Aside: any chance to load a real GPU like a 4070 or 5070 in this system, maybe even on the side?

If it's running an LLM you're thinking of, there was a post yesterday on r/LocalLLaMa from someone who put a 24 GB VRAM AMD 7900xtx into their GMK X2: https://old.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1ni5tq3/amd_max...

The GMK X2 doesn't have the Framework motherboard, but it's the same AMD APU, so the characteristics should be similar.

This really ought to be a consumer-grade LLM powerhouse, but the results were underwhelming. Due to the APU design, bandwidth between the APU and the discrete GPU is limited. From the Reddit poster "In this case adding the 7900xtx is effectively like just having another 24GB added to the 128GB."

Running an AMD GPU with the AMD APU should save the headache of dealing with both Nvidia and AMD drivers on the same host. It's possible that an Nvidia GPU might give better performance here, or there might be other optimizations to be made.

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Marsymars 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A GPU like that wouldn’t fit in the case and kinda defeats the purpose of getting the included mobo/CPU/iGPU combo... so why are you trying to make a discrete GPU work with that PC at all rather than just getting mini-ITX system with a standard desktop CPU?

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orliesaurus 3 days ago | parent [-]

Sometimes you want the option of having an external graphics card for that extra boost, especially because I foresee buying a computer and being able to use it for more than like 1 or 2 years. And most video games that I have been playing start lagging really hard 1 or 2 years after my computer was built

	▲	Marsymars 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, it just doesn’t seem like the Framework Desktop is really the right starting point for something where you’d want a discrete GPU; you’re basically throwing away the cost, advantages, and specialization required to build a Strix Halo desktop in the first place.

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throawayonthe 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

the motherboard does have a 4x pcie slot, but the default case wouldn't fit a second gpu

you can buy it without the case: https://frame.work/marketplace/mainboards?compatibility%5B%5...

P.S. the igpu in this really is comparable to a 'real' gpu in performance, with the bonus of being able to allocate arbitrary amount of vram

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4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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