The Raspberry Pi 5 is a $80 Gaming Beast

4 years after the release of the Pi4, here comes the all-new Raspberry PI 5. This new iteration of the Raspberry Pi promises more power in a size that's as compact as ever, while still keeping the price affordable. Powered by a quad-core Broadcom ARMV8 Cortex A76 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz, the Pi5 is claimed to be 250% faster than a Pi 4. In todays episode we take a closer look at the performance of the Pi 5 with modern emulators including Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast and more!

All tests were run with the Bookworm OS running RetroPie except for AetherSX2 which was run using Debian OS.

TimeStamps

00:00 - 03:41 - Introduction
03:42 - 04:52 - Sega Saturn Emulation
04:53 - 06:41 - GameCube Emulation
06:42 - 08:45 - PlayStation 2 Emulation
08:46 - 10:08 - Dreamcast Emulation
10:09 - 11:00 - PSP Emulation
11:01 - 13:45 - Arcade Emulation
13:46 - 14:55 - Conclusion/Outro

Social Media Links :

#raspberrypi #emulation

[AxfNPnl]

I think MVG's point at the end was most important for emulation buyers. Once you buy the active cooler, the unique power supply (highly doubt you have a 5V supply rated for 5A sitting around), and a case - you're entering mini-PC territory and that product segment moves along very fast much like retro handhelds so there's a good chance of something becoming available in your budget if it's not already.

[ModernVintageGamer]

Correction : 6:57 I mean to say PlayStation 2 instead of PlayStation 5

[larrytron]

I remember using Raspberry Pi when it first came out, I was amazed with just how powerful it was for its small size. I'm glad they're still going strong

[MetallicBlade]

Pi 5 nowadays... while the base price for one is $80, it can go past $150 if you kit it out. Problem with that is, Price to performance just isn't there anymore, once you consider the more recent mini PCs that have exploded onto the market. With not much more money, you could get something much more powerful in comparison.

Sure, back in the Pi 2/3 Days, $50 got you a nice little tinker board. But nowadays, It's been harder to justify for the same when faster alternatives exist.

[coleshores]

Those frame rate hitches in Killer Instinct are internal and not the emulation. It’s when the game is reading from it’s hard drive which is why it occurs during transition sequences. I know this for a fact because I owned the arcade game on a super gun for many years

[LukeRT]

I love how these things were suppose to be $20 and for everyone now they cost a small fortune lol

[PhantomHarlock]

So glad they solved the issue of no being able to buy the 4 by not being able to buy the 5.

[marccaracal]

I've been using raspberry pis for several years as a personal server and other as emulation consoles. The problem with these machines is that when you add up the cost of the case, a decent power supply, a quality SD card and a decent fan, to end up with mixed performance for a price close to that of a mini PC, it's not worth it. On top of that, problems with power supply, SD card reliability and the lack of availability of certain ARM-based Linux packages made me decide never to buy one again. I've had an x64 mini PC for 4 years now, and I'll never go back, whatever the performance promised by each new generation.

[PhoticSneezeOne]

As much as i love the Pi... for around 100$ there are plenty of used micro PC options out there like optiplex micros with far more processing power

[cloudycolacorp]

I had a ton of fun emulating stuff on a pi 3 a few years ago. Felt like such an elegant solution at the time even though it was cheap. Now I think emulating on SBCs doesn’t really make as much sense, especially when one of the chinese emulator handhelds with HDMI out is cheaper. The drivers always suck so much on SBCs too

[Mampersand]

I love the idea of a Pi, but over the last couple years I just keep coming back to the fact that by the time I add a power supply, case, cooler, storage, etc, I might as well just buy a significantly faster micro PC. You can buy refurbed 9th gen models for $150 or so.

[Nightykk]

Using up towards 25W.. That's the point where you might consider just getting a NUC, or AsRock A300/X300, and some lower-end Ryzen APU (2200G, 3200G, 4600G, etc). A300 with a 2200G, 32GB RAM, 4x SSD, idled at about 14W.

[petergregoriou]

Thanks for the review MVG.

You might be better buying a second hand 7500t or 9500t mini office pc running batocera. It seems like it'll run emulation smoother and costs similar money, especially if you use an ebay coupon etc.

The pi5 is expensive here in Aus and I don't see the value proposition.

I've bought every main version pi since the first and unfortunately won't be continuing the tradition.

[teknoman]

However, for whatever reason Pi foundation decided they didnt want to increase the BoM cost or didnt feel they had space on the PCB.

[-bithitz]

I've always been a raspberry pi fan and it's great to see it keep getting better and better. It was my first taste of emulation many years ago. My steam deck is my primary emulation machine now, however if I can find a raspberry pi 5 at a decent price, I would love to tinker with it. Great video as always!

[breakpack]

This does look great! If this was released a couple years ago, I'd be all over it. But like you mentioned at the end of the video, I bought a mini PC and I am very happy with the emulation power and performance of that! Pi 5 is cool. Great video!

[huldu]

It's crazy for me to think that little device is more powerful than the computer I had a bit over 10 years ago.

[gabrielshepard]

Its an amazing time for emulation and compact systems!!!

Use to be youd have to have a full tower, overclocked and loaded to the gills to run half that stuff and at nowhere near full framerate.

I've had wallets that were larger than the Pi This is soo amazing!!!

[infinityzr]

these are cool for people with a pathological need for the smallest possible computers. go just a bit bigger and the performance gets really insane.

[TheShoe]

I got a Beelink SER7 Mini PC for Christmas & it has become my one & only emulation box. I've been able to play PS3, Wii U, OG Xbox, & Switch games at near perfect performance, along with many AAA PC games from the past five years.