if you move the board into a different case—there's a single PCIe x4 slot on the board that you could put an external GPU into, though many PCIe x16 graphics cards will be bandwidth starved. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/review-framework-des...

For LLM inference, I don't think the PCIe bandwidth matters much and a GPU could improve greatly the prompt processing speed.

Only if your entire model fits the GPU VRAM.

To me this reads like "if you can afford those 256GB VRAM GPUs, you don't need PCIe bandwidth!"

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#46

Post by jgalt212 »

wolfgangK wrote: post #34
kristianp wrote: post #15

> There's at least a little flexibility with the graphics card if you move the board into a different case—there's a single PCIe x4 slot on the board that you could put an external GPU into, though many PCIe x16 graphics cards will be bandwidth starved. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/review-framework-des...

For LLM inference, I don't think the PCIe bandwidth matters much and a GPU could improve greatly the prompt processing speed.

Yeah, I think so. Once the whole model is on the GPU (potentially slower start-up), there really isn't much traffic between the GPU and the motherboard. That's how I think about it. But mostly saying this as I'm interested in being corrected if I'm wrong.

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#47

Post by everfrustrated »

OrvalWintermute wrote: post #7

very impressive... Max+ 395 specced with: 128GB of non-upgradeable LPDDR5x WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe - M.2 2280 - 8TB Noctua fan 3x + 3x extra USB-A & USB-C ports No OS option. only $2,776.00!!!

Bear in mind the gpu has access to all of that 128GB as well, so for AI thats very very cheap.

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#48

Post by OrvalWintermute »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #27
OrvalWintermute wrote: post #7

very impressive... Max+ 395 specced with: 128GB of non-upgradeable LPDDR5x WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe - M.2 2280 - 8TB Noctua fan 3x + 3x extra USB-A & USB-C ports No OS option. only $2,776.00!!!

everything's cheap when you're rich

A mac studio configured similarly With 128 GB of memory and an 8 TB SSD is $5799

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#49

Post by [deleted] »

sethops1 wrote: post #3
Jtsummers wrote: post #2

> In some ways, the Framework Desktop is a curious machine. Desktop PCs are already very user-repairable! So why is Framework even bringing their talents to this domain? In the laptop realm, they're basically alone with that concept, but in the desktop space, it's rather crowded already. Yet it somehow still makes sense. And even more curious, Framework Desktop is deliberately less repairable than their laptops. They…

The RAM is soldered on all Halo Strix platforms because physics is getting in the way. With pluggable DIMMs the memory bandwidth would be halved, at best.

[deleted]

Re: The Framework Desktop is a beast

#50

Post by tgma »

conradev wrote: post #32
kristianp wrote: post #15

> There's at least a little flexibility with the graphics card if you move the board into a different case—there's a single PCIe x4 slot on the board that you could put an external GPU into, though many PCIe x16 graphics cards will be bandwidth starved. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/review-framework-des...

You can also use an adapter to repurpose an M.2 slot as PCIe x16, but the bandwidth is the same x4

That's just called a PCIe x4 [1]. Each PCIe lane is an independent channel. The wider slot will simply have disconnected pins. You can actually do this with regular motherboard PCIe x4 slots by cutting the plastic at the end of the slot so you can insert a wider card and most cards work just fine.

[1]: It sounds like a nitpick but a PCIe x16 with x4 effective bandwidth can exist and is a different thing: if the actual PCIe interface is x16, but there is an upstream bottleneck (e.g. aggregate bandwidth from chipset to CPU is not enough to handle all peripherals at once at full rate.)

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