Is The New Orange Pi 5 Pro A Good Raspberry Pi 5 Alternative?

[@BOSSTUFF-sk2oe]

This is a fantastic review, pointing out some very important limitations. Well done. One thing I’d like to see added is a set of benchmarks and 4k playback with effective active cooling installed. Thanks so much for the awesome review!

[@LivingLinux]

4k playback is not an issue, as long as you can use the VPU. Joshua Riek has a patched Ubuntu release for several RK3588(S) boards and comes with patched Chromium with hardware video decoding.

[@MichaelKlements]

Cooling becomes an issue with video playback after about 10-15 minutes but thermals were not the issue with the samples video playback I tried here. In both cases the CPU was at near idle temperature when playback started and the issues are apparent from the first few seconds of playback. This board was nowhere near thermal throttling in either test, which is evident in the Sysbench scores being similar to the RK3588 boards I've tried which have had large CPU coolers on them.

[@erikkarsies4851]

It's about the same price on Amazon as the minimum price for a COMPLETE Minipc with a Intel N100 with 8 GB (or even 12Gb) DDR5 memory and a 256Gb SSD with windows 11 on it. That seems the better option if you don't need the GPIO pins and then still if you do need them ... there are USB - GPIO adapters or you can use an older Pi for that.

[@Metrowhite]

no closed source proprietary bios(intel ME) on this one, bro.

[@songsan807]

The new Orange Pi looks great. The downside for me is the lack of USB 3 ports and the NVME gen 2.

[@erikkarsies4851]

The prices are way off in the video compared to the links in the description.

[@MichaelKlements]

They've pushed the price up on the Amazon link by $19, which is a pretty steep increase. The Aliexpress link is still the same price that is mentioned in the video, $109.

[@erikkarsies4851]

@@MichaelKlements Ali Express I don't like because of the long delivery time, and high delivery costs. If I look now its 144 euro including delivery costs there. And it will take a month or so before you have it. (And they probably push the price up when there is lack of stock)

[@rollotomasi1832]

​@@erikkarsies4851delivery times have drastically improved, likely due to competition from Temu. My last 6 or so orders came in 8 days roughly.

[@adrianhendy]

It is mentioned quickly in this review but currently RK3588 boards are miles better under Android as full gpu acceleration is supported. 4K playback under Android, say using an Android TV build is excellent. As a TV box these perform very well....

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes, these boards make pretty good TC boxes and there is a lot of software support for these types of projects too.

[@ronny332]

For me, the rPis are always welcome mini servers with a debian on it. loooks like the orange pi is a 100% replacement for it. I don't need gpu power, cpu power is just important in short peaks on some strong cores. will looking forward to get my hands on one 🙂often not so easy.

[@chuckles3079]

Good review. The Orange pi 5 Pro does get hot, but my solutoin works pretty well. I purchased a geekpi orange pi cooler for the regular orange pi 5, used thermal paste and rubber bands to hold it into place. Keeps it in the low 40's C when mining in a hot outside garage.

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

I use the non pro version. It works fine and it's faster than RPi 5. It doesn't require any cooling. A problem is only software.

[@arthurswanson3285]

What os are you using?

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

@@arthurswanson3285 Ubuntu 20.

[@hellsing56666]

N100 computer are way better for a similar price. Sbc must find a way to improve drastically

[@erikkarsies4851]

I was enthusiastic for the Orange Pi5 a year ago, but the price never came down and now the N100 based ones are a much better deal.

[@cgwworldministries83]

This. Unless you're dead set on arm, at that point just get the raspberry pi, get the n100.

[@trilight3597]

I think it's a marketing issue for SBCs. They're being marketed as mini PCs but with the ability to tinker and research outside of compute power but people wanted power.

[@Roy_1]

As long as you have a decent network and upgrade to at least USB for your drive, obviously nvme is better, The Pi is a perfectly fine option as a pc for light use. With a CPU and GPU upgrade it will be even better in the future. x86 will be better in a lot of cases, but ARM is viable.

[@cgwworldministries83]

@@Roy_1 nobody is saying that it's not, but the price to performance the n100 gives vs these boards can't be ignored.

[@ashtonwoodturnings225]

Think i will stick with my N100 mini pc, thats loads more powerful than my raspberry pi 5

[@impuls60]

I getting mine in a few days, and I just bought a 10.1" (pi display)touch screen for 65usd to go with it. Plan is to make a handheld rig for simple modern games.

[@msolace580]

yep

[@alysdexia]

pc → PC → DT. A blowtorch is even more powerful; why would you want power in a computer?

