I think you're right, 97 is too early for an affordable computer with 2GB. But it wasn't just SGI that had those capabilities, I bought a used HP Visualize J2240 (manufactured circa 1997-8) in the early 2000s (like 2003) and it came to me with 2GB of RAM, with a max of 4GB. This machine was also very expensive when new, in the same range as the $35K SGI you refer to.