What’s new in the Framework Laptop 16 of 2025?
The new RTX 5070 graphics module is the best hardware upgrade framework introduced this year.
Andrew Cunningham
The new RTX 5070 graphics module is the best hardware upgrade framework introduced this year.
Andrew Cunningham
The framework says that the new GPU module (below) and the second generation versions of the Radeon RX 7700S GPU have a different fan and cooling design than the older GPU module (above).
Andrew Cunningham
The framework says that the new GPU module (below) and the second generation versions of the Radeon RX 7700S GPU have a different fan and cooling design than the older GPU module (above).
Andrew Cunningham
The new RTX 5070 graphics module is the best hardware upgrade framework introduced this year.
Andrew Cunningham
The framework says that the new GPU module (below) and the second generation versions of the Radeon RX 7700S GPU have a different fan and cooling design than the older GPU module (above).
Andrew Cunningham
An upgraded motherboard and a new graphics module are the centerpiece of this year’s Laptop 16 upgrade. The motherboard moves up from AMD Ryzen 7040-series processors to AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chips. These are the same processor frameworks that were put into the Laptop 13 earlier this year, although they should be able to run slightly faster in the Laptop 16 due to the larger heatsink and dual-fan cooling system.
With an upgrade from Zen 4-based CPU cores to Zen 5 cores, the Ryzen AI series includes an advanced Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that’s fast enough to earn Microsoft’s CoPilot+ PC label. These PCs have access to a handful of unique Windows 11 AI and machine-learning features (yes, recall, but no) Now! remember) which are processed locally rather than in the cloud. If you don’t care about these features, you can mostly ignore them, but if you do, this is the first version of Laptop 16 to support them.
Most of the other features and specifications of the new motherboard remain the same as the first generation version; There are two SO-DIMM slots for up to 96GB of DDR5-5600, an M.2 2280 slot for the system’s main SSD, and an M.2 2230 slot for the secondary SSD. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth connectivity is provided by an AMD RZ717 Wi-Fi card that can, at least in theory, be replaced with something faster if you prefer.
However, the more exciting upgrade may be the GeForce RTX 5070 GPU. This is the first time the framework has offered an Nvidia product – its other GPUs have come from either Intel or AMD – and it gives the new Laptop 16″ access to Nvidia technologies like DLSS and CUDA, as well as improved performance for games with ray-traced lighting effects.
However, those hoping for really high-end graphics options for the Laptop 16 will have to keep waiting. The laptop version of the RTX 5070 is actually the same chip as the desktop version of the RTX 5060, which is a $300 graphics card with 8GB of RAM. As much as this laptop adds to the 16in, it still won’t let you even come close to 4K in most modern games, and for some, it may even struggle to take full advantage of the internal 165Hz 1600p screen. Business workloads (including AI workloads) that require more graphics RAM will also fall short of the mobile 5070.