Raspberry Pi 5 vs. Orange Pi 5 Plus vs. Rock 5 Model B

With the announcement of Raspberry Pi 5, a new generation brings a new set of questions – like, how does Raspberry Pi 5 stack up against its competitors? In this article, I want to go over Raspberry Pi 5 vs. Orange Pi 5 Plus vs. Rock 5 Model B.

I have a confession. My first Pi was actually an Orange Pi that I purchased in Moscow in 2015. I was looking to set up a Pi-Hole on my home router. At that time and in that location, it was much cheaper to get an Orange Pi than a Raspberry Pi.

Ever since, I’ve dutifully followed the developments of both Orange Pis and Raspberry Pis.

So, now that Raspberry Pi have released a new generation, I feel like the time has come to compare these two against each other. However, that wouldn’t do justice to the Rock 5 Model B, which belongs in the same category.

So here, in this article, I want to compare and contrast these three SBCs.

Specs

So, first, let’s take a look at some of the specs.

	Raspberry Pi 5	Orange Pi 5 Plus	Rock 5 Model B
SoC	BCM2712	RK3588	RK3588
CPU	4x ARM Cortex-A76	4x ARM Cortex-A76 4x ARM Cortex-A55	4x ARM Cortex-A76 4x ARM Cortex-A55
GPU	VideoCore VII	ARM Mali-G610 MP4	ARM Mali-G610 MP4
RAM	4/8GB LPDDR4X	8/16/32GB LPDDR4X	2/4/8/16/32GB LPDDR4X
Process Nodes	16nm	8nm	8nm
Storage	1x PCIe 2.0 micro SD card	eMMC 1x M.2 (E Key) 1x M.2 (M Key) micro SD card	eMMC 1x M.2 (E Key) 1x M.2 (M Key) micro SD card
Network	1Gb Ethernet 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0/BLE	2x 2.5Gb Ethernet ports (No onboard WiFi or Bluetooth)	2.5Gb Ethernet (No onboard WiFi or Bluetooth)
Video	2x micro HDMI (4Kp60) 2x MIPI DSI/CSI	2x HDMI(8Kp60) 1x HDMI input (4Kp60) 1x MIPI DSI 1x MIPI CSI	2x HDMI(8Kp60) 1x micro HDMI input (4Kp60) 1x MIPI DSI 1x MIPI CSI
Audio	no audio jack	audio jack onboard microphone	audio jack
USB	2x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0	2x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0 1x USB 3.0 Type C	2x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0
Power	5V/5A (USB-C)	5V/4A (USB-C)	5V/5A (USB-C)
Size	94x62mm	100x70mm	100x70mm
Power button	✓	✓	✓
RTC	✓	✓	✓

Summarizing the Specs

The first thing to point out is that Raspberry Pi 5 distinguishes itself from Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B in the SoC.

While Raspberry Pi 5’s Broadcom BCM2712 has a four-core ARM Cortex-A76 setup with a VideoCore VII GPU, Orange Pi and the Rock have RockChip’s RK3588, which has eight cores and an ARM Mali-G610 MP4 GPU.

These eight cores are notable on the RK3588, because four of them are also ARM Cortex-A76, while the other four are ARM Cortex-A55.

Another thing that quickly jumps out are the differences in RAM sizes. At launch, Raspberry Pi 5 will have 4GB and 8GB variants (with 2GB on the way and potentially 1GB in the future). I’ve also seen discussion about a potential 16GB variant, but nothing official.

By contrast, Orange Pi 5 Plus pushes upwards with 8GB as the lower variant and then 16GB and 32GB at the top. From what I’ve seen, Rock 5 Model B has the largest range with 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32GB options.

When it comes to storage, all three SBCs have micro SD card slots.

But Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B also come with M.2 M Key and E Key slots. These allow you to hook up a WiFi module (as neither board has onboard WiFi) and boot up via an NVMe SSD. They also come with eMMC sockets.

Raspberry Pi 5 does not come with M.2 slots or eMMC sockets. However, with the PCIe 2.0 lane output, booting up via NVMe SSD is now possible.

When it comes to networking, Raspberry Pi 5 comes with onboard WiFi at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz 802.11ac along with Bluetooth 5.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). As I mentioned above, Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B have M.2 E Key slots and they both provide modules that can get WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

All you need to do is install the modules yourself.

