Raspberry announces the Pi 5!

The Raspberry Foundation has made it happen: 4 years after the release of the Pi4, here comes the all-new Raspberry PI 5. This new iteration of the Raspberry Pi promises more power in a size that's as compact as ever, while still keeping the price affordable. So let's take a closer look at what it has in store.

Technical specifications

Powered by a quad-core Broadcom ARMV8 Cortex A76 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz, the Pi5 is claimed to be 250% faster than a Pi 4!

On the GPU side, it has a brand-new Broadcom VideoCore VII GPU capable of hardware decoding of H265 at 4k60FPS. This means you can seamlessly manage two 4k60 screens via HDMI.

In terms of RAM, there will be two versions, 4GB and 8GB, clocked at 4267 MHz. 2GB and 16GB versions are due to arrive in early 2024.

Another particularly eagerly awaited new feature: the Pi5 finally has a physical button that can be used to switch it on and off! The Foundation is even confident that it will soon be able to add a deep sleep mode via this button!

On the connectivity front, there's plenty of new features too, including, in no particular order: 1 fan connector Two CSI/DSI ports (for connecting high-definition screens or cameras) 1 UART connector 1 PCIe ×4 connector (non-standard connector for space reasons) 1 RTC battery connector GPIO pins Gigabit Ethernet 2 USB3.0 (each with an independent controller) 2 USB2 (each with an independent controller) 2 Micro-HDMI (as on the Pi4) Hat PoE pins

On the other hand, many of you will notice and regret an annoying disappearance from the Pi4: the disappearance of the JACK connector (audio and video). While this is not a total hindrance (you can always plug in a small USB sound card, or use a HAT), it is understandable that some people are disappointed to see that Raspberry is following in the footsteps of the iPhone, Samsung and others in no longer offering a plug & play analogue output... Shame.

The foundation is also announcing the availability shortly after the release of a HAT adding an M.2 connector.

For wireless connectivity, the same configuration as the Pi4 is used: Dual band 2.4/5G Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and BLE.

An official case, with fan, will be available for the release, as well as a radiator+fan kit for those not using the official case.

Release date

Expected to be released in 2024, the Raspberry Pi 5 is now available for pre-order on the website of our partner Kubii.com, and the first wave of deliveries should arrive in October 2023. The price range should vary from €49 to €99 depending on the amount of RAM, with a 'standard' 4GB model advertised at around €70 excluding accessories.

Is Recalbox compatible?

We've been working hard for months to bring you a Raspberry Pi 5-compatible image of Recalbox. An experimental version is already available in the download section of the site!

This experimental version already allows you to see the changes in terms of performance on the Pi5, but as its name indicates, it remains experimental, and the performance of the various emulators may be improved and the bugs corrected before the release of stable version 9.2 of Recalbox.

Recalbox RGB Dual

Unfortunately, the Raspberry Pi 5 has lost its jack, and with it its PWM driver. According to the foundation, a PWM driver may appear again in the near future, but in the meantime, the Recalbox RGB Dual will not be compatible with the Raspberry Pi 5, unless you have a USB sound card with a jack output and an external amplifier.

Recalbox RGB Jamma

We know you're anxious to get your Recalbox RGB JAMMA back, but after talking to several of you, it's clear that support for the new Raspberry is worth waiting a little longer for.

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