GoKawiilis a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
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Remember when Framework made the first laptop where you can easily upgrade its entire internal video card in three minutes flat? The company’s getting into the external graphics game, too. As promised last August, you’ll be able to turn the Framework Laptop 16’s GPU modules into external ones instead. Or, you can plug in a desktop graphics card (or network card, or other PCIe cards) for more power than most laptops ever dream of having, with eight lanes of PCI-Express bandwidth.
Framework’s calling it the OCuLink Dev Kit, because it uses the OCuLink standard to transmit data between your CPU and the external GPU, and because the company wants you to know this isn’t exactly a consumer friendly product. “It’s not like Thunderbolt where it’s a simple plug-and-play solution,” Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells The Verge. “It’s for that enthusiast or power user.”
The add-in board to give the Framework Laptop 16 an OCuLink port. Image: Framework Using a Framework Laptop 16 with a desktop GPU requires a desktop power supply. (And you’ll still need to charge the laptop, too.) Image: Framework The “Desktop Replacer” frame for the discrete Laptop 16 GPU. Image: Framework The laptop discrete GPU, connected to an OCuLink eGPU board with Framework’s interposer. Image: Framework
As I discovered when I plugged an RTX 5090 into a gaming handheld last year, the benefit of OCuLink is that even a relatively weak laptop can become a GPU powerhouse when you’ve got a beefy direct link to the external card. The downsides are that OCuLink connectors aren’t particularly robust, only transmit PCIe data (no USB, no power for your laptop) and generally can’t be hotplugged. “Our recommendation to users is you’re going to need to shut down and power back up,” says Patel.
Related I plugged an Nvidia RTX 5090 into a gaming handheld
The other reason it’s labeled a Dev Kit is because what Framework is offering is intentionally barebones to keep costs low. Framework provides the GPU adapters, but it’s bring-your-own desktop computer power supply and maybe 3D-print your own docking stand. “We’re releasing design files for people to be able to 3D print their own solutions,” says Patel.
Your old Laptop 16 discrete GPU could make for a fairly tidy dock, though you may need to 3D print the stand yourself. Image: Framework
You will be able to pick as many (or as few) of the three components that Framework is building, though, if you want to mix and match with other OCuLink solutions that are already available in the market. Those three components (which you can see in the gallery earlier in this post) are:
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