Raspberry Pi flagship 500+ model now costs almost as much as a Mac Mini — firm Pi launches 3GB model to fight increasing DRAM prices

Raspberry Pi 5 16GB — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The DRAM shortage continues to cause chaos in the computing market and is driving up the price of of various Raspberry Pi units yet again. Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi, announced that the Raspberry Pi 4, 5, 500, and 500+ are seeing another price jump, with outgoing pricing of the 500+ now approaching that of the M3 Mac Mini. The new price hikes have also led to the introduction of a new 3GB Raspberry Pi 4 to give customers more memory options to choose from.

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HBM3E vs HBM4 — (Image credit: SK Hynix)

The Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 have increased in price by $25 for the 4GB versions, and by $50 for the 8GB models. The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB has seen an even more extreme price increase of $100. Slotting in between the 2GB and 4GB versions of the Raspberry Pi 4 is the 3GB model priced at $83.75. Pricing for the Raspberry Pi 500 went up by $50, and the Raspberry Pi 500+ unit and the 500+ kit saw the highest price increases of all, but $150. This brings the 500+ model to a sky-high $410, which is almost as much as Apple's M3 Mac Mini (which can be found for around $430 depending on the retailer).

Price increases for the Compute Module 4, 4S, and 5 have also increased anywhere between $11.25 and $50. Pricing for the 16GB Compute 5 module has increased by $100.

Thankfully, not all Raspberry Pi models have seen a price jump. Upton noted that the Raspberry Pi 400, 4, and 5 models with less than 4GB of memory are holding their value for now. Also, older models with older LPDDR2 DRAM will hold their value indefinitely, as the board maker has a substantial inventory of the older DRAM type to weather the DRAM shortage.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Product	Density	Price Increase
Raspberry Pi 4 and 5	4GB	$25
Raspberry Pi 4 and 5	8GB	$50
Raspberry Pi 5	16GB	$100
Raspberry Pi 500 (unit only and kit)	Row 4 - Cell 1	$50
Raspberry Pi 500+ unit only	Row 5 - Cell 1	$150
Raspberry Pi 500+ kit	Row 6 - Cell 1	$150
Compute Module 4 and 4S	1GB	$11.25
Compute Module 4, 4S, 5	2GB	$12.50
Compute Module 4, 4S, 5	4GB	$25
Compute Module 4, 4S, 5	8GB	$50
Compute Module 5	16GB	$100
Development Kit for Compute Module 5	Row 12 - Cell 1	$25
Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2	Row 13 - Cell 1	$50

For perspective, we wrote about Raspberry Pi price hikes just two months ago — since then, prices have increased by almost 50% for some models. For example, the Raspberry Pi 500+ 16GB cost just $280 in February.

Sadly, there's no guarantee another set of price hikes won't happen in the next month or two, as DRAM prices continue to trend upward. The latest reports indicate that NAND flash contract prices are rising faster than DRAM prices, with a predicted price jump of around 70% quarter over quarter.

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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

4 Comments Comment from the forums

usertests

Now you're min/maxing your RAM.
Reply
S58_is_the_goat

These don't make sense anymore when you have off lease/used mini pc's to compete with, unless you really need the low power draw in some environment where you're using a battery then sure, otherwise mini pc all the way.
Reply
usertests

S58_is_the_goat said:
These don't make sense anymore when you have off lease/used mini pc's to compete with, unless you really need the low power draw in some environment where you're using a battery then sure, otherwise mini pc all the way.
That was often true even before the prices exploded. The used market PC pricing has also crept up, but it looks like you can still find a Skylake PC with 16 GB DDR4 for around $100.
Reply
QuarterSwede

usertests said:
That was often true even before the prices exploded. The used market PC pricing has also crept up, but it looks like you can still find a Skylake PC with 16 GB DDR4 for around $100.
Agreed. Used business mini pcs are also a lot faster.

I went that route pre-RAM craziness when the pi 4 was impossible to buy at reasonable prices and realized how much better my little $120 lower power T processor and now-linux box is. Threw Debian on there and it’s now my dirt cheap home server. Installing anything/updating is just so much faster than a pi.
Reply