If Nintendo are placing orders for the same RAM chips then it stands to reason they'll do so for years because that's what they'll do for their console. In that respect Nintendo are just making sure that Micron don't suddenly decide that 4Gb chips are no longer economical and then stop making them. Or maybe the likes of Apple and Nintendo have been told that 4Gb chips may not be priced so competitively or might even get discontinued in the next couple of years?Yes, the theory is that 4 GB chips at high memory speeds aren't really worth manufacturing at such high volume anymore. If you want near-LPDDR5X class speeds, the sweet spot is 6 GB and up. The new Macs will be running these speeds, likely at least 7500 MT/s.
LPDDR5 is 6400 MT/s. LPDDR5X is 8533 MT/s. However, the iPad Pro M4 runs at 7500 MT/s, and the Switch 2 is also rumoured to run at 7500 MT/s, both with 2 x 6 GB chips. I expect the M4 Macs to do the same.
Apple being on the same boat as Nintendo could potentially make 12Gb the new 8Gb on Macs at least.
Well, it'd be 12Gb vs 18Gb from my reading of the situation now - slightly out of date with M3 stuff since I'm not in the market for one. It's better than 12Gb vs 16Gb I guess. 24Gb as a starting mark for M4 Pro would be luxurious by Apple standardsAI needs 8 GB RAM. AI predictive code completion in Xcode needs 16 GB RAM, but we won't know until 12 GB Macs arrive if it would also run on 12 GB RAM Macs. But like I said, the higher end Pro models would come with 16-18 GB anyway.
Does make you wonder if Apple will leave an M2 mini 8/256 at cut price at the bottom of the range though, especially if they have any intention of unlocking 4 Thunderbolt ports for M4 mini.