8GB Raspberry Pi 4 now available
When the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Raspberry Pi 4 last year it described it as a "complete desktop computer", but the truth is it isn’t powerful enough to run many of the tasks you’d use a desktop computer for, even if you opted for the 4GB model.
Today however, the Raspberry Pi 4 gets an upgrade with a new 8GB version joining the ranks.
It’s long been rumored that a 8GB model was a possibility, but as Eben Upton explains there was one major issue standing in the way:
The BCM2711 chip that we use on Raspberry Pi 4 can address up to 16GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM, so the real barrier to our offering a larger-memory variant was the lack of an 8GB LPDDR4 package. These didn’t exist (at least in a form that we could address) in 2019, but happily our partners at Micron stepped up earlier this year with a suitable part.
We'd have seen the 8GB model arrive earlier, but as with everything COVID-19 caused delays.
To handle the higher peak currents required by the memory package the power supply components have been shuffled around, removing a switch-mode power supply from the right-hand side of the board next to the USB 2.0 sockets and adding a new switcher next to the USB-C power connnector. Beyond that, everything is the same as in other models.
The 8GB version is available to buy today, priced at $75.