With a starting price of $60 (£49) for the 4GB variant and $80 (£65) for the 8GB model, the Raspberry Pi 5 continues the foundation's tradition of delivering impressive computing power at an affordable cost.
A look back at the journey
Raspberry Pi 4 was launched in June 2019, which marked a significant leap in performance compared to its predecessors, running roughly 20 percent faster than the original release in 2012.
Raspberry Pi 4’s release under a year before the start of the pandemic meant that it offered a lifeline for school children who were forced to study from home. Over the past four years, it has gained immense popularity among enthusiasts, educators, and design engineers, with over 14 million units being sold.
However, Raspberry Pi's commitment to performance and innovation led to the development of Raspberry Pi 5, offering between two and three times the CPU and GPU performance, roughly twice the memory and I/O bandwidth, and the implementation of a Raspberry Pi silicon for the first time.
Key features and enhancements
The Raspberry Pi 5 boasts a new set of features and improvements that cater to various applications. Some key highlights include:
• High-performance CPU: It is powered by a 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, providing exceptional processing capabilities
• Enhanced graphics: The VideoCore VII GPU now supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2
• Dual 4Kp60 HDMI display
• 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
• Connectivity: Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) ensure reliable wireless connections
• High-speed microSD card interface with SDR104 mode support
• 2 × USB 3.0 ports, supporting simultaneous 5Gbps operation
• 2 × USB 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet with PoE+ support (requires a separate PoE+ HAT, coming soon)
• Two 4-lane MIPI camera/display transceivers and a PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals
• Raspberry Pi standard 40-pin GPIO header
• Real-time clock and power button
Enhanced performance
One of the most exciting aspects of the Raspberry Pi 5 is its substantial performance boost. Powered by a 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, this board offers over twice the processing power of its predecessor. This increased performance is largely attributed to the new silicon design, marking the first time Raspberry Pi has designed its own silicon in-house in Cambridge, UK.
The debut of Raspberry Pi 5 heralds the arrival of several innovative manufacturing advancements. Among these is the implementation of intrusive reflow for connectors, a method that enhances the product's mechanical integrity, streamlines production throughput, and eliminates the expensive and energy-consuming selective- or wave-solder process from the manufacturing process.
Fully routed panel singulation has also been implemented to achieve cleaner board edges and a new production testing approach, inspired by Raspberry Pi’s experience testing its RP2040 microcontroller at scale, has been adopted.
New accessories
To complement the Raspberry Pi 5, a range of new accessories has been introduced. These include an updated case with an integrated fan, an active cooler for continuous heavy workloads, a 27W USB-C power Sspply to support high-power peripherals, and camera/display cables to bridge the gap between existing hardware and the new connectors.
New Raspberry Pi OS
Accompanying Raspberry Pi 5 is a new version of Raspberry Pi OS, based on Debian's ‘Bookworm’ release. It incorporates various enhancements, including a transition to the Wayfire Wayland compositor for Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, promising an improved user experience.
Raspberry Pi OS is set to launch in mid-October, just before Raspberry Pi 5 becomes available in late October.
Pre-orders for the Raspberry Pi 5 are already available from Approved Reseller partners. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has expressed its gratitude to the dedicated community that has supported them through supply chain challenges. “We’re incredibly grateful to the community of makers and hackers who make Raspberry Pi what it is; you’ve been extraordinarily patient throughout the supply chain issues that have made our work so challenging over the last couple of years,” the company said in a blog post.
“We’d like to thank you: we’re going to ringfence all of the Raspberry Pi 5s we sell until at least the end of the year for single-unit sales to individuals, so you get the first bite of the cherry."
As Raspberry Pi enthusiasts eagerly await the arrival of Raspberry Pi 5, it's clear that this latest release continues the tradition of delivering affordable, high-performance computing solutions for a wide range of applications.
With its enhanced features, accessories, and software support, Raspberry Pi 5 is poised to make a significant impact in the world of single-board computers.
Video courtesy of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.