As a Steam Deck upgrade, seems like a decent choice for a home console. But I also think someone who can build a PC from scratch (or knows someone who can) would want to consider some SFF builds.
The Framework Desktop’s CPU (both options) is great. For a laptop. Or a handheld. It’s not really a desktop CPU. The fact they got it in a desktop with the configurability that comes with their custom mainboard is incredible. But while it’s super cool if you just want to share your system memory with your GPU for training a model, for example, it’s not going to have the performance that mid to high end builds will on more demanding games.
For the same price and some deal hunting, you should be able to put together a decent SFF home-console-style PC with a more clear upgrade path.
The fact that the RAM is just literally unupgradable due to the structure of the chip really just drives that home - they shouldn’t have made it a desktop.
Idk, maybe some sort of cluster piece or something?
I disagree. Bringing that hardware to a desktop form factor is incredible and opens it up to be used in ways that wouldn’t be possible in a mobile form-factor.
None of those ways are gaming. It’s not a gaming PC. It’s for very specific workloads.
Well perhaps the bigger problem is the Verge reviewing it as a gaming rig
You can buy it ‘naked’ without the desktop shell, for clustering (though also just to choose your own case).
It’s really meant as an LLM-runner that fits on your desk, for people who aren’t looking to have a rackmount setup. Hell, unless I want to add a 4U monster to my rack for a GPU setup, even a single FWD is going to outperform most rackmounts for running LLMs.
I do think there’s value to it as a gaming machine if only because other OEMs aren’t offering desktops with Linux, and certainly not ones that can run games very well without any user upgrades, but yeah, it’s definitely not intended as a “gaming machine”.
Can anyone with Bazzite experience tell me how it handles games with third party launchers like EA or Ubisoft? You can’t seem to be able to escape those these days and they are buggy even on Windows so I don’t have high hopes for Linux.
Uplay can sometimes be an ahole but it’s that way on Windows too. EA and Rockstar launchers have been fine through Steam. A friend bought RDR2 directly from Rockstar has issues with Rockstar launcher outside of Steam. Use Heroic for Epic and GOG.
They work fine for me, but I use Mint.
So far I’ve not had any trouble with them, running bazzite on a GPD Win Mini
That’s great to hear thanks