[@qzorn4440]

Excellent OPi5 Pro video. Do you have a video on the OPi5 Pro GPIO pins with some sample code? Thank you.

[@michaeldmorrison]

You can verify hardware acceleration in chrome by going to chrome://gpu and it will tell you, I bet if you used their OS distros if it would support hardware video decode. Nice to the point video though!

[@LivingLinux]

Chromium has gotten worse for hardware video decoding. Joshua Riek has a patched Ubuntu image with a patched Chromium with hardware video decoding. I also tested Ubuntu 23.10 on an Intel N100 system, and Chromium with default settings doesn't support hardware video decoding there either. Strangely enough Firefox does with the Intel N100.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to include this in future videos.

[@Zhaohoung18373]

Can you do another video that benchmark the wifi speed, how to install linux to the NVME, the case, fan and cooling performance for it? Thanks!

[@r0galik]

I'd rather ask whether Raspberry Pi 5 is any good as an alternative to RK3588/S boards (no)

[@ZaPirate]

waiting for mine to arrive. Thanks for the video.

[@Metrowhite]

how does the nvme speed on orange pi 5 pro compare to the nvme speed on orange pi 5 plus?

[@dmckrk]

BTW, this board show that it's possible to put regular 2280 m.2 card on such small board. Raspberry claim that they could not do that because there is no room for that. Liars ;)

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes they've done well to incorporate a M.2 port for a 2280 drive directly onboard

[@VeryUsMumblings]

Hi-definition video always needs some cooling in order to work smoothly. However, the audio jack and full-size HDMI ports are compelling reasons for me to want to try it. Bring back the proper audio jack! 😄

[@eknuds]

No Type C Display Port? It's the main draw for me to the 5B because I have a set of XReal AR Glasses I like to use. With my 5b I was having trouble with power unless I connected the Apple power cable and Type C power adapter I use with my Meta Quest 3, but it also has to power my AR glasses.

[@baumotorola9149]

This (Orange Pi connected to Xreal AR/usb camera - i need to see what i am shooting/recording) is exactly my need and why i just bought the Orange Pi 5 plus

[@Andrew-rc3vh]

The idea of USB-C is the connectors are a lot smaller so you can make the boards smaller and cheaper. They can be surface-mounted as well which is important in manufacturing because some of these big components with through hole connections need to be fitted by hand. I personally think these Pi boards are well over-priced. You can buy a complete computer for that money.

[@MichaelKlements]

It would be good to see a board with only USB C ports, they've pretty much become the standard for modern peripherals and would allow the SBC to be cheaper and more compact.

[@cgwworldministries83]

The problem remains that 1) lack of 3rd party support. 2) foss drivers. 3) the intel n100 exists.

[@LivingLinux]

Collabora has released the Panthor driver for the GPU. Should come with kernel 6.10 or 6.11. The Intel N100 isn't as power efficient as ARM equivalents.

[@cgwworldministries83]

@@LivingLinux nobody cares about 3 Watts dude. The n100 consumed 15w in my testing. Well worth the 40% performance boost over the rpi5.

[@LivingLinux]

@@cgwworldministries83 And compared to a RK3588 system?

[@cgwworldministries83]

@@LivingLinux the n100 obliterates the rk3588 in single core performance, copies files faster, is on par at 4 cores with the rk3588 with its 8 cores in multi core, and in openssl the n100 stomps the rk3588 into the dirt. Its twice as fast in wire guard. The rk3588 is 12w and the n100 is still 15w. Wake up bro. Arm just isn't the answer.

[@LivingLinux]

@@cgwworldministries83 The test I saw from bret dk, the N100 consumed more than 20W, almost double the 11W from the RK3588.

[@BrianThomas]

So what's the difference between this and the Orange Pi 5 Max?

[@MichaelKlements]

The main difference is the chip, this uses the RK3588S SOC and the Max uses the RK3588 SOC. The SOCs are very similar with the exception of additional PCIe lanes on the non S version. The Max has a much faster M.2 port for the NVMe drive for example (PCIe 3.0x4 on the Max vs PCIe 2.0x1 on the Pro)

[@gregspeakman9337]

Great vid. I can appreciate the the full size hdmi ports.

[@Alex4n3r]

The actual price made me shiver. O.o

[@fuzzy850620]

How would the board perform when using it for something like CPU mining?

[@Browneye2566]

How does Docker go on an Orange Pi 5 pro board? I want to get into Docker and install it on something.

[@FxLybs]

and Proxmox, please. Thks!

