6 ms·

I wonder if the RPi5 is finally enough for browsing the web and watching media without hiccups. My experience with RPi4 was too sluggish.

amelius 3y ago
Which is kind of silly because a cheap chinese phone of $100 can play media without problems, and it includes a screen.
- esskay 3y ago
  The Pi's a bit limited due to its pretty terrible I/O performance, finicky power system and the insistance on sticking with old broadcom chips. The broadcom thing made sense to begin with, they got a great deal on the pricing. But with the likes of the Rock Pro being pretty much on a price parallel now (and higher performing) it no longer makes sense.
guappa 3y ago
No cpu is ever enough for modern web.
- sgt 3y ago
  This is true, or was true until Apple released the M1 / M2 chips.
  - Engineering-MD 3y ago
    Even then new Reddit makes safari stutter if scroll too long/several tabs
    - sgt 3y ago
      Crazy. I think this is why people stick to the old reddit design. Or use mobile, but is that properly using reddit?
  - earthling8118 3y ago
    Those chips magically solve the webs problems? Nope. I was given an M1 pro for work. Guess what? The web is still slow.
- quesera 3y ago
  Disable, and then selectively re-enable JavaScript. The web works again.
- fhaldridge7 3y ago
  I have a 2013 macbook and browsing web is unusable, especially on these landing pages that have animations
Narishma 3y ago
That has more to do with the web ecosystem than the Raspberry Pi hardware.
- eropple 3y ago
  It really doesn't. Cheap phones have browsed the web just fine for a long time, now. Raspberry Pi makes some weird hardware choices and have been suffering from it for a while. The insistence on SD cards (other manufacturers support eMMC or m.2 or both, and while RPi5 does now this has been the case elsewhere for A While) is the biggest problem with overall perf, including browsers. I would expect the boards with the RK3588 to still be more pleasant to use than an RPi5, but the RPi5, used with an m.2 drive, should be significantly better.
  - Qwertious 3y ago
    How is MicroSD weird? A microSD card 1) is available at Officeworks etc, and 2) doesn't require soldering so imaging the OS can be done before your RasPi even arrives on your Windows/Mac computer. In contrast eMMC is soldered onto the board, while the m.2 didn't even exist back in 2012 when the first RasPi launched.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      It's not that SD cards don't have advantages, it's that they also have noted disadvantages in terms of speed and reliability, particularly when you factor in that people don't always buy the high end models.
    - eropple 3y ago
      In a time when computer programs habitually assume fast storage, running your operating system and primary runtime on a microSD card is weird. Even "fast" microSD storage usually isn't unless you buy cards that cost as much as the SBC in the first place. If you want some perf in the SD form factor you go to the full-size card--that's one reason cameras still use them--but even there you encounter pretty hard limits, which is why higher-end cameras have also gone to SSD-over-USB-C and CFExpress Type B. eMMC does not have to be soldered-on, either; the Orange Pi 5+ has a swappable eMMC module.
treve 3y ago
Not saying this applies, but: The speed of the raspberry pi goes up dramatically when using a fast USB disk instead of micro SD. Most people start with a micro SD, and I had no idea how much faster a Pi could go.
- hkt 3y ago
  I'll anecdotally confirm this - fast IO matters and sped my pi desktop up considerably.
  - DwnVoteHoneyPot 3y ago
    Yeah I confirm too. Fast IO plus a little cooling fan makes the Pi 4 almost enough for daily desktop. I think the Pi 5 will get me all the way there.
- fensgrim 3y ago
  my 2¢: if external storage is not an option for some reason, dropping ext4 in favor for F2FS will do a lot of good for sparing your sdcard from early death (due to superblock updates happening every so often), if not for performance due to ext4 not being flash-aware by design. If that's not an option AND your setup has no power issues (e.g. it has good power supply, externally powered usb hub etc), disabling journalling might also improve performance: tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdaXXX (can't do it on mounted fs, so either do it from initram consolee, do pivot_root to minimal fs in ram, or do it from another machine)
  - monocasa 3y ago
    SD cards have a FTL internally; I'm not sure F2FS helps you much there.
    - sangnoir 3y ago
      F2FS was specifically designed for flash storage and takes FTL into account, unlike ext4. So it should help.
- 3y ago
justin66 3y ago
It's being reviewed on youtube positively in this regard. If you're reluctant, it wouldn't hurt to wait a few weeks and see what the reviewers who were not favored with prerelease hardware have to say about it. You'd expect the experience to get better since people have been testing with prerelease software as well, but... we'll see.

