8 GB Raspberry Pi 4 is Now Available
- Paul Thurrott
- May 28, 2020
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The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new version of the Raspberry Pi 4 that includes 8 GB of RAM, for $75. This is now the most powerful configuration of the tiny single-board PC, but it comes with a major—if temporary—caveat.
“Raspberry Pi 4 is almost a year old, and it’s been a busy year,” Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton writes in the announcement. “We’ve sold nearly 3 million units, shipped a couple of minor board revisions, and reduced the price of the 2 GB variant from $45 to $35 … While we launched with 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB variants, even at that point we had our eye on the possibility of an 8 GB Raspberry Pi 4 … today, we’re delighted to announce the immediate availability of the 8 GB Raspberry Pi 4, priced at just $75.”
The 8 GB variant of the Pi 4 is otherwise technically identical to the previous versions, and the 2 GB and 4 GB versions are both still available. And as Upton notes, the ARM-based BCM2711 chipset used by all Raspberry Pi 4s is capable of addressing up to 16 GB of RAM, so it’s possible there will be another new model in the future, too.
But there is one issue with the 8 GB Pi4: Raspbian, the Linux-based operating system that the foundation supplies for its Pi single-board PCs, is 32-bit, so it can’t easily address all that RAM. For now, Eben suggests using the Ubuntu or Gentoo Linux variants for the Pi 4, since they are 64-bit. But the foundation plans to release a 64-bit version of Raspbian soon, too, and there’s a beta version available today. They’re also renaming the OS, to Raspberry Pi OS.