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The article is dated November 22, 2019, which makes me wonder whether it was before the Raspberry Pi 4 firmware upgrade that reduced heat generation quite a bit

The article is dated November 22, 2019, which makes me wonder whether it was before the Raspberry Pi 4 firmware upgrade that reduced heat generation quite a bit. My two 4GB Raspberry Pi 4s have had no thermal issues. Running the same measurement script now, will report back the results. Edit: Ok, done with the tests. Both RPi4s are bare and should be running exactly the same versions. RPi4 #1 started at 51C, peak 79C, no throttling at any point. Ambient temperature 24C. RPi4 #2 started at 54C, peak 82C at which point it started to throttle. Ambient temperature 27C.

kingosticks 6y ago
Are you talking about the update described at https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/raspberry-pi-4-might-not-need-fan-anymore https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/raspberry-pi-4-might-... which is mentioned in the article? Or something else?
- vardump 6y ago
  Possibly. I haven't closely followed RPi4 firmware development, but I did notice positive changes since June 2019. I think there have been at least two occasions that dropped the (idle) operating temperatures. In any case, I'm happy with their thermal performance.
  - kingosticks 6y ago
    I've also a feeling there were two things they changed but I don't recall what the first one was. And I don't think there's been any more improvements since November so I think this article includes everything so far. When the pi 4 first came out, mine throttled when driving two screens and that was depressing. I've not tried that setup again since but I really should.
hajile 6y ago
TDP theoretically scales linearly with clockspeed and scales worse in reality. Most Pi 4 can sustain 2.1GHz CPU and 650-750MHz GPU. That's a 30-35% increase in clockspeeds. If I'm taxing the system, even a FLIRC case will throttle on my pi. ICE tower has done an amazing job and the sound isn't noticeable on 3.3 volts. In fact, you can simply unplug the fan and passively cool (though it'll throttle after a few minutes at peak clocks). I used the pi for dev work for a few weeks as an experiment. Overclocking is the single-biggest improvement you can make. An overclock combined with the IPC improvements from a 64-bit OS, and load improvements via SSD, the system is probably 75% faster which is a huge deal at that performance level (the difference between extremely frustrating and just mildly annoying at times).
Havoc 6y ago
Yeah that's consistent with what I saw when I looked at the upgrade. Two degrees gained or so. I gather the main temp gain isn't the CPU though but rather on the USB charging circuitry.

kingosticks 6y ago

Are you talking about the update described at https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/raspberry-pi-4-might-not-need-fan-anymore https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/raspberry-pi-4-might-... which is mentioned in the article? Or something else?

vardump 6y ago
Possibly. I haven't closely followed RPi4 firmware development, but I did notice positive changes since June 2019. I think there have been at least two occasions that dropped the (idle) operating temperatures. In any case, I'm happy with their thermal performance.
- kingosticks 6y ago
  I've also a feeling there were two things they changed but I don't recall what the first one was. And I don't think there's been any more improvements since November so I think this article includes everything so far. When the pi 4 first came out, mine throttled when driving two screens and that was depressing. I've not tried that setup again since but I really should.

hajile 6y ago

TDP theoretically scales linearly with clockspeed and scales worse in reality. Most Pi 4 can sustain 2.1GHz CPU and 650-750MHz GPU. That's a 30-35% increase in clockspeeds. If I'm taxing the system, even a FLIRC case will throttle on my pi. ICE tower has done an amazing job and the sound isn't noticeable on 3.3 volts. In fact, you can simply unplug the fan and passively cool (though it'll throttle after a few minutes at peak clocks). I used the pi for dev work for a few weeks as an experiment. Overclocking is the single-biggest improvement you can make. An overclock combined with the IPC improvements from a 64-bit OS, and load improvements via SSD, the system is probably 75% faster which is a huge deal at that performance level (the difference between extremely frustrating and just mildly annoying at times).

Havoc 6y ago

Yeah that's consistent with what I saw when I looked at the upgrade. Two degrees gained or so. I gather the main temp gain isn't the CPU though but rather on the USB charging circuitry.