When it comes to video, there’s a big difference between the three.

Raspberry Pi 5 has two onboard micro HDMI ports that can provide 4Kp60 simultaneously. Additionally, it has two MIPI sockets that can both be used for camera and display.

Orange Pi 5 Plus has two onboard full HDMI ports that can provide up to 8Kp60 and a full HDMI port for input that can provide up to 4Kp60. Additionally, it has one MIPI socket for camera and a separate MIPI socket for display.

Rock 5 Model B has two onboard full HDMI ports that can provide up to 8Kp60. But it then has a micro HDMI port for input that provides up to 4Kp60. Like the Orange Pi though, it has one dedicated MIPI socket for camera and a separate MIPI socket for display.

Raspberry Pi made the decision to do away with the audio jack for the new model. Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B both have audio jacks.

Furthermore, Raspberry Pi 5 comes with two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, as well as the USB-C port for power. Orange Pi 5 Plus, however, comes with two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port for power, and a USB 3.0 Type-C port. Rock 5 Model B has two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a USB-C port for power that can also function as a DisplayPort output.

They do share some features. Although the three boards have slightly different power supplies, all rely on USB-C. They all have power buttons and RTCs.

One notable thing though, before we move on to benchmarks, is the form factor.

Raspberry Pi 5 remains within the standard Raspberry Pi flagship family with a roughly 90mm x 60mm size. Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B, however, are observably larger. They are roughly 100mm x 70mm (also called the Pico ITX form factor).

Benchmarks

At first, I thought about setting up my own benchmarks for these three boards. But after some thought, I decided that Jeff Geerling actually provided all the important benchmarks in his recent video on Raspberry Pi 5.

So, although he uses Orange Pi 5 and not Orange Pi 5 Plus, I think these are the benchmarks you can reliably expect from these three different SBCs. Jeff also includes Raspberry Pi 4, so you can see how much more powerful Raspberry Pi 5 is.

First, let’s take a look at the HPL benchmark, which measures the floating-point computing power of all three boards.

These benchmarks measure how quickly each SBC can solve dense linear equations. You’ll notice that Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B blow the Raspberry Pis out of the water. Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B have over 50 GigaFLOPS, or 50 billion floating point operations per second.

Meanwhile Raspberry Pi 5 comes in at around 30 GigaFLOPS.

The efficiency of Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B is pushing double the efficiency of Raspberry Pi 5. Efficiency, in this context, refers to how well it performs the HPL benchmark compared to its theoretical peak performance.

Raspberry Pi 5 comes in at 2.75 GigaFLOPS per Watt, while Rock 5 Model B comes in at 4.28 GigaFLOPS per Watt. Meanwhile, Orange Pi 5 comes in at 4.64 GigaFLOPS per Watt!

Jeff then turns to two benchmarks that I really appreciate. Namely, how long it takes each board to encode MP3 and how long it takes to compile the Linux kernel.

In the first case, Raspberry Pi actually outperforms Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B. It converts WAV files to MP3 files in under 12 seconds. Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B, on the other hand, both take slightly more than 12 seconds.

However, when compiling the Linux kernel, Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B leave Raspberry Pi 5 in the dust by managing to do it in well under 1500 seconds. Raspberry Pi 5 comes in at around 2000 seconds.

But there are some more benchmarks worth noting.

When it comes to video encoding, Raspberry Pi 5 performs much closer to Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B. Looking at media encoding for 4K video, all three hover around 3.75 frames per second (with Raspberry Pi 4 hitting something around 1.5 frames per second).

However, Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B outperform Raspberry Pi 5 with video encoding for 1080p video. They both are well above 20 frames per second, while Raspberry Pi 5 doesn’t quite reach 18 frames per second.

However, the PHP benchmark on Raspberry Pi 5 actually beats both Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B.

Nevertheless, I would say that Orange Pi 5 and Rock 5 Model B pretty solidly outperform Raspberry Pi 5 in most of the important benchmarks. And, of course, considering their sizes and prices, this isn’t really all that surprising.

As Jeff puts it in his video, “The Pi 5 isn’t the SBC performance king, but it keeps Pi in the race this generation…”

Prices

Now, one of the chief differences between the three SBCs is the price. Indeed, it’s clear that Raspberry Pi traded in a certain amount of performance in order to keep costs down.

