Raspberry Pi 4 now comes with two memory chips
The Pi manufacturer is launching a new board design for the Raspberry Pi 4. The company is thus increasing flexibility in expensive memory procurement.
(Image: Raspberry Pi Plc.)
Raspberry Pi Plc. is launching a single-board computer with two memory chips on board for the first time. The Raspberry Pi 4 is now available in a version where one DRAM chip is located on the front and one on the back of the board.
The manufacturer is thus increasing flexibility in memory procurement. During the current memory crisis, for example, two 2-GByte chips might be available more cheaply than a single 4-GByte chip. Companies are currently snatching up everything they can get from DRAM giants Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
In a Product Change Notification (PDF), Raspberry Pi Plc. explains that in the future it will produce all variants of the Raspi 4 with the adapted design. Whether customers receive a version with one or two memory chips will then be random. In addition to the back with the additional component, the new version is also recognizable by the 2025 marking on the front. The versions are expected to behave identically; no performance differences are expected.
More expensive PCB is now worth it
Until now, the Raspi manufacturer avoided board layouts with two memory chips in order to keep the PCB as inexpensive as possible. The board is small and has only a few layers, which complicates signal routing for a second memory chip.
Only because of the rapidly rising DRAM prices is the rethinking worthwhile. Due to the wider selection, the Raspi manufacturer can save a few US dollars here and there, so that a more expensive PCB becomes less important.
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Chinese memory also on board
In parallel, Raspberry Pi Plc. broadened its options in the summer of 2025, at least for the Raspi 4 with one GByte DRAM. At that time, the company brought in Rayson from China on board (PDF), a so-called third-party memory supplier, which sources its DRAM from various manufacturers: besides Samsung and Micron, also from Chinese providers CXMT and Yangtze Memory. Rayson buys the bare memory chips and packages them into standardized housings, which Raspberry Pi Plc. can then process further.
Previously, the 1-GByte chips came exclusively from Samsung. Variants with 2 and 4 GByte are often supplied by Micron, and 8-GByte chips by SK Hynix.
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