Josh Hendrickson
The Raspberry Pi 4 is already the most powerful entry yet from the Raspberry Pi foundation. So how do you take a good thing and make it even better? Add more RAM, of course. You can now grab an 8 GB Raspberry Pi 4 for $75. You’ll want to grab the beta 64-bit Raspbian OS to take advantage of it, though.
The Raspbian Foundation positions the Raspberry Pi 4 as its first single-board computer that could truly replace your desktop. But, as with all things that rely on a Chromium browser, RAM has been a sticking point.
That applies to the Raspberry Pi more than usual since many common apps like Slack aren’t available for 32-bit Raspbian. Instead, you’ll have to rely on browser versions, which means more tabs, which require more RAM. It doesn’t take long to max out the Pi’s capabilities.
A new model with double the RAM is a welcome upgrade, though you’ll pay $75 to enjoy the extra bandwidth. Besides the upgraded RAM, this entry is identical to other Raspberry Pi 4 models.
But you’ll have to rely on a beta OS for now. Until now, Raspbian has been a solely 32-bit affair, since the Raspberry Pi maxed out at 4 GBs of RAM. But to take advantage of all 8 GBs of RAM in the upgraded model, you’ll need a 64-bit OS.
With that in mind, the Raspberry Pi foundation is introducing a 64-bit version of its OS alongside the upgraded Raspberry Pi model, and renaming it (along with the 32-bit version) to Raspberry Pi OS. Both the beta OS and the 8 GB Raspberry Pi 4 are available today.
Hopefully, the step-up will give you enough room to open all the tabs you need.
Source: Raspberry Pi Blog
