The ultimate Pi 5 arrives carrying 16GB ... and a price to match
- Reference: 1736409609
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/01/09/the_ultimate_pi_5_arrives/
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Is this the ultimate Pi 5?
The company gave us one to review ahead of today's launch; and frankly, it's a bit of a headscratcher. The extra memory is always welcome, however, the souped up board is strides apart from the computer's humble origins as something that buyers could pick up for around $30. The first iterations shipped with a mere 256MB, and now users can buy a considerably speedier version that includes 16GB, though it is reflected in a higher price.
The specifications and prices have gradually increased as the years passed after that [2]2012 launch . Customers can buy a 8GB Raspberry Pi 5 for around $80 yet the 16GB version pushes that list price past the $100 barrier to $120.
The sweet Raspberry taste of success masks a missed opportunity [3]READ MORE
There's no getting around it - relatively speaking, $120 is a lot of money, and we'd advise potential buyers to think long and hard about what they need that extra memory for. Perhaps spinning up a lot of containers, or running some seriously RAM-hungry applications?
Pi supremo Eben Upton told The Register , "We've had people interested in building cost-effective clusters for applications like computation fluid dynamics, and the feeling there is that 4GB/core is a good balance.
He noted that LLM models with large working sets could also see a performance drop when having to resort to swap files on lower memory models. Also, "while Raspberry Pi OS is very polished from a memory footprint perspective, more generic distros tend to use a bit more space: you could imagine someone who wanted to run Ubuntu selecting the 16GB variant to offset this."
However, if your needs don't extend to having that much data in RAM, then there is little else in the Pi 5 package. There is a new 16GB jumper on the board (if you know where to look - the writing to indicate the RAM options has gone and been replaced by text proclaiming this is the 16GB version), but ultimately, it is the same CPU and, in our testing, runs at the same temperatures (a little on the warm side when loaded up with tasks.)
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Upton told us this was "probably" the final evolution of the Pi 5.
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"The chipset has an SDRAM aperture for 64GB of memory, but to provision this we would need either larger individual die (24Gbit or 32Gbit vs 16Gbit at present), or to move to quad-rank (various technical challenges there)."
The updates have turned the Pi 5 into quite a speedy little thing, enough to offset the inevitable price rises for versions with less RAM but perhaps not so for the 16GB incarnation - that $40 jump stings.
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In terms of the price list, there's an increase of around $10 from 2GB to 4GB, and $20 to go from 4GB to 8GB, so while the 1, 2, 4 sequence might be pleasing to engineers, it might not be for your wallet, particularly since the basic Pi itself doesn't change and, of course, there is no way to upgrade the RAM after purchase.
We put the value question to Upton, and he attributed the rise to more expensive silicon and pointed out certain other manufacturers charge considerably more than $40 for another 8GB.
[8]Christmas 1984: The last hurrah for 8-bit home computers
[9]Former NSA cyberspy's not-so-secret hobby: Hacking Christmas lights
[10]Xfce 4.20 is out: Wayland support lands, but some pieces are still missing
[11]Raspberry Pi 500 and monitor arrive in time for Christmas
Ultimately, is the 16GB Pi 5 any good? The answer is yes – with more provisos than previously. A lot depends on if you need that extra RAM, and most users probably don't. If you're in that crowd of customers, then stick with the 8GB or even 4GB versions and spend the money you'll save on some of the exciting externals that can be plugged into a Pi.
Or, if you have a workload that would benefit from the extra RAM and have given the faster Pi 5 a swerve for that reason, then the 16GB Pi 5 is worth checking out. But remember that the price has elevated the diminutive computer to a level where there are plenty of alternative options. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/12/23/pi5_16gb.jpg
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2012/01/13/raspberry_pi_foundation_rolls_out_linux_based_pcs/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/16/opinion_column_future_raspberry_pi/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z3-sViqfLBQIO550D_88sQAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/28/christmas_1984_home_computers/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/25/joyce_christmas_lights/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/18/xfce_420_is_out/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/09/raspberry_pi_500_monitor/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Maybe those people are outnumbered but the LLM few will buy a lot of units.
I don't think it's publicly known how much RAM ChatGPT would require to run, but I've seen estimates starting from 45GB, up to around 80GB. OpenLLaMA models can apparently work within 16GB, although I'm not sure that's total system or required free RAM[1]. The Pi also does not have a GPU and the processor is rather limited, so it's not ideal for that application in many ways. (There is a "machine learning" module, but it uses a bespoke architecture and is mostly only suited to 2D vision tasks.)
That said I've been wondering for a while about trying a Pi for some medical imaging research applications, since they are a lot cheaper and less power hungry than what we normally use, even if it might be slower. Some of that is deep learning and some traditional algorithms, both are RAM hungry but not usually to those 80GB extremes, 8GB probably wasn't enough for some of it, but 16GB is a safe-ish bet. (Although less for our own use than for education and outreach and maybe making this kind of technology more available to researchers with less resources.)
[1] I had some fun recently getting a 3D-UNet type model working on a 8GB laptop GPU, would just about fit, but required running with desktop stopped to ensure as much free GPU RAM as possible.
The extra memory is always welcome, however, the souped up board is strides apart from the computer's humble origins as something that buyers could pick up for around $30.
