Heck Of course, the Raspberry Pi 5 just received declared
Vacation break cheer is coming early for makers and single-board laptop system fanatics: The Raspberry Pi Foundation simply launched the successor to the Raspberry Pi 4, and it seems completely badass.
Arriving on the conclude of Oct, the brand new Raspberry Pi 5 has been unveiled with simply two variants named to date: a $60 4GB model, and a $80 8GB various. It’s a departure from foremost with a $35 product (at current the 1GB Raspberry Pi 4), however given the prolonged historic previous of that entry price, it’s not not more likely to see additional variants launched down the freeway.
Excellent now, the emphasis is on energy, and it’s straightforward to grasp why. Not solely does the Raspberry Pi 5 seem ready to ship a large transfer up in performance in comparison with its 2019 predecessor, however its new silicon was constructed in-residence by the Raspberry Pi group. The specs display tangible upgrades throughout the board:
- 2.4GHz Arm Cortex-A76 CPU (quad-core, 64-bit)
- VideoCore VII GPU (helps OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2)
- Twin 4K60 HDMI output
- 4K60 HEVC decoder
- Twin-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
- Bluetooth 5. / Bluetooth Minimal Energy (BLE)
- Excessive-speed microSD card interface (with SDR104 technique assist)
- 2x USB 3. ports (helps simultaneous 5Gbps operation)
- 2x USB 2. ports
- Gigabit Ethernet (helps PoE+ with separate PoE+ HAT)
- 2x 4-lane MIPI digicam/present transceivers
- PCIe 2. x1 interface
- Raspberry Pi typical 40-pin GPIO header
- True-time clock
- Electrical energy button
Raspberry Pi Basis
For {hardware} nerds there are many details to dig into, like the reality that the applying processor (the chip powering the board) sees a die shrink from 28nm within the Raspberry Pi 4 to 16nm within the Raspberry Pi 5. The structure additionally strikes from a monolithic fashion to a chiplet fashion. However general, the efficiency boosts could be defined by the choice 2—for starters, you possibly can assume the Raspberry Pi 5 to be about two to three events extra quickly. Reminiscence bandwidth additionally doubles, working at 4,267 MT/s versus the RPi 4’s productive velocity of two,000 MT/s. And you may generate as much as two 4K60 exhibits, in comparison with simply only one 4K60 or two 4K30 exhibits forward of.
There are noteworthy smart modifications, as nicely. Ex: The board now sports activities mounting holes for a heatsink, together with connectors for a coin battery to potential the authentic-time clock. And I actually do not find out about different Raspberry Pi followers, however really, that energy button is as thrilling to me because the elements updates.
(Itching for lots extra information? You’ll be able to dive into the Raspberry Pi 5 announcement submit, which has a complete rundown of the board, along with a intensive specialised overview.)

Raspberry Pi Basis
The Raspberry Pi 5’s add-ons have gotten souped up, too. The formal circumstance now consists of an built-in fan, and it’s additionally been tweaked to allow insertion of the board devoid of buying to preliminary select out the SD card. Oh, and you’ll extra effortlessly stack different situations or incorporate-on boards (formally acknowledged as HATs, or “{hardware} attached on high”) by taking away the lid. It should run you extra—$10 vs . the Raspberry Pi 4’s $5 case—however you undoubtedly get a factor for the funds.
You can even now buy an lively cooler for the RPi 5’s chip, which is equally an pretty and cheap addition to the board—at simply $5, it’s the exact same price as a established of passive heatsinks. And you’re possible heading to need it if you happen to thrust your board. Though it normally consumes fewer electrical energy and is extra productive, the Raspberry Pi 5’s software program processor hits higher peaks when pushed to its restrictions (about 12 watts, versus the RPi 4’s 8W).
Talking of—when you have an extra mature Raspberry Pi electrical energy provide, you’re going to very doubtless need to improve to the brand new $12 27W (5V, 5A) electrical energy provide. The prior 15W (5V, 3A) mannequin received’t slice it, because the current fed to the USB ports will fall right down to 600mA. The 27W model lets the USB newest to get to 1.6A, as well as give an added 5W of power to the board…which you should use for overclocking.
Sure, overclocking.

Raspberry Pi Basis
Additionally, did you assume we have been carried out nevertheless? Not pretty. Since there are new HATs coming, additionally, and the best of the bunch (in my humble opinion) is the M.2 HAT that allows the usage of an NMVe SSD (or any M.2 module).
Genuinely, if you happen to didn’t seize the subject, the Raspberry Pi 5 is leaning powerful into substantial-octane mini-computing. And the superb info is the Raspberry Pi Basis is more likely to market preliminary to people via the cease of the 12 months, as a thanks for changing into affected individual with RPi 4 provide troubles. Print subscribers to The MagPi and HackSpace journals will get precedence accessibility, too, by way of a single-use code.
In truth, I simply can’t wait—and to whet our appetites, a brand new official to start out with-celebration working course of might be launching ahead of the Raspberry Pi 5 in mid-October. Referred to as Raspberry Pi OS, it’s primarily based on the Linux Debian distro, as correctly because the Raspbian by-product that’s existed for a few years. The latest Raspberry Pi is heralding a glow-up of epic proportions.