New Framework 16 (rtx 5070 Upgrade) Review 2025

Framework has done what Alienware failed to do: deliver on its promise of upgradeable laptop graphics cards, generation-on-generation. But the premium pricing of the laptop alone, as well as that of the RTX 5070 GPU module, gives the Framework ecosystem an entry barrier so high it will be insurmountable for many PC gamers.

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This might sound ludicrous, but I've never been so happy to see a new gaming laptop release. I was a big fan of the original Framework 16 machine, bringing with it the possibility of a genuinely modular gaming laptop that could grow over the years in the same way a normal desktop rig can. And now here is the theoretically inevitable upgrade, bringing Nvidia's RTX Blackwell architecture as a slot-in option for Framework's 16-incher.

I say 'theoretically inevitable' only because that was effectively the promise Framework made upon launch of the original Framework 16. Yet no other company has managed this feat, with such luminaries as Dell/Alienware being the most notable of failures. So, there's been a little niggle at the base of my brainstem since launch that maybe it might not happen this time, either.

Released at the start of 2024, things looked relatively rosy for the Framework 16, with AMD onboard, helping create the modular Radeon 7700S GPU that was to form the backbone of the first graphics expansion bay. Then the red team just kinda gave up on mobile graphics cards for laptops, and that looked more than mildly worrying for the future of this modular gaming notebook.

Indeed, when the Framework Desktop arrived this August, I found myself mourning what felt like the obvious failure of Framework's modular gaming dream. With nearly two years passing from the original machine's launch and not even a hint of an announcement of a new GPU on the horizon, it felt dead in the water.

Then that same month, Nvidia seemingly comes to the rescue, sliding into the seat at the table vacated by AMD's vanishing mobile GPUs. And this is the result: the RTX 5070 mobile GPU, now available as a slot-in upgrade for any Framework 16 laptop, instantly bringing any old machine into the RTX Blackwell age.

✅ You believe in the Framework ethos: You really need to buy into what Framework is trying to do with laptops in order to justify the extra expense of th

Source: PC Gamer