When talking about SBCs, people often give you the official price point. They’ll say that a Raspberry Pi 5 for 8GB costs $80, for example. But then you’ll never find a Raspberry Pi 5 at that price. That’s because this is the official price and doesn’t include shipping, taxes, or currency fluctuations.

So I thought I would dive into price a little bit differently.

I want to look at real prices.

But this also means looking at how these companies sell their products officially, because if you simply let the market decide the price, then things can get both expensive and unreliable fairly quickly.

Please keep in mind that I’m in Germany, so I’ll be giving you prices in Euros.

First of all, if you want to buy an Orange Pi 5 Plus, the company itself directs you to Amazon or AliExpress.

The price that I found at AliExpress for the Orange Pi 5 Plus with 16GB of RAM is 153.27€.

If you want to buy a Rock 5 Model B, things are set up a bit differently. Radxa, the company behind Rock 5 Model B, has what it calls “authorized distributors”. As far as I can tell from their website, there are four: OKDO, Allnet, 3Logic, and Ameridroid.

Again, I’m in Germany, so I went to the Allnet site for Germany and found this:

The Rock 5 Model B with 16GB is 301.63€.

Now here’s a problem – I haven’t been able to find an Orange Pi 5 Plus or a Rock 5 Model B with 8GB for sale. And there currently isn’t a variant of Raspberry Pi 5 with more than 8GB, so comparing prices here is a little wonky. But it’s worth seeing what’s available and what isn’t.

Raspberry Pi is similarly structured to Radxa, but with a much broader reach. Raspberry Pi has what they call “approved resellers” (and, full disclosure, we are an approved reseller of Raspberry Pis).

You’ll know if you come across an approved resellers website, because they’ll have a logo that looks like this:

Anyway, we’re selling Raspberry Pi 5s for 93.30€ at our sister company – buyzero.de. That’s notably cheaper than the other two, but it’s also a question of what you’re looking for.

You could say that we’re comparing raspberries and oranges.

Jokes aside, if you need more than 8GB of RAM, then going with Raspberry Pis doesn’t make sense at the moment. However, if you’re looking for a cheaper price, then Raspberry Pis are obviously the way to go.

	Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)	Orange Pi 5 Plus (16GB)	Rock 5 Model B (16GB)
Price	93.30€	153.27€	301.63€

One thing worth pointing out is also the compatibility of software and the breadth of the community.

Obviously, the Raspberry Pi ecosystem and community is much stronger than the Orange Pi or Rock communities. However, I can basically promise you that the Orange Pi community and Rock community will both grow in coming years.

So these are all things to keep in mind before you buy an SBC.

If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments!

And now, don’t forget about our contest – in which we’re giving away a full Raspberry Pi 5 kit to the winner!

Contest & Newsletter

We know how frustrating it is to have to wait until October 23rd for a Raspberry Pi 5.

So we wanted to make it possible for you to play around with one as soon as possible.

So we’ve set up a contest: What’s the craziest thing you can come up with for Raspberry Pi 5?

Provided your idea doesn’t destroy it, you can send us your idea and we’ll enact it on ours. And we’ll write an article about it!

We’ll announce the winner here and on buyzero.de on October 23rd.

The winning idea (determined by us) will win a full Raspberry Pi 5 kit. This includes a 27W USB-C Power Delivery (PD) Power Supply, a Raspberry Pi 5 case, an SD card, and a Raspberry Pi 5. All with free shipping within the EU.

The runner-up will win a Raspberry Pi 5 with free shipping within the EU.

So be sure to send in your ideas. You can go to the following link for more information: WIN A FREE RASPBERRY PI 5!

Conclusion

So when it comes to specs and benchmarks, Orange Pi 5 Plus and Rock 5 Model B both clearly have the upper hand. However, Raspberry Pi clearly traded performance for cost.

After shipping and tax though, is a Raspberry Pi 5 really that much cheaper than an Orange Pi 5 Plus?

It surely depends on where you live and what deals you can find. What do you think?

I honestly am a fan of all three SBCs, but they all have their respective times and places. Anyway, is there anything I forgot? Let me know!