This clever new gaming laptop has an upgradable Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 GPU

A new gaming laptop has introduced a novel new idea that claims to solve the problem of upgrading your GPU in a portable machine. Instead of ditching your laptop and buying a new one, or plugging a cumbersome external GPU box into the back of it, you can swap out the graphics card at the back of the Framework 16 for another one, with the top option currently being an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 module.

Even the best gaming laptop designs on our buying guide can't be upgraded when it comes to the internal GPU, and that's a real problem when you're paying so much money for a machine, as it automatically becomes obsolete a few years down the line. However, Framework claims that its new design enables you to do just that, with a choice of GPU modules that can be swapped in and out of the machine, depending on your priorities, including one based on one of the latest Nvidia GPUs.

In an introduction video, which you can see below, Nirav Patel, founder of Framework, describes the upgradable expansion bay as "our most ambitious thing of all." Patel admits that the company "heard a lot of skepticism" about the expansion bay when it was first rolled out earlier, with the idea that its existing laptops could be upgraded later when the company made new GPU modules for it.

At that point, there was just the choice of an AMD Radeon 7700S module or a blank module that could hold other components, such as extra M.2 slots, but now the company has made an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 module that can not only upgrade its latest Framework 16, but also the previous model.

"Could Framework, little Framework, actually solve a problem that much bigger companies took on and failed at?" He asks. After teasing us for a minute, he then reveals that the answer is a firm yes. "We have Nvidia on board this generation on a new graphics module, so that means we actually did deliver graphics upgradability in a laptop."

Patel says that the project "actually took a ton of coordination between Nvidia, AMD, our manufacturing partner, and of course, our Framework engineering teams to make it possible." The new module features an integrated cooling system and an RTX 5070 chip, as well as 8GB of dedicated GDDR7 VRAM, and it hooks up to the laptop through a custom interposer that provides eight PCIe 4.0 lanes. That's just about enough bandwidth for the laptop RTX 5070, but it may start to limit the performance of higher-spec GPUs such as the laptop RTX 5090, if these were every introduced to the Framework system.

Even so, it bypasses the need to plug an external GPU box into the device, and gives you the convenience of a proper discrete GPU in your laptop that you can swap for another one. Framework will continue to make the Radeon RX 7700S module available for its laptops, including the new one, as well as the empty expansion bay module, which reduces the thickness and weight of the device, while giving you room to install other optional modules.

The new laptop has a screen to match the GPU module as well, offering a 165Hz refresh rate and Nvidia G-Sync support, so it can synchronize the refresh rate with the frame rate output of the GPU.

Meanwhile, a choice of AMD CPUs is available, with the top-end model being the new AMD AI 9 HX 370. I tested this 12-core CPU for my Razer Blade 16 review, and it has plenty of power for both work and play, while offering a half-decent integrated GPU itself. As with Framework's previous designs, the whole laptop is built from modular components, so the machine can be easily repaired, upgraded, and customized, rather than having a closed-box design that needs to be replaced when it's broken or obsolete.

The Framework 16 is available to pre-order now, and is expected to start shipping in November 2025. You can order it pre-built, or as a DIY kit so you can customize it, and use your own choice of SSDs, memory, and operating system, for example. Prices start from $1,499 for the DIY edition with a Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, or $1,799 for a pre-built version with the same CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Adding the RTX 5070 module will cost an extra $650, which isn't cheap, but on the plus side, there's a good chance you might be able to upgrade it further down the line, and it's good to have it as a potential option to buy later as well.

If you're thinking about building one with your own choice of gear, check out our guide to the best gaming RAM, as well as our best gaming SSD guide, to pick the perfect parts to go with it.

Would you be interested in a laptop you can easily repair and upgrade? Let us know your thoughts in our community Discord channel.