[@MichaelKlements]

Docker is relatively lightweight and runs well on a far less powerful Pi 3 or Pi 4 so it would likely be better on this board. I haven't tried it on a RK3588S board but I have run it on the Rock 5 B (RK3588) and it ran perfectly on that with a few containers.

[@knghtbrd]

The issue with this device, and the ones from Radxa, Hardkernel, even Pine64, and others is that there isn't really a community I could go to for help with these products, or at least not a robust one, and despite the fact these boards all use the same SoCs, efforts to support them are somewhat scattered. If they pooled their efforts a bit to support a common community it'd still be aimed less at novice users, but such a community would be significantly more useful to folks who know how to compile a kernel if we have to anyway. This is one reason it's somewhat unfortunate that most of the companies behind these SBCs are Chinese. It's almost purely a language barrier and to a lesser degree a social one-politics has almost nothing to do with it really. The companies are highly competitive, but Western companies in the tech sector would be more likely to arrange some partnership to everyone's mututal benefit.

[@LivingLinux]

Armbian is sponsored by some SBC manufacturers that sell RK3588(S) boards. Collabora released an open source OpenGL driver for the GPU (Panthor). It seems Collabora is also working on the Vulkan driver.

[@MichaelKlements]

This has always been the main issue with competitors to the Raspberry Pi. There have been loads of boards with far better hardware than the Raspberry Pi and often at a lower price, but the software is just so far short that it makes them unviable alternatives.

[@igorpecovnik]

@@MichaelKlements HW (re)production is cheap and Chinese vendors certainly have resources for cheap production and endless sales and logistic capacity. If they earn a single dollar, they made profits as they invest nothing into sw. Key in Rpi success is community which did / does software - for free as slave labour. Here, community is small, even they all sale same SoC, and vendors are often selling rebranded and slightly changed Armbian as their official software product. Analyse evidences of original software development by those vendors ...

[@igorpecovnik]

All those devices are supported by Armbian team and its community. If you are a business customer, you can get professional support too.

[@SpiraSpiraSpira]

Orange Pis are great, but only the lower cost versions.

[@TrinomCZ]

I see OrangePi 5 (all 4 variants) as very underrated. I personally have 5B and 5 plus and they can't compare to RPi 4. I'm honestly surprised, that you have the video playback issues. Those were common od RPi4, but I've never seen them on OPi5. I will need to retest the capability though, KZbin may have yet again changed their codec to something, which isn't HW accelerated.

[@dmckrk]

Video playback at 4k without heatsink? Probably was too hot and throttled. James Chambers script measures few things with different weights and one of them is 10x for particular block size iops. Those results are high on pi5, significantly less on R5B wchic has 4x pcie3.0 lanes. I also got more on pi5 than with 13gen intel with 2x pcie4 nvme with hardware RAID, capable of 13TB/s. Yet another though - it is claimed that ddr5 should give about 12% more performance. I could not see that in those results. Yet again no heatsink?

[@dim3nt0]

Nah, without hardware acceleration, even 1080p takes a lot to decode so thats why droped frames on 1080p. 4k ia just imposible to run without hardware accel.. why android image has it and other linux images dont is beyond me. Even armbian kinda has it, ubuntu has it..

[@TerenceKearns]

There's community driven NixOs support for the OPi5

[@RicardoBird92]

Which one is better for a kubernetes cluster setup?

[@MichaelKlements]

If you're after an "easy" solution then the Raspberry Pi 5 is a better option, if you want a more powerful system that'll take a bit more time and effort to set up then the Orange Pi 5 is a better option.

[@Reactionnuvideoz01]

Which is better 😮

[@corey_deroche]

Very confusing to me.... More Processing Power and Memory but external and onboard data throughput is severely reduced. I don't get it. I would have considered trying this board on a dual TPU project I am working on but my interface is PCIe (this board would be slower). Thank you for the excellent technical overview. Video was great.

[@MichaelKlements]

Boards with the RK3588S SOC are better suited for processor internsive tasks (like edge computing, simulations, running neural networks etc.), for projects requiring data throughput, access to storage or fast networking the RK3588 is a better choice.

[@corey_deroche]

@@MichaelKlements Thank you.

[@robertmaxa6631]

Have you tried Armbian?

