Raspberry Pi Forums

Hey there everyone, I am the proud owner of almost every version of Raspberry Pi (including a pre-order on the very first one). I love them and currently own 7 of them, They are useful and fun and educational, but I have a random point of curiosity...

Now that we are up to built in WiFi and BT (which by the way is fantastic), and a 64-bit processor that screams along at high speeds, how much would a Raspberry Pi 3 with 4 GB of RAM cost? If that's just not possible without crazy reworking of the board because it won't fit on the SOC, how about 2GB? I'd totally be willing to pay above the $35 price point for either of those higher RAM models. (Even if literally everything else about them remains exactly the same.)

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to write a game that uses a Raspberry Pi as both the server and the game client and I keep bumping into the 1GB limit pretty hard. I'd love to be able to say "you can run a server on a Raspberry Pi" and also "you can run the client on a Raspberry Pi" (because I'm a total fan of the hardware and think that would be awesome).

I accept that it's not as important from a purely educational stand-point, but if a model existed with more RAM I would already own several of them.

Sorry if this has been covered, rejected, or beaten to death in another topic, but this is a new thought for me since the Raspberry Pi 3's were released.

hsoftdev17 wrote: The reason I ask is because I'm trying to write a game that uses a Raspberry Pi as both the server and the game client and I keep bumping into the 1GB limit pretty hard.

Write better/smarter code, or admit that your game isn't suitable for this platform.

hsoftdev17 wrote: Sorry if this has been covered, rejected, or beaten to death in another topic, but this is a new thought for me since the Raspberry Pi 3's were released.

It has, believe me, both before and after release of Pi3.

Well that's not an especially friendly reply. Code isn't the problem, unsuitable platform is. Hence my desire for a beefier version of the hardware.

hsoftdev17 wrote:...how much would a Raspberry Pi 3 with 4 GB of RAM cost? If that's just not possible without crazy reworking of the board because it won't fit on the SOC, how about 2GB? I'd totally be willing to pay above the $35 price point for either of those higher RAM models.

1GB is the limit with the current SOC. Look for another SBC if you really must have more than 1GB as I doubt that the foundation are going to invest the millions required to redevelop the Pi from the ground up just to increase RAM capacity when it's totally unnecessary if using the Pi for its intended purpose.

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to write a game that uses a Raspberry Pi as both the server and the game client and I keep bumping into the 1GB limit pretty hard. I'd love to be able to say "you can run a server on a Raspberry Pi" and also "you can run the client on a Raspberry Pi" (because I'm a total fan of the hardware and think that would be awesome).

Then learn how to program more efficiently. It's up to the programmer to adapt to the hardware, not vice versa.

hsoftdev17 wrote:Hey there everyone, I am the proud owner of almost every version of Raspberry Pi (including a pre-order on the very first one). I love them and currently own 7 of them, They are useful and fun and educational, but I have a random point of curiosity...

Now that we are up to built in WiFi and BT (which by the way is fantastic), and a 64-bit processor that screams along at high speeds, how much would a Raspberry Pi 3 with 4 GB of RAM cost? If that's just not possible without crazy reworking of the board because it won't fit on the SOC, how about 2GB? I'd totally be willing to pay above the $35 price point for either of those higher RAM models. (Even if literally everything else about them remains exactly the same.)

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to write a game that uses a Raspberry Pi as both the server and the game client and I keep bumping into the 1GB limit pretty hard. I'd love to be able to say "you can run a server on a Raspberry Pi" and also "you can run the client on a Raspberry Pi" (because I'm a total fan of the hardware and think that would be awesome).

I accept that it's not as important from a purely educational stand-point, but if a model existed with more RAM I would already own several of them.

Sorry if this has been covered, rejected, or beaten to death in another topic, but this is a new thought for me since the Raspberry Pi 3's were released.

Regurgitation ad-infinitum, Poppycock and Balderdash.

The 1GB limit is driven by the VC4 GPU. Look at the boot sequence for any Pi. Most of it is the VC4 starting things going. So...good, bad or indifferent, no more than 1GB on a Pi3.

As for the future? The next logical move (and probably a big part of why Eben Upton has said not to expect the next Pi for 2 to 3 years) is to go to a 28nm process node. Shrinking an existing design is almost as much work as a whole new design, plus Broadcom isn't familiar--yet--with working at 28nm, So what I expect for what might as well be called the Pi4 is either a significantly revised VC4 or an actual VC5, core type could stay the same or change, might get a moderate clock boost, the *ability* to handle more memory whether we see it initially or not, a chance for some higher bandwidth I/O.

If you want to continue your project using Pis, and your memory foorprint is too big for 1GB, you will have to be patient. Otherwise, you are going to have to look at other boards, but you won't get the same level of support and community with them.