Review · microcontrollers
Raspberry Pi 5 Review: The Most Powerful SBC for Projects in 2026
The Raspberry Pi 5 triples the performance of the Pi 4 with its Cortex-A76 processor and adds PCIe 2.0. Is it worth buying in 2026?
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Overall rating
5/5
Pros
- 3× faster than Pi 4 in CPU tasks
- PCIe 2.0 — NVMe SSD support via HAT
- 8 GB RAM in top config
- Massive ecosystem: thousands of tutorials and libraries
- Dual MIPI camera support
Cons
- Higher power draw than Pi 4 (needs 5V/5A supply)
- Needs active cooling under sustained load
- Price increased: from $60 USD for 4GB model
What makes it special?
The Raspberry Pi 5 is the first model to include PCIe 2.0 directly on the board, enabling NVMe SSD connection via an official HAT with dramatically faster storage than microSD.
| Spec | Raspberry Pi 4 | Raspberry Pi 5 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Cortex-A72 1.8GHz | Cortex-A76 2.4GHz |
| GPU | VideoCore VI | VideoCore VII |
| Max RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| PCIe | None | PCIe 2.0 (1 lane) |
| USB 3.0 | 2 ports | 2 ports (faster) |
| Base price (4GB) | ~$55 USD | ~$60 USD |
Real-world performance
On desktop tasks (Raspberry Pi OS), the difference from Pi 4 is clear: web pages load faster, compiling code is significantly quicker, and 4K video playback is smoother.
For local AI projects: The Pi 5 runs small AI models (Whisper tiny, LLaMA 1B) with acceptable response times. It's not a GPU, but for prototyping it works.
Best use cases
- Home server: Local DNS (Pi-hole), NAS, media server
- Emulation: Handles consoles up to PS2/GameCube with good performance
- Advanced IoT: Computer vision, robotics, home automation
- Learning: The best platform for learning Linux and embedded programming
Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)
8GB RAM
PCIe 2.0
Cortex-A76 performance
Massive ecosystem
Needs 5V/5A power supply
Requires cooling under load
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