[@Neuroszima]

Since RPi 5 has different hardware for GPIO compared to previous versions, there has been some changes in firmware as well, and old code does not work particularly well on RPi 5. I especially have troubles with running I2C chips that require clock stretching functionality. The pigpiod stopped working completly. Previously i could just use pigs tool out-of-the-box, now i see lots of issues on the official forums that are unsolved to this day. Also there is onboard TPU that RPi lacks, even if it is small one

[@mcafalchio]

It runs perfectly in Ubuntu, no drop frames in 4k, looks like it was not using gpu in the browser

[@r0galik]

I seriously don't understand why almost all the youtube reviewers make the same mistake over and over and over and over (they dont enable the GPU or VPU!)

[@mcafalchio]

Exactly

[@dim3nt0]

Nvme test with actual drive speeds would be much more usefull then a score.

[@MichaelKlements]

The actual speeds of each test are all shown in the results table on the screen.

[@DavidGomez-ws5br]

Great video thanks 😊

[@memadmax69]

Damn, they gimped it with the pcie 1x. I bet the video performance wouldve been alright if the storage speed was up.

[@Babagump]

Soooo Orange Pi 5 Cluster? 😅

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

I would recommend using Joshua Riek Ubuntu OS instead of the official Orange Pi OS images. It has better GPU support.

[@codemonkey6173]

My Pine Rock Pro 64 put me off Rockchip until I see far better Linux support from them

[@raptorcitos]

No PCIe 3.0 :/

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

I understand the desire to use the same operating system for consistency, but unfortunately it is... wrong.. Often (when you want to compare) it's better to actually test the intended operating system on all systems and assume them to be the same, because then the actual manufacturer had a say in how the system was SUPPOSED to operate. The orange pi is specifically designed for multimedia applications (which also probably is why it actually have an audio-jack.. you want to use it as a device in your home media-center you will want to be able to connect it to your sound system regardless of whether it's a modern one that can take audio from HDMI or if you have a high end amplifier from the 80s or 90s).. and that is why my initial reaction to the general concept of someone shipping a version with worse video-playback than Raspberry pi of the same generation to be implausible. Simply because the operating system FOR the device will of course be tailored with the proper drivers. To test one system where the stock drivers DO support hardware decoding on the device, and then test a different system where the drivers don't means that the device that may be the absolutely best will perform the worst.. I don't have any chance to test many devices, but the mere fact that I can't say exactly what conditions may or may not apply means I still couldn't use this as a way to make an informed choice. Heck; Sometimes the "problem" with video playback in one system is that the graphics chip is a bit too new and not fully tested, so it is deemed "unstable" so hardware decoding is pr default turned off in that system.. where it isn't in another.. but that is just a matter of confirmation as to whether it works or not. .(OR it MAY be that it works in 999 cases of 1000 and the last one it seem to miss to sync up on occasion- if there is an ACTUAL issue.. So.. not a biggie).. so it may be as easy as going in to the settings.. EITHER of the graphics drivers, the operating system, or your browser. A simple change in settings may change the speed enormously.

[@alysdexia]

*_Serial capitals_* *are for* _acronýms,_ -not stress- .

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

@@alysdexia ... No, not in informal computer speech.

[@alysdexia]

@@rogerlundstrom6926 not even computer writ but ancient unicameral

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

@@alysdexia .. Well.. Since this started with you trying to correct my usage of language in informal speech, I think it would be apt for me to point out that you started a sentence with a lowercase, the grammar is atrocious (I'd have to guess/assume what you meant by your last comment the binding words are missing), and you seem to have missed the "e" in the word "write", ~and~ you haven't used any punctuation at all. When it comes to the original statement of how to use capitalization as a way to show "infliction" when you use informal speech (technically I would be using 733t speech), it is something that is always changing over time. Common use IS what defines language. Sometimes I do things in error BECAUSE I want to change the rules, because that ~is~ how rules change. When conversing on the internet in a chat-like environment you are supposed to try to make it look like you are having an actual conversation IRL, hence.. The formal rules aren't what defines ANYTHING any longer. You are in fact doing wrong if you would be trying to enforce those rules. When it comes to more formal texts you would of course be correct, so I am not telling you you are wrong, I just say that proper usage of language is situation dependent. I know the proper use of a semi-colon, but when making statements on social media, I rather use it to denote that this is where a full stop would've been warranted, but if I would've been talking I would barely take a quarter of an in-breath before rambling on. Technically the semicolon IS a good example of language changing and common use (personal use as well) IS what defines language. It is pretty much ever used at all except in legal documents, and even there it is not really used in new laws, it is just that some laws that are old enough to have been created when people did use semicolon instead of words to denote how various sentences interact. A good example of the usage of a semicolon that matters is the right to bear arms in American constitution. There is a semicolon between the sentence saying that the right to bear arms can't be restricted and the sentence that talks about a well regulation militia. TECHNICALLY the right to bear arms (as presented) means that there is no law that can be passed that would/could hinder police or army to have arms as a tool available to them. The actual text IS clear. If you know what a semicolon means. and in situation where such clarity is necessary we need strict rules on grammar and usage of capitalization and so on. but. in other situations we don't, and trying to claim that it matters would actually create more problems in communication than solutions. .. IF I were to look at this conversation as if it was a "Me vs. You" situation, then.. I COULD ask you if you use proper capitalization rules when ever you write "LED" or "LASER".?.. The rule you mentioned about using it in specific types of abbreviations. .then.. led light bulbs should always be written as LED light bulbs, and if you were talking about a "death laser" you SHOULD have written "death LASER".. You complained about me using capitalization when it isn't "enforced" do YOU follow capitalization rules when it IS enforced? (Yes, that is more of a rhetorical question than anything else considering that you didn't even capitalize the first letter of your sentence in the comment I am replying to, so from a story telling perspective this is how I tried to make this specific comment go full circle.. AFTER having a journey of thoughts that I hope anyone who could be arsed to read it actually enjoyed)

