Raspberry Pi introduces 3GB RAM model amid hardware upgrade restrictions

The Raspberry Pi ecosystem is seeing shifts in hardware availability and software restrictions. A new 3GB RAM variant of the Raspberry Pi 4B has been introduced as a cost-effective compromise in response to rising DRAM prices. This model maintains the core features of the Raspberry Pi 4 platform, including the quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor and support for dual 4K monitors, while allowing users to optimize costs for applications like IoT and automation that do not require higher memory capacities.

Simultaneously, recent bootloader changes from the Raspberry Pi Foundation have introduced limitations regarding RAM upgrades. These changes effectively lock devices to their original RAM size, impacting the ability to upgrade the RAM chips on Raspberry Pi 4, Pi 5, and Compute Modules. While this restricts the ability to swap in larger chips, the restriction does not prevent board repairs and can potentially be bypassed by reflashing older versions of the bootloader via the SPI flash chip.