> 8 vs 16GB RAM, would that make a measurable power difference?
I think the short answer is.. it depends. Current draw depends on usage, supposedly from 10% at idle up to full when doing massive read/writes. But it should be in the two to three digit miliwatt range which isn't much compared to the N100 itself which pulls 6W at idle, being an inefficient x86 space heater.
The Pi 4 4GB can idle at 1W using LPDDR4, the Pi 5 8GB using 50% more efficient LPDDR4x idles at... 3W. Meanwhile the average 12GB LPDDR5X Android phone can idle a whole week on a tiny 1 cell lipo (with power saving mode on), making this look so bad it's actually funny.
The long standing problem with Pi Foundation products is a complete disregard for any low power states, sleep or hibernation, so they probably don't do any RAM related power optimization either. It's only now with the RP2350 that they've finally implemented some kind of working sleep mode for the very first time in anything at all.
Fair point, N100 systems do differ quite a bit generally, the numbers I've got in my head are what I've seen people quote for the Radxa X4 recently. Some might be more, some less.
I think the short answer is.. it depends. Current draw depends on usage, supposedly from 10% at idle up to full when doing massive read/writes. But it should be in the two to three digit miliwatt range which isn't much compared to the N100 itself which pulls 6W at idle, being an inefficient x86 space heater.
The Pi 4 4GB can idle at 1W using LPDDR4, the Pi 5 8GB using 50% more efficient LPDDR4x idles at... 3W. Meanwhile the average 12GB LPDDR5X Android phone can idle a whole week on a tiny 1 cell lipo (with power saving mode on), making this look so bad it's actually funny.
The long standing problem with Pi Foundation products is a complete disregard for any low power states, sleep or hibernation, so they probably don't do any RAM related power optimization either. It's only now with the RP2350 that they've finally implemented some kind of working sleep mode for the very first time in anything at all.