1GB Raspberry Pi 5, and memory-driven price rises

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

AI-Driven DRAM Shortage and Price Spike

  • Multiple commenters link the recent RAM price surge to OpenAI pre-booking huge volumes of DRAM wafers (“up to 900k wafers/month”) from Samsung and SK Hynix, with others then panic-buying.
  • Some doubt the exact “40% of global supply” figure or timing and note it comes from third-party analysis and forward-looking projections rather than clear current usage.
  • Beyond AI, manufacturers are said to be redirecting capacity toward higher-margin products (especially HBM) rather than adding new fabs after losing money in past cycles.

ECC vs Non‑ECC for AI Workloads

  • Debate over whether OpenAI’s buying spree should only affect ECC/server memory:
    • One side: large-scale AI should absolutely use ECC; bit flips can cause hard-to-diagnose failures or force expensive recomputations.
    • Other side: LLM outputs are noisy anyway; rare bit errors may be tolerable and ECC’s importance is overstated.
  • Several comments clarify that ECC and non‑ECC use essentially the same DRAM chips; ECC just adds extra chips/lines and logic in the controller, so both markets pull from the same wafer supply.

Winners of the AI Boom

  • Consensus that DRAM makers are clear beneficiaries; others add Nvidia, TSMC, ASML and broader component suppliers.
  • Some note Nvidia faces growing competition (Google TPUs, AMD) but CUDA lock-in still looks strong.

Inflation vs Demand Shock

  • Some frame rising RAM prices as “inflation”; others insist it’s mainly a sector-specific demand shock, distinct from general monetary inflation.
  • People cite prior component spikes (HDDs after floods, GPUs during crypto, earlier DDR shortages) as precedent.

Impact on Consumers and Builders

  • Many personal anecdotes of 2–3× jumps in prices for DDR3/4/5 and ECC RDIMMs, derailing planned PC or server upgrades.
  • Comparisons to the GPU mining bubble; expectation that prices will eventually drop, but timeline (months vs years) is unclear.
  • Some resentment toward OpenAI/Altman for “soaking up” supply; others argue massive private AI capex ultimately benefits wider research and industry.

Raspberry Pi 5 1GB Pricing and Use Cases

  • 1GB Pi 5 seen as useful for headless/IoT/embedded tasks that are CPU‑bound but not RAM‑bound (home automation, display drivers, small servers).
  • Several report running significant stacks on 1GB or even 512MB Pis; others complain even Pi 4/5 feel sluggish for modern web/GUI tasks.
  • Debate whether Raspberry Pi prices will fall again if RAM gets cheaper; many think only competition will force cuts.
  • Nostalgia for the original $5 Pi Zero; others note that inflation and higher costs make today’s $10+ tag not outrageous.
  • Some users now prefer cheap used mini‑PCs over Pis, citing better reliability, included storage/cooling, and similar price once you add all Pi accessories.