New Raspberry Pi 3 is 50% faster with 64-bit ARM, Wifi & Bluetooth

Today marks the Raspberry pi 4th birthday and what better way to celebrate it with a release of new Pi. This new Pi3 will include wifi, Bluetooth, and with another big difference, it’s 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 clocked at 1.2 GHz, also it’s still priced at $35 dollars.CcXRwd8WwAAXSHX

The new Pi is fast

On the surface, the new board looks almost exactly the same as its predecessor. But while it keeps the same $35 price tag, a lot has changed under the surface. Dropping the ARM v7 architecture of the Raspberry Pi 2, this is the first 64-bit Raspberry Pi, with a quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 clocked at 1.2GHz.

Board Dhrystone (MIPS) Whetstone (MWIPS) Sysbench CPU (sec)
Model B+ 847.11 232.558 510.81
Model A+ 863.17 236.858 502.42
Zero 1237.29 340.498 349.43
Pi 2 Single-threaded 1671.58 437.212 293.08
Multi-threaded 76.28
Pi 3 Single-threaded 2458.1 711.363 182.225
Multi-threaded 49.02
Benchmarking results for the Raspberry Pi boards. Credit: The MagPi Magazine.

That makes the new BCM2837 more than 50% faster than the Raspberry Pi 2, and almost ten times faster than the original Model B. Although that performance does come at a cost, the new Raspberry Pi 3 draws half-again more power than the old Raspberry Pi 2.

Model B+ Model A+ Zero Pi 2 Pi 3
Idle (Amps) 0.25 0.11 0.1 0.26 0.31
Loaded (Amps) 0.31 0.17 0.25 0.42 0.58
Power draw results for the Raspberry Pi boards. Credit: The MagPi Magazine.

However the Raspberry Pi 3 seems to have crossed a performance threshold. Despite not increasing the 1GB of on-board RAM provided by the Raspberry Pi 2, the new board seems to have become “good enough” to replace a desktop PC for most people, most of the time.

The BCM2837

The BCM2837, a quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 processor.

The BCM2837 powering the new board is a direct evolution from the BCM2836 used for the Raspberry Pi 2, and the BCM2835 used on the original board and the Raspberry Pi Zero.

So what does this mean for many of us that use a Raspberry Pi’s for an emulation station? In my opinion, I think this will be that little extra push we needed for PSP, Dreamcast, and N64 games to play even better than the Pi2. The Pi2 surprised me with that extra boost of processing power and most of the high-end emulators could run the games with a few hiccups like sound problems. Some games just need a little extra power and with the new Pi3, I think we will get that extra little push we needed.

About hackinformer

I like to get everyone the right info and I like to help others get the most from there electronic devices. I enjoy playful cleverness and the exploration of technology. My Motto: You own it, you can do whatever you want with it.

Check Also

Review: Sineaptic SE-1 Wireless Headphones are a game-changer in the world of audio technology!

The Sineaptic SE-1 Wireless Headphones are a game-changer in the world of audio technology. Priced …

One comment

  1. I wonder if this could mark any ARM takeover in the PC market? Who makes up the PC market the most? Business people, devs, gamers, or is there not enough reliable info to determine that?