I don't know why people are struggling with this, you don't have to buy the 16GB one. There is a range of options now. If you want humble origins then there is a 2GB version, there is a Zero 2W which is far cheaper than $30 and far more capable than the humble origins, plus the single core Zero. And the 4 is still for sale and I can still see the Pi 3 on sale today at the approved seller. In real terms, these are cheaper than they were and cheaper than the original Pi.
So the original Pi idea is still there, but a choice is available too.
I don't think the D0 stepping CPU on this 16GB was on the original Pi 5 4GB and 8GB at release. It arrived later with the 2GB version.
Prices
Yes, the price has risen significantly *for the top of the range* but you can still by a Pi 1 A+ for under GBP16 (around USD20) excluding local taxes, and a Pi 3 for not much more.
I can't see many people wanting the 16GB, I'm happy with the 8GB for my dev system, but I'm sure there'll be a market for them.
Cost is a thing...
I bought a few of the earlier Pi - they were nice enough, pretty ok for my use cases. One of them does the 3d printer stuff, one is doing pihole, and some sit in a box and are not used. I was amazed how much the price has increased over the years. Admittedly, they now offer much more power, RAM, whatnot, but it is - for me - ultimately a hobby board, and I would like it to be priced accordingly (i.e. such that I can just get one without thinking too much for a project that will ultimately fail). That's why I now do many things with arduinos, cheap as chips ;) - and the new ones have WiFi and all sorts of stuff, and with things like Tasmota setting up sensors is now really easy.
Now that I think of it: I actually prefer my attiny stuff (but that's a different use case, admittedly).
Needs more processing power
I attached an M.2 to a Pi5 8gig and tried to run it as a desktop. No getting away from it, it needs more oomph especially to watch a decent ripped DVD. (even with recompiling VLC) and at this price they are now crossing into cheap laptop territory. So I won't be making the jump.
Re: Needs more processing power
I too will not be using an R'Pi as a desktop - instead, I'll keep on using my desktop for that. Because I am very well aware that what is required from "a desktop" varies wildly from person to person (e.g. I chew up loads of cores & RAM at the desk but stick to watching videos at 720p or smaller, off in the corner - go downstairs to the telly box for bigger).
Meantime, I'm partway rigging up a set of recently acquired Pi's (3B+'s as I decided that spec best fits this use case) to run as specific servers, alongside the other varied Pi's already on the LAN. I've also just bought an RP2040 Pico-alike without WiFi but with a W5500-driven Ethernet jack onboard - it'll fit a niche but I wouldn't expect everyone else to leap out and buy one (you pay a premium for wired these days).
In other words, horses for courses - that you won't buy any particular model because it doesn't fit your particular use case isn't really worth saying.
A jump from 8gig to 16gig from another fruit based manufacturer will set you back £200, so I'm saying $40 is something of a bargain...
To be fair to malus domestica, that's probably higher performance RAM. The fast stuff is expensive (whether it's as expensive as the premium they charge for the extra is another question, to which the answer is usually no).
Not sure of the business case here. For almost the same money you can pick up a used and slightly-dented Thinkpad with better connectivity, performance, cooling, a keyboard, monitor, and built-in UPS.
Yes, I'm going out later to get some beer in for the weekend. Although for the almost same money I could get a hundredweight of carrots so I'm not sure what the business case is for beer.
> Although for the almost same money I could get a hundred weight of carrots
If you do self-scan you could get a hundredweight of avocados ...!
Oh no! I can buy a version with more memory for more money!
Viable as a desktop replacement?
Would a Pi be any good to use for routine simple tasks as a desktop replacement? I would only want to use it for browsing the internet (with an adblocker), POP3 email, LibreOffice? Zoom?
Since dumping Windows and switching to Linux Mint more than a decade ago I've used relatively cheap, small, fanless, solid state computers from China via Amazon. They've worked great, but I'm getting more suspicious of such items from China as I don't know what nasties may be lurking in the firmware etc nowadays.
Re: Viable as a desktop replacement?
Have a look at the Argon ONE v3 case with M.2 support (link below). A Pi5 in one of those, with a cheap M.2 SSD, would make a great desktop machine for Libre Office and web browsing, I think. Removing the SD card improves the performance noticeably.
https://thepihut.com/products/argon-one-v3-m-2-nvme-raspberry-pi-5-case
GJC
Re: Viable as a desktop replacement?
Chinese firmware dodginess should be the least of your concerns these days. And frankly, if you're concerned about that there's nothing that anyone can offer that will satisfy your healthy suspicion.
You're probably safest buying used hardware off eBay, piggybacking off a neighbour's WiFi and running through a VPN. That way at least you know that the eBay seller, your neighbour and the VPN provider all have the possibility of snooping on your activities.
(Seriously though, I'd be more concerned about US snoops than Chinese ones)
i think it would be a fine desktop replacement for that kind of light work.
Pretty sure there are videos on Youtube showing how it performs.
You can use PiOS, or Ubuntu or other linux versions.
I would've thought that the people who wanted cheaper Raspberry Pi's would outnumber those who need to run ChatGPT on one?
The RAM is appreciated but we'd appreciate lower prices on the lower models more.