# The Special Value Pi 4 was extremely short-lived

DevFeed: [The Special Value Pi 4 was extremely short-lived](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-special-value-pi-4-was-extremely-short-lived-10482.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/special-value-pi-4-extremely-short-lived/>)

Author: jeff@jeffgeerling.com (Jeff Geerling)

Published: 2026-07-08T14:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Jeff Geerling](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jeff-geerling.md>)

Topics: [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [benchmarking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/benchmarking.md>), [boot](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/boot.md>)

Tags: [benchmarking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmarking.md>), [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [boot](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/boot.md>), [dram](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dram.md>), [errors](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/errors.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [memory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [pi-4](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pi-4.md>), [product](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product.md>), [raspberry-pi](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/raspberry-pi.md>), [retail](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retail.md>), [shortage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/shortage.md>), [speed](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/speed.md>), [validation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/validation.md>), [video](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/video.md>), [youtube](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/youtube.md>)

## AI overview

This article examines a short-lived "Special Value" Raspberry Pi 4 edition certified for 1.25 GHz instead of the usual 1.8 GHz. It compares the boards with retail Pi 4s, discusses their different DRAM packages, and reports boot, clock-speed, kernel-panic, and benchmarking observations.

## Source excerpt

The 'Special Value' Pi 4 pictured above is probably the rarest Raspberry Pi I own--even rarer than my blue special edition Pi. A Raspberry Pi reseller briefly listed a special 'value edition' Pi 4. But the product page 404's now. While it was up, my curiosity got the better of me, and now I have two 'value' Pi 4s. What makes them a 'value'? They're only certified to run at 1.25 GHz (retail Pi 4s run at 1.8 GHz, and can usually be overclocked).