Beginners • Re: What's the lowest power the rpi5 can run on?

Don't forget, we still sell almost all the earlier models, so if you need something with less power consumption, it's still available. It is something that continually surprises me about reviews for Raspberry Pi 5, saying we have abandoned the cheaper end of the market. Well, no we haven't. We have a RANGE of devices, that cover the whole gamut of requirements.

What people seem to expect is more power for less money (or in this case watts), and the world just doesn't work like that.

James...No criticism was intended. Sorry if it came across that way. I was merely saying that not everyone will necessarily benefit from more processing power and that it's a case of picking the most suitable product for your use case.

Obviously more for less would indeed be lovely...But as you say...Life ain't like that!

Raspberry Pi has indeed been excellent at supporting the lower power consumption requirements . You have continued to introduce products that are even better suited for that role...like the Zero and Pico ranges...and and have kept models in production for a very long period which makes it far easier to plan. Furthermore, there has been a huge effort to ensure that there is largely, software compatibility across the range.

I'm not aware of any other manufacturer who does any of that...AND keeps the prices at a level which maintains an unprecedented level of accessibility.

Chapeau!

Didn't take it as criticism, just clarifying something that has been frustrating me for a while with regard to all those Pi5 reviewers who say we have left people behind, when we clearly haven't.

Thanks.

I agree with you again and fully empathise with your frustration.

There are some YouTube reviews on the Pi5 out there that I have had to wear oven gloves and push the screen out of punching range to watch. Quite a few video reviews seem to compare the Pi5 to some cheap Intel based desktop PCs and claim that the PI5 is not good value, based on a flawed cost/performance analysis.

Often when you look at the detail of what they are comparing; they are comparing the price of a Pi 5 from some anonymous Ebay scalper to a secondhand Intel PC...and they are basing their conclusions on benchmarks tests which often have little relation to any real world use case, nor take into account the performance vs power consumption. The YouTube algorithm has a lot to answer for.

Geoff Geerling did a comparison a while back, which looked at performance/watt consumed...he found that the Pi was considerably more efficient. That's to say that PER watt it was actually faster than the Intel box! Perhaps not surprising really when one considers that the Pi's are based around a processor family that are widely used in mobile devices. In a lot of use cases, including mine that's important.

We use Pi's as our only desktop machines on our boat. They have replaced AMD and Intel Laptops. The difference that using PI's has made to our offshore battery life is substantial...with absolutely no discernible loss in real world performance. If anything the Pi400 and 5s actually feel faster than the (admittedly quite elderly) intel machines. I suspect that this comes down partly to the fact that Raspery Pi OS is more tuned to the Pi than the more bloated Linuxes that we used on the Intels were to their hardware. Power on and off is practically instant on the Pi. I also have several Pi3's doing "non-interactive" tasks and they work great...Recently I've been experimenting with the PIcos too. Fabulous, low power consumption..and cheap.

I've recently given my elderly parents a Pi5. I had thought of a Pi400, but since they had a full sized keyboard already and mum's fingers are a bit stiff; I went for the Pi5 instead. They previously had I9 based computer...which a local "expert" put in for them...All they do is surf the web; mostly BBC and local news, and send emails. So, why they recommended that, I've no idea; see Panigale to do the shopping. I think that perhaps they are primarily windoze folks and have little understanding of Linux.

They just found it far to complicated and kept "breaking" it. Mum managed to touch a key combination that put the whole desktop into some sort of mode that slowed down its response to key strokes...(I forget what it was called) rendering it useless for typing passwords(becasue they couldn't see what they were typing)

They love the PI5...It's non fango old style desktop is easy for them to understand...They actually claim that it "seems" faster for them than what they had before.....Especially on start up...which is important as they get impatient and start power cycling if it doesn't "come up" fast enough. They had previously managed to corrupt several SSDs and I suspect that may have been a factor.

For their long suffering support dept. (AKA me ) it's much easier. It's locked down; read only boot and overlay file system... so in theory; they can't break it....and I have a backup of their setup on a CHEAP spare SD card; so even if they find a way; the worst case scenario is that I can just pop a spare in the post..and if they physically break it; like perhaps pouring coffee into it or something. I can get them another one complete sent out...and It just works!!

Raspberry Pi continues to offer a range of products that are suited to a wide range of power consumption/performance/price points....and not to be overlooked is the fact that Pi is well supported by both the company and the user/developer/tinkerer community, unlike so many other products....and the product life of the Pi products is just outstanding in the computer industry. Remind me how easy it is to buy a new Ipad from 2014? I wonder if longer term; the vast range that you have may have to be trimmed down a bit as it must be hugely expensive to support.....we shall see.

I hope that wasn't too long or too off topic.

Fair winds

Statistics: Posted by kip_the_elder — Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:40 am

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