Raspberry Pi 4 out now: Cortex-A72, up to 4GB, dual Micro HDMI from $35

[Alejo I]

Lo and behold





-A 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 CPU (~3× performance)
-1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM
-Full-throughput Gigabit Ethernet
-Dual-band 802.11ac wireless networking
-Bluetooth 5.0
-Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports
-Dual monitor support, at resolutions up to 4K
-VideoCore VI graphics, supporting OpenGL ES 3.x
-4Kp60 hardware decode of HEVC video
-Complete compatibility with earlier Raspberry Pi products

Pricing:
-1GB   $35
-2GB   $45
-4GB   $55

The way things are looking, Raspberry may have finally put out a dev board that easily competes with very low-end/picked-from-the-curb-grade computers, but with modern niceties and dual video output, which may enable virtual marquees.

[Howard_Casto]

It's a noticeable upgrade, but the main thing holding it back is the lack of windows..... the OS is the most important thing when it comes to flexibility.  Also a 1.5ghz arm still isn't fast enough.  Mame in particular needs raw clock speed... the number of cores doesn't make that much difference. 

Anyway it mainly comes down to how well the software is optimized, so we'll have to wait and see. 

[EwJ]

Awesome!
Can't wait to see the Kodi, Console Emulator, and Pi-Hole possibilities on this one (Mame too - but these mainly support couch surfing/playing).  Mame is more cabinet friendly IMHO.  Depending on your desired gamelist, an old PC or micro-PC still serves better in most Mame setups.  To be clear, by PC, I'm not saying any particular operating system is required.

[Alejo I]

It's a noticeable upgrade, but the main thing holding it back is the lack of windows..... the OS is the most important thing when it comes to flexibility.  Also a 1.5ghz arm still isn't fast enough.  Mame in particular needs raw clock speed... the number of cores doesn't make that much difference. 

Anyway it mainly comes down to how well the software is optimized, so we'll have to wait and see.

Raspberry software is just a chore to deal with, but the A73 cores pack around 30% more umph, so we may be getting into DC/PSP/N64 emulation territory or close to it.

I think the most interesting thing may be the dual display support, which may enable virtual marquee support without spending extra money on a modern computer/video card. One could easily argue that if you are going to get knee deep into that level of customisation you may as well spend that extra money, but at the same time, this is an expensive hobby and every cent you save is a cent that could go towards beers with the friends or quality tools to work better and safer.

[schmerzkaufen]

Meh, still too weak for a good number of games in MAME indeed.

I'll be interested the day you can shove your full-feature distro of choice like even Ubuntu for instance, since this is as much money (the 4GB option) and space I'd consider for an actual Linux computer (not for gaming obviously)

[Alejo I]

Then there's also unique projects like Retropie CRT Edition and the upcoming RGB-Pi OS, which is looking kind of wild, specially with the new plug and play JAMMA RGB-Pi adaptor.






Fake edit: This was meant to be edited into the previous post, but I can't find the button, it looks like the News forum has it disabled.