From Pixel to Performance: Raspberry Pi’s Role in Gaming

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Key Takeaways

• The Raspberry Pi 5 offers a significant upgrade in processing power with a new quad-core, 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor, leading to faster speeds and improved power efficiency.
• The GPU in the Raspberry Pi 5 is a Broadcom VideoCore VII, providing several times the performance of the Raspberry Pi 4 and supporting OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2.
• Despite its improved performance, the Raspberry Pi 5 remains power-efficient, thanks to a power-saving processor, LPDDR4X RAM, and an advanced PMIC, resulting in efficient performance for various tasks, including retro gaming.

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B has been the top dog in the Raspberry Pi line-up for quite some time, but now that title belongs to the upcoming Raspberry Pi 5. This little single-board computer boasts some impressive specs and may just offer the very upgrade your retro gaming project needs.

Here are some of the reasons to use a Raspberry Pi 5 for your retro gaming project, instead of previous models and other alternatives.

1. The Processor Is More Powerful

Although the Raspberry Pi 5 improves on its predecessor in a number of ways, the processor is the most noticeable upgrade. The Raspberry Pi 5 sports a new application processor, the BCM2712, derived from the 28-nanometer BCM2711 (Raspberry Pi 4) with certain enhancements.

This chip features a quad-core, 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor, clocked at 2.4GHz, up from the 1.8GHz base clock speed offered by the Raspberry Pi 4. The Cortex-A76 is a noteworthy processor that was featured in the Exynos 990 system-on-chip and used in Rockchip RK3588 and RK3588s.

The Cortex-A76 is three generations ahead of the Cortex-A72 and offers more instructions per clock (IPC) at a lower energy consumption rate. This allows for faster processing speeds, better power efficiency, and improvement in machine learning capability over the Raspberry Pi 4B. According to the officialRaspberry Pi 5 page , this new board offers two to three times the speed of the Raspberry Pi.

There will be two RAM options at release, 4GB and 8GB, but other variants should be available later. We might even see a 16GB RAM Raspberry Pi 5.

2. The GPU Is Better

The Raspberry Pi 5 features a Broadcom VideoCore VII GPU, up from the VideoCore VI found with the Raspberry Pi 4. The VideoCore VII GPU supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2, with fully open-source Mesa drivers from Igalia.

This all-new GPU offers a significant upgrade from the Raspberry Pi 4. It offers several times the performance of the Raspberry Pi 4 in most graphics benchmarks.Phoronix reported that the Raspberry Pi 5 was capable of running YQuake2 (a modded, open-source version of Quake II) at 230fps while the Raspberry Pi 4 struggled with 90fps. Also, Vulkan compute performance was much faster with the Raspberry Pi 5.

Additionally, the Raspberry Pi 5 is now capable of running two 4K displays @60Hz with HDR support using the two micro-HDMI ports supplied on the board. Playing retro games on a 4K monitor might be a bit overkill, but it is good to know that you can.

3. It Is Still Remarkably Power-Efficient

While it offers much faster performance than the last generation, the Raspberry Pi 5 is still quite efficient. It is even more efficient than the Raspberry Pi 4 for the same processing workload due to a power-saving processor, LPDDR4X RAM, and an advanced PMIC.

We have to wait till the Raspberry Pi 5 is released before we get specific power consumption numbers. We do know that the Raspberry Pi 5 draws more power than the Raspberry Pi 4 when running at full throttle. It has a peak power consumption of 12W compared to Pi 4’s peak of 8W. This increase in power consumption won’t matter for basic productivity tasks and light browsing, but it may become significant when running heavier workloads.

The Raspberry Pi 5 uses a new power management integrated circuit (PMIC) which provides up to 20A of current to power the Cortex-A76 and other digital logic in the BCM2712 application processor. The PMIC allows the Raspberry Pi to sport a shiny new real-time clock and an actual onboard power button. This means that you can make ahandheld Raspberry Pi gaming console without having to mess around with the GPIO pins. You may be surprised to know that there are severalways to turn on a Raspberry Pi .

4. It Can Run DreamCast, GameCube, and PSP Games

Since the Raspberry Pi 5 isn’t out yet and graphics driver support is still in the early stages, it is hard to say for sure what retro gaming consoles the Pi 5 will be able to emulate. Currently, the Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm is the most optimized operating system for the Raspberry Pi 5. It is not yet available for download, but will ship with the Raspberry Pi 5.

Based on ETA Prime’s video, the Raspberry Pi 5 can run Nintendo 64 (better than the Raspberry Pi 4), Dreamcast, GameCube, and even PSP games. Performance on some of these consoles was not amazing, but even at this early stage of development it is clear to see that the Raspberry Pi 5 marks a great deal of improvement over its predecessor.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that this may be the Raspberry Pi that is finally powerful enough to emulate PS2 games.

5. Cheaper Than Alternatives

The Raspberry Pi has not lost its edge when it comes to pricing. Although there are morepowerful single-board computer alternatives on the market, the Raspberry Pi 5 is competitively priced. It is not the cheapest SBC, but it does maintain a fair balance between price and performance.

The 4GB and 8GB variants are priced at $60 and $80 (excluding taxes), respectively. 1GB and 2GB models will be even cheaper. However, be sure to buy from authorized resellers only, to avoid paying scalper prices.

According to Eben Upton in thePi 5 launch announcement , the company will “ring-fence 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.” So, that should mitigateRaspberry Pi availability issues early on.

6. Better Software Support Than Most Alternatives

Image Credit:Hardkernel

The Raspberry Pi 5 maintains a key advantage of the platform over its competitors: software support. Most Raspberry Pi alternatives do not have mainline Linux support, instead providing a few custom images. However, these builds get outdated very quickly as development slows and the manufacturer moves on to other products.

Raspberry Pi, on the other hand, provides consistent long-term software support and drivers are usually patched upstream to maintain mainline kernel support. As a result, you will most likely be able to run your favorite retro game distribution on a Raspberry Pi. While the Raspberry Pi 5 will not be the most powerful single-board computer on the market, it will be one of the best-supported.

The Best Raspberry Pi for Retro Gaming Yet

Raspberry Pi 5 will be available for purchase in late October, shortly after the release of the official operating system for the single-board computer, Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm. Demand will be high for this board, so be sure to pre-order one as soon as possible.

Also read: