No one is asking for terabytes of RAM in a laptop. I have two 16GB SODIMMs installed right now on a consumer laptop with a consumer processor that I'm typing this on.
So it's hard to chock this up to anything but nonsense.
I might have misunderstood the OP. High end models are more expensive because the people that buy them are either businesses or enthusiasts. So they either have a monetary gain from the higher performance or they just want the best thing. SO both of them will pay a reasonable markup.
Another reason is that the high-end laptops are a low volume product so this increases the cost of handling them. So naturally you would have consider this in the price.
Re:In Defense of RAM
by sonicanatidae on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:33PM
(#38132960)
Sure, a reasonable markup, but we're talking about a company that will sell you a charging cable for $100+ with a straight face.
Re:In Defense of RAM
by wlesieutre on Friday November 03, 2023 @04:17PM
(#38134428)
Which cable is that?
Re:In Defense of RAM
by HappMacDonald on Friday November 03, 2023 @04:22PM
(#38134490)
The other one
Re:In Defense of RAM
by sonicanatidae on Monday November 06, 2023 @10:41AM
(#38164035)
Re:In Defense of RAM
by wlesieutre on Monday November 06, 2023 @11:14AM
(#38164510)
Bit of a stretch to call that a "charging cable." Their 240W rated 2 meter USB-C charging cable is $30 https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU2G3AM/A/
But if you're interested in why the Thunderbolt cable costs more than charging cables, some folks put one through a CT scanner recently:
Re:In Defense of RAM
by sonicanatidae on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @12:08PM
(#38193440)
That's fair, as it does more than just charge.
Let's take another example from Apple:
Re:In Defense of RAM
by wlesieutre on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @03:13PM
(#38196272)
In a similar vein, the $700 Mac Pro wheels kit
I hear they roll very smoothly, and since they don't have brakes you may need to re-level your floor to keep the computer from rolling away
They’re low volume because they’re unreasonably expensive, not the other way around.
Re:In Defense of RAM
by PH95VuimJjqBqy on Friday November 03, 2023 @01:05PM
(#38131681)
which is why the only laptops in my home are the ones purchased by my employer.
If you look at annotated die shots of these CPUs you can see that the memory controllers use significant space on the die. So if you wanted to add more memory you needed to remove something else on the chip. Also you might need to change the cache hierarchy and the layout of the chip.
Like everything else in chip design this is a trade off. And the chip designers make different trade offs for server CPUs that can support up to multiple terabytes of RAM. If there were a big enough demand for a mobile chip with more RAM they would probably make one.
[1] die shots: https://twitter.com/highyieldYT/status/1719379808516280716
Edit: I might have misunderstood the OP.
The two biggest reasons are laptops have only 8 or 16 GB memory because most people don't need any more than that and the people that need more are willing to pay the markup.