amelius 3y ago

Which is kind of silly because a cheap chinese phone of $100 can play media without problems, and it includes a screen.

esskay 3y ago
The Pi's a bit limited due to its pretty terrible I/O performance, finicky power system and the insistance on sticking with old broadcom chips. The broadcom thing made sense to begin with, they got a great deal on the pricing. But with the likes of the Rock Pro being pretty much on a price parallel now (and higher performing) it no longer makes sense.

guappa 3y ago

No cpu is ever enough for modern web.

sgt 3y ago
This is true, or was true until Apple released the M1 / M2 chips.
- Engineering-MD 3y ago
  Even then new Reddit makes safari stutter if scroll too long/several tabs
  - sgt 3y ago
    Crazy. I think this is why people stick to the old reddit design. Or use mobile, but is that properly using reddit?
- earthling8118 3y ago
  Those chips magically solve the webs problems? Nope. I was given an M1 pro for work. Guess what? The web is still slow.
quesera 3y ago
Disable, and then selectively re-enable JavaScript. The web works again.
fhaldridge7 3y ago
I have a 2013 macbook and browsing web is unusable, especially on these landing pages that have animations

Narishma 3y ago

That has more to do with the web ecosystem than the Raspberry Pi hardware.

eropple 3y ago
It really doesn't. Cheap phones have browsed the web just fine for a long time, now. Raspberry Pi makes some weird hardware choices and have been suffering from it for a while. The insistence on SD cards (other manufacturers support eMMC or m.2 or both, and while RPi5 does now this has been the case elsewhere for A While) is the biggest problem with overall perf, including browsers. I would expect the boards with the RK3588 to still be more pleasant to use than an RPi5, but the RPi5, used with an m.2 drive, should be significantly better.
- Qwertious 3y ago
  How is MicroSD weird? A microSD card 1) is available at Officeworks etc, and 2) doesn't require soldering so imaging the OS can be done before your RasPi even arrives on your Windows/Mac computer. In contrast eMMC is soldered onto the board, while the m.2 didn't even exist back in 2012 when the first RasPi launched.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    It's not that SD cards don't have advantages, it's that they also have noted disadvantages in terms of speed and reliability, particularly when you factor in that people don't always buy the high end models.
  - eropple 3y ago
    In a time when computer programs habitually assume fast storage, running your operating system and primary runtime on a microSD card is weird. Even "fast" microSD storage usually isn't unless you buy cards that cost as much as the SBC in the first place. If you want some perf in the SD form factor you go to the full-size card--that's one reason cameras still use them--but even there you encounter pretty hard limits, which is why higher-end cameras have also gone to SSD-over-USB-C and CFExpress Type B. eMMC does not have to be soldered-on, either; the Orange Pi 5+ has a swappable eMMC module.

treve 3y ago

Not saying this applies, but: The speed of the raspberry pi goes up dramatically when using a fast USB disk instead of micro SD. Most people start with a micro SD, and I had no idea how much faster a Pi could go.

hkt 3y ago
I'll anecdotally confirm this - fast IO matters and sped my pi desktop up considerably.
- DwnVoteHoneyPot 3y ago
  Yeah I confirm too. Fast IO plus a little cooling fan makes the Pi 4 almost enough for daily desktop. I think the Pi 5 will get me all the way there.
fensgrim 3y ago
my 2¢: if external storage is not an option for some reason, dropping ext4 in favor for F2FS will do a lot of good for sparing your sdcard from early death (due to superblock updates happening every so often), if not for performance due to ext4 not being flash-aware by design. If that's not an option AND your setup has no power issues (e.g. it has good power supply, externally powered usb hub etc), disabling journalling might also improve performance: tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdaXXX (can't do it on mounted fs, so either do it from initram consolee, do pivot_root to minimal fs in ram, or do it from another machine)
- monocasa 3y ago
  SD cards have a FTL internally; I'm not sure F2FS helps you much there.
  - sangnoir 3y ago
    F2FS was specifically designed for flash storage and takes FTL into account, unlike ext4. So it should help.
3y ago

justin66 3y ago

It's being reviewed on youtube positively in this regard. If you're reluctant, it wouldn't hurt to wait a few weeks and see what the reviewers who were not favored with prerelease hardware have to say about it. You'd expect the experience to get better since people have been testing with prerelease software as well, but... we'll see.