At a notebook-specific forum I frequent, a user has noticed that the Framework 16 modular discrete graphics solution uses a connector first used by Dell in its Precision 7530 and 7730 workstation notebooks, released in 2018. The connector is the array of gold LGA pads on the motherboard seen in the bottom-right screenshot.
Dell has been using DGFF ever since, in all Precision 7XXX notebooks and the Alienware Area-15m, to facilitate modular GPUs. However, Dell changes its notebook layout every two years, so these GPUs are not upgradeable after two generations (so a 7530 could be upgraded to a GPU in a 7540, but not a 7550, released in 2020).
It's going to be interesting how Framework adapts the connector for its own use. The cards are fairly high-powered; in the most recent 7770 (17" workstation), the RTX 3080 Ti card can draw up to 130 W.
Some examples of previous DGFF discrete cards are here[1][2][3][4].
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 15.6 ms ] threadDell has been using DGFF ever since, in all Precision 7XXX notebooks and the Alienware Area-15m, to facilitate modular GPUs. However, Dell changes its notebook layout every two years, so these GPUs are not upgradeable after two generations (so a 7530 could be upgraded to a GPU in a 7540, but not a 7550, released in 2020).
It's going to be interesting how Framework adapts the connector for its own use. The cards are fairly high-powered; in the most recent 7770 (17" workstation), the RTX 3080 Ti card can draw up to 130 W.
Some examples of previous DGFF discrete cards are here[1][2][3][4].
[1]: https://imgur.com/aMal40L : Quadro P3200 (Pascal), Quadro RTX 3000, Quadro RTX 5000 (latter two Turing) [2]: https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/News/_nc3/... : RTX [3]: https://dl.dell.com/content/guides/public/Html/precision_756... : new form factor for 7550 and 7560 generation [4]: https://dl.dell.com/content/guides/public/Html/precision_767... : newer form factor for 7670 and 7770 generation