Launching in late October, the Raspberry Pi 5 offers numerous hardware upgrades compared to the Pi 4. Wondering which board to choose for your next project? Read on for a detailed comparison of these two single-board computers’ specifications and capabilities.
What Is the RaspberryPi 5?
The Raspberry Pi 5 is a credit-card-sized, versatile single-board computer. Just like its predecessors, it is suited for a wide range of applications. When compared to the Pi 4, the big difference is that it is much faster. Also, it has more interfaces and can now support devices such as M.2 NVMe SSDs. Here are the main differences…
1. A Faster Processor on the Pi 5
The Raspberry Pi 5 has an ARM Cortex-A76 CPU, while the Pi 4 has a Cortex-A72. While both chips have the same number of cores, the Pi 5 is about two to three times quicker than the Pi 4.
The A76 is clocked to run at 2.4GHz, which is a 25% more than the A72’s 1.8GHz. With modern core design and a higher cache, the Pi 5’s processor can outperform the Pi 4 in every department. Also, the A76 has cryptography extensions built-in.
Although limited to 2.4GHz on the Pi 5, the A76 processor can be clocked up to 3.3GHz in laptops, so there should be scope for some serious overclocking of the Pi 5.
2. Pi 5 Has Much Faster RAM
The LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM on the Raspberry Pi 5 is much faster than the LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM on the Pi 4. The RAM on the Pi 5 offers more bandwidth.
3. Pi 5 Has More Graphics Power Too
Raspberry Pi 4’s processor has an integrated VideoCore VI GPU. It supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.0. The Pi 5 has a much faster VideoCore VII GPU that is clocked at 800MHz and supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2. It also has a new image signal processor that handles data from cameras.
Although the Pi 4 can drive dual 4K displays, it can only run a single monitor at 60fps – check outhow to run your Raspberry Pi at 4K 60Hz. It also drops frames when decoding 4K 60 video. The Pi 5 can output to dual 4K 60 displays with the added advantage of HDR support. The increased clock on the VideoCore VII should help minimize the frame drops.
4. Pi 5 Has a Dedicated I/O Chip
Designed in-house, the new RP1 chip is the most significant innovation on the Pi 5, handling most of the I/O (input/output) and thus taking the load off the CPU. It also increases I/O bandwidth compared the Pi 4. Storage devices, USB and other peripherals benefit from the availability of more bandwidth.
5. MicroSD Cards Are Faster on Pi 5
The microSD port in the Pi 5 supports HDR 104 high speed mode with UHS-1 microSD cards. The Pi 4 can read at 40–50Mbps, whereas the Pi 5 can do so at 80-90Mbps. That’s double the speed.
6. Pi 5 Has Faster USB 3.0 Ports
The two USB 3.0 ports of the Pi 4 share the available bandwidth of 5Gbps between them. The Pi 5 has dedicated 5Gbps available for both the ports, courtesy of the RP1 chip.
This means you can use fast storage devices using a USB to SATA adapter. You can evenconfigure them in RAID for data redundancyor speed.
The newer power supply has additional amperage (5A from 3A), and will allow the Pi 5 to have more such devices powered.
7. Pi 5 Has a PCIe Connector
The PCIe (PCI Express) connector is a much-needed addition to the Raspberry Pi. Of late, many devices use this interface because it is faster. The PCIe interface on the Pi 5 is not a standard M.2 connector though: you have to use a ribbon cable to connect it to a HAT, and the M.2 device will connect to the HAT.
However, the PCIe on the Raspberry Pi 5 is a single-line PCI Express 2.0 x1 connector. This has a maximum bandwidth of 500MBps (Bytes, not bits). The latest PCIe 4.0 SSDs can do 8000Mbps (1000MBps). Connecting them to the slower PCIe 2.0 x1 interface will slow the SSD down due to the lack of bandwidth. The same goes for graphics cards.
It boils down to whether a SATA SSD connected to USB 3.0 is a better choice then an M.2 SSD connected to PCIe. USB 3.0 in the Pi 5 is 5Gbps, which is 625MBps. SATA 3 adapters can handle 6Gbps. PCIe 2.0 x1 is limited to 500MBps. So, it will be similar speeds for both SATA and PCIe SSDs on the Pi 5. The advantage with SATA adapters is that you do not need to use the HAT.
8. Pi 5 Has More MIPI Lanes
The Pi 4 has a two-lane MIPI DSI display port and a two-lane MIPI CSI camera port. On the Pi 5, there are two MIPI camera/display ports adjacent to each other. Both have four lanes each and function as either a camera or display transceiver.
Doubling the lanes helps support devices with bandwidth up to 1.5Gbps; for example, cameras with a higher bit-rate or LCDs with higher resolution. Older cameras can still be used with a new ribbon cable.
9. Pi 5 Has an Onboard Real-Time Clock
The Pi 4 usually fetches the current time from global Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers soon after boot. If the Pi 4 is not connected to the internet, the time must be set manually. By contrast, the Pi 5 has an onboard RTC (real-time clock) and a port to connect a RS2025/2032 button cell to keep it powered when the Pi 5 is turned off. This will keep the time on the Pi 5 up-to-date whether it is connected to the internet or not.
