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Dell and Lenovo may limit mid-range laptops to 8GB DDR5 RAM in response to rising memory prices
(www.notebookcheck.net)
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Does midrange being at 8GB mean that entry level will be 4GB? because I know corpos are gonna be corpos.
(I don't think windows even run at 4GB lmfao)
Edit: Also, this RAM shortage might force people to use Linux ๐
Windows 11 can run on 4GB. That's the minimum for the listed requirements, and the other day, I saw Best Buy selling a 4GB model, and I see some systems for sale online. I would imagine that it's not ideal.
I have seen a few of them. Yes they are bad. Basically idles at 85% memory usage on the desktop with nothing open.
Windows going Vista again
Windows 11 for me boots using around 7GB. Open a heavy browser tab or two and you're page thrashing next. I can't use a computer like that.
If I recall that 4GB min on win11 is explictedly with no applications. Including browsers.
It's only the os.
Even on an 8gb or 16gb system Windows uses over 4gb on a fresh boot. At 4gb it's going to be swapping to fish non-stop. The disk will be thrashed and be dead in a year of use.
That 'can' does a hell of a lot of heavy lifting. But then again, it says Windows can run in 4GB, it doesn't say anything about your apps.
Seems to me like there will be a split. A lot of critical thinkers that are frugal will move to Linux and up its market-share, but there will also be a lot of deals that companies make with cloud computing platforms as well for their employees instead of purchasing new laptops (which will probably also allow them to cut back on their IT staff).
Those that are still lost when it comes to tech from 20 years ago will also buy into cloud compute platforms just because they use it at work and can't be arsed to learn something slightly different.
I wonder how long it will take before people realize it's cheaper to own your own hardware than lease compute time from a cloud provider? I've seen this same cycle with cloud VMs, I expect this will be no different.