Raspberry Pi 4 vs Pi 3 – All the Major Differences.
With the all new Raspberry Pi 4 released recently, with impressive speeds and performance power compared to previous models, the Raspberry Pi 4 have now been a must-buy for all makers and tech enthusiasts.
The Raspberry Pi 4 seems to be perfect, however, how does it fare compared to its predecessor: The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
Without further ado, lets jump right in to the Specs differences between the Pi 4 and Pi 3+.
Specs and Features Comparison
| Raspberry Pi 4 | Raspberry Pi 3 B+ | |
| SoC | Broadcom BCM2711, Quad coreCortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz | Broadcom BCM2837B0 quad-core A53 (ARMv8) 64-bi @ 1.4GHz |
| GPU | Broadcom VideoCore VI | Broadcom Videocore-IV |
| RAM | 1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM | 1 GB LPDDR2 SDRAM |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.0, BLE | Bluetooth 4.2, BLE |
| Display & audio port | 2 × micro-HDMI 2.0, 3.5 mm analogue audio-video jack | Full size – HDMI, 3.5 mm analogue audio-video jack, |
| USB | 2x USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0 | 4x USB 2.0 |
| Ethernet | Native Gigabit Ethernet | 300 Mbps Giga Ethernet |
| Video Decoder | H.265 4Kp60, H.264 1080p60 | H.264 & MPEG-4 1080p30 |
| Power Supply | 5V via USB type-C up to 3A and GPIO header up to 3A | 5V via micro USB up to2.5A and GPIO header up to 3A |
| Expansion | 40-pin GPIO header | 40-pin GPIO header |
| Wifi | 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11b/g/n/acwireless LAN | 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN |
| Storage | microSD card | microSD card |
| Price | $35 – 1 GB RAM $45 – 2 GB RAM $55 – 4 GB RAM | $35 – 1 GB RAM |
As you can see from the table, the Raspberry Pi 4 is an upgrade in every spec compared to the Raspberry Pi model 3B+. (Bolded = Better specs).
Advantages and Disadvantages of the new Raspberry Pi 4
Despite being an upgrade from the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ the Raspberry Pi 4 still have its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- Better CPU = Better processing and performance speeds.
- Can support 2 4K monitors
- USB 3.0 and USB type C power supply.
- More ports
- More memory for your projects.
Disadvantages
- Heat issues (eg. Overheating)
- Require new accessories
However, do not be discouraged as we got the solutions just for them here at Seeed!
Heat issues
With the high performance power and processing speeds of the 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A72 CPU, the Raspberry Pi 4 inevitably will generate more heat. There will be a possibility that your Raspberry Pi 4 may run into some heat issues.
No worries as Seeed have the solution just for you with our cooling fans!
Blink Blink ICE Tower CPU Cooling Fan for Raspberry Pi
- This Blink Blink ICE Tower CPU Cooling Fan is a Tower structure which consists of :
- 5 mm copper tube
- Multi-layer heat sinks
- 7 blades powerful fan,
- All the above combinations make this super radiator for Raspberry Pi. In the case of overclocking, it can reduce the temperature of the Raspberry Pi from 80℃ to 40℃.
- With the help of this super fan, the true fast performance of the Raspberry Pi 4 can be shown.
Heatsinks can also be used to reduce the temperature of the Raspberry Pi. You can check out our other article comparing Raspberry Pi 4 Heatsink and cooling fan here: Compare Raspberry Pi 4 Heatsink and Cooling Fan
New Accessories
With the new Raspberry Pi 4, it means you will require new accessories and cases and you may be worried that there would not be as many accessories for your Raspberry Pi 4 compared to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. Well, here at Seeed we offer many types of accessories ranging from cases to even tablet displays. Here are some of our most popular accessories on sale now:
Coral USB Accelerator
- The Coral USB Accelerator that brings machine learning (ML) interface to existing systems
- Featuring the Edge TPU — a small ASIC designed and built by Google— the USB Accelerator provides high performance ML interface with a low power cost over a USB 3.0 interface.
- For example, it can execute state-of-the-art mobile vision models such as MobileNet v2 at 100+ fps, in a power efficient manner.
- This allows you to add fast ML interface to your embedded AI devices in a power-efficient and privacy-preserving way.
Mini USB Microphone compatible with Raspberry Pi 4
- This is a very small USB microphone with plug-and-play features, which means you can use it on any computer and SBC.
If you are interested and curious about what accessories would be the best for your Raspberry Pi 4, you can check out our other article here: Best Accessories Guide for Raspberry Pi 4
Raspian Buster
- There is also a new version of Raspian called Buster, designed for the Raspberry Pi 4.
- It consists of:
- New appearances where most of the interface elements has been simplified.
- Security changes designed to make Buster harder to hack.
- Thonny Python Development Environment is now the default Python editor compared to IDLE which was dated and not pleasant to use.
Summary
Through the comparison between both hardware specs, you can’t really tell the difference until you try it yourself. With a bigger RAM of up to 4GB, you can also expect a much faster speed and performance increase to your Raspberry Pi projects. For example, you can expect faster tablets, double 4K screens on your Raspberry Pi computer and even be able to control a motor using Artificial intelligence.
The best thing is that the price for the Raspberry Pi 4 is still the same as the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ at $35. Why get a slower Raspberry Pi when you can get a faster and better one for the same price!
So, What are you waiting for? Get your very own Raspberry Pi 4 here! Raspberry Pi 4 Computer Model 4GB
Got your own Raspberry Pi 4 but do not know what to do with it? You can check out our other article here for 20 project ideas on Raspberry Pi 4 for some inspiration: Top 20 Raspberry Pi 4 Projects That You Must Try Now
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