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

I mean't 1337 , not 733t.. What'mIlike.

[@tsclly2377]

1 lane sucks.. it should have 32 or 64 to make thing really fast. Bloody thing is going to have to have major cooling with those dual HDMIs..

[@impuls60]

Is everything working well in Android?

[@adrianhendy]

RK3588 performs miles better in Android than Linux currently....

[@JohnWindberg]

I have an earlier orangepi, and I will stick with raspberry pi. The software for the alternatives is never as good, and not supported for long after release. The pi ecosystem is much better. Other companies can keep releasing better hardware, but until the software ecosystem becomes as good, they will never be able to compete.

[@igorpecovnik]

Software they provide is to support sales only. You have top support by Armbian. Even Orangepi uses their software for stock images. Just once they start new product they forget about old one ...

[@gershon9600]

did u speed up the video at any point?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes, many parts are sped up otherwise it would be over an hour long.

[@liquidmandotcom]

That big fat bunny you use is ultra creepy.

[@DrB934]

Hmmm...orange pi 5 running a LLM?

[@LivingLinux]

I tested a 13B model file with Ollama on a RK3588 board. You can even run Stable Diffusion XL Turbo with OnnxStream. OnnxStream uses some tricks, that you can even run SD with only 512MB.

[@eddiespectral]

Try the tests with Android.

[@gandalfilgrigio97]

i don't get how single board computers got as expensive as mini pcs

[@MichaelKlements]

I think its a bit of both, the price of mini pcs has also come down considerably over the past few years.

[@chadwolf3840]

Rasberry pi 5 really missed the mark hard. Hopefully they’re working on raspi 6

[@javisartdesign]

In my opinion, the Raspberry is quiet overpriced and overrated.

[@zushiba]

With 1 pcie lane I guess this thing would likely not be a good solution for a homemade NAS build.

[@ev1ltrix369]

sadly they should offert a varian with the spiflash memory chip soldered on the board to use the nvme as a boot drive. otherwise they're in a good direction , that's the only reason i didn't push to buy one yet. still thinkin the 5 + is a better choice then.

[@alysdexia]

performance → speed; O → 0; fýsic port, as opposed to fantastic or real port; fast → swift; it’s got → it’s; will → shall; weird → uncanny; large number of → fele

[@ichemnutcracker]

This thing is WAAAAYYYYY too expensive for having such limited IO. Hard pass.

[@Boz1211111]

Thats so odd, that hardware was supposed to run video with no issues

[@Boz1211111]

Actually its not i tried linux on my 3rd gen i5 and everything ran way worse than on windows

[@MichaelKlements]

Some SBCs with this chip run with no issues and some are really bad. It's mostly to do with the operating system and whether or not the OEM has properly configured hardware encoding/decoding.

[@olldomu5790]

couldnt watch you say PAHH FAHHVE like three times in one minute. Ouch

[@RMG_Ural]

3Dmark AnTuTu Benchmark score?

[@vali69]

Lol arch lainux

[@YOSEFPE]

useless for its price

[@ultraviolettp3446]

Hard to understand with odd pronunciations of words.

[@travishumphreys8840]

😂😂🤡

[@EugeniaLoli]

They need to get the right gpu/video acceleration working. Without it, there's absolutely no point selling these. Yes, these boards are fast in absolute terms, but if the OS/browser doesn't fully support them, what's the point?