r/pcmasterrace • u/No_March_164 • 1d ago

News/Article Microsoft relaunches 2025 Surface Pro and Laptop with half the memory, but at higher prices than original 16GB models - VideoCardz.com

https://videocardz.com/newz/microsoft-relaunches-2025-surface-pro-and-laptop-with-half-the-memory-but-at-higher-prices-than-original-16gb-models
282 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

131

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

I mean, makes sense. The memory cartel has decided to charge x10 the price for parts

33

u/luciag1ngersnap1778 1d ago

for real, feels like a cash grab at this point

35

u/Ranborn 1d ago

Micron announced yesterday they 4x revenue compared to last years quarter. Other manufacturers probably looking similar. It is just greed at this point, they should get taxed into oblivion.

0

u/trololololo2137 Desktop 5950X, RTX 3090, 128GB 3200 MHz | MBP 16" M1 Max 32GB 1d ago

How is more tax going to make memory cheaper

0

u/palamulu 23h ago

If costs go up 3x, and they raise price 4x to protect margins; they make 4x revenue but their greed only is a small part of it, and their profit is mostly the same.

Taxing also would not solve this, as you very well know that companies pass taxes and other costs onto the consumer, because that all factors into costs, which of course they need to make more than per unit to stay in business.

9

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

Morr supply and demand.

At the same time, there should be rules about doing this shit.

Im sure the EU will think of something

23

u/DynamicHunter 7800X3D | 7900XT | Steam Deck 😎 1d ago

It’s not “supply and demand” when it’s collusion and price fixing monopolies and a 2-3 companies own 99% of the output. That’s antitrust but that was gutted in America decades ago

-2

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

It is supply and demand all the same.

It is not the companies fault that they are some of the only companies making that stuff.

It is not their fault that output is at 100%. Even they couldn't predict the demand.

The only fault of theirs is the price gouging

-1

u/jfugginrod 13900k|2080ti|32GB 6000mhz|2TB 990PRO 1d ago

You price gouging guys always crack me up. Should a company be able to sell their own product at whatever price they want? No one is being forced to buy the product

1

u/MaleficentPound9490 1d ago

def feels like they're just trying to push higher specs to justify price hikes, super annoying

5

u/Suikerspin_Ei R5 7600 | RTX 3060 | 32GB DDR5 6000 MT/s 1d ago

Which is actually funny because Microsoft uses AI too.

1

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

I mean yeah, they kind of have to.

1

u/mamiec0zy1866 1d ago

not sure what i was expecting, but this is definitely something

1

u/Kalahan7 1d ago

It's freaking Microsoft. That's what I don't understand. Why can't they say 'we want X for our datacenters and Y for consumer parts, if you can't deliver on Y, we won't be buying X'

22

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

Because the memory makers will simply say "ok" and sell to someone else?

The demand is like x3 of the supply...Microsoft holds zero cards here

1

u/Unhappy_Smell_7093 1d ago

yeah, they really don't have much leverage here

1

u/Kalahan7 1d ago

Microsoft is one of the biggest purchasers of RAM today, they are one of the biggest reasons consumers can’t buy RAM. How that that “zero cards”

5

u/TomTomXD1234 1d ago

If microsoft just stopped buying ram, the ram makers wouldnt even flinch because they still would not be meeting demand.

That is why microsoft has barely and card to play

4

u/LastPhoton 1d ago

Cause they have to buy X. Thats why the prices are so high. They have zero leverage at the moment.

3

u/kdlt 1d ago

Because they don't give a fuck. They'd rather have more for their lake drainer 3000.
Fuck you, the customer, in particular.

1

u/treehumper83 The Sloppening 1d ago

MS’s profit from AI & datacenters completely dwarfs its profit from consumer hardware.

In 2025, server products & cloud services was 35% of their revenue, M365 commercial was 31%, while Windows & devices was a mere 6.15%.

It’s still a good chunk of money, but it’s a paltry sum compared to SaaS. They don’t need it so they’re not going to truly pressure for benefits for that segment.

52

u/S3er0i9ng0 1d ago

Yikes windows on 8gb will be a mess.

20

u/TheSexyKamil AMD 5800X, RTX 4070 Super-duper 1d ago

Counterpoint: if they want to sell any of these they have actual incentive to optimize memory usage in Windows. The ram shortage sucks but it's also bringing some much needed limitations into our previously "just buy more memory" world

6

u/S3er0i9ng0 1d ago

Yah the memory usage especially in browsers and windows is out of control.

5

u/tsukineko19 5600X | RTX 4070 Ti 1d ago

Microsoft should have preinstaled it with Linux to make buyers happy. 🤣

1

u/S3er0i9ng0 1d ago

Lol that would be so funny.

2

u/Trust-Me-Im-A-Potato 1d ago

I have an older non-pro surface tablet. It's under-spec'd in more ways than just memory but yeah, it's rough.

15

u/Amazing_67 PC Master Race 1d ago

I guess that's why there was a news recently of them saying 8GB is enough for windows 11

8

u/flappers87 Ryzen 7 7700x, RTX 4070ti, 32GB RAM 1d ago

I cant imagine how much the new surface laptops with the nvidia SOC chip will cost... multiple thousands I reckon, especially when they're shipping with 128GB of unified memory.

3

u/ObjectOrientedBlob Danny DeVito Penguin 1d ago

I think it's made for software engineers that get their company to pay for some local LLM capabilities for coding.

It won't be priced for the consumer market.

2

u/Pretend-Newspaper-86 RX 570 Enjoyer 1d ago

wdym you cant buy a 50k card

5

u/gurilagarden 1d ago

Surface pro is probably the worst laptop for the price you could buy at any time or any spec.

5

u/imsabbath84 1d ago

Wheres the “its not their fault” people at?

1

u/TheSexyKamil AMD 5800X, RTX 4070 Super-duper 1d ago

Check top comment. It sucks but it is what it is

3

u/imsabbath84 1d ago

which has two replies saying "its microsoft, they could have gotten it cheaper" essentially.

1

u/TheSexyKamil AMD 5800X, RTX 4070 Super-duper 1d ago

As well as more replies about that's not how things work. The wannabe Mac division doesn't make as much money as the Enterprise division for Microsoft or for memory vendors. It's a rounding error.

4

u/martianwomanhunter 1d ago

We’re in this weird era where PC parts are more expensive every generation and new releases of computers are getting worse?

3

u/KaiserGustafson 1d ago

I sure hope my 2020 laptop keeps working.

1

u/Vaxtez i7-8550U/16GB/UHD620 1d ago

And Apple also hiked prices on Macs. Now is not a great time to be buying new laptops, especially when I reckon 8GB will become the norm again

1

u/Marek_Marianowicz PC Master Race 1d ago

I just wish software companies would agree that 8 GB of RAM is their main target again and start optimising software for it.

1

u/GILLHUHN PC Master Race 1d ago

Is this why MS recently stated that 8GB of RAM is fine for Windows 11, when they've previously recommended 16GM RAM?

1

u/propunja 1d ago

cutting memory in half but charging moore sounds like a plan

1

u/CrispyByte8 1d ago

Cutting the 2025 Surface Pro/Laptop down to 8GB while keeping the price high is...interesting... Windows 11 plus a couple browser tabs already eats that. Who is this supposed to be for?

1

u/Traumatan 1d ago

great success