Raspberry Pi 4 vs NanoPi M4V2 - Who is more powerful?

Raspberry Pi 4 vs NanoPi M4V2 – Which One is More Powerful?

In this general hardware benchmark comparison, we will focus on comparing the performance of the Raspberry Pi 4 vs NanoPi M4V2 SBC. So first thing first, let’s compare both boards specifications and get a more clear view of the features including interfaces each board has to offer in terms of value/price ratio.

Both SBCs are based on the ARM Cortex-A72 microarchitecture implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set. The NanoPi M4V2 SBC is based on Rockchip Solution powered by a hex (6) Cores CPU priced at $70. Against it, Its main competitor. The Raspberry Pi 4 SBC powered by a Quad-core Broadcom processor, priced at a retail price between $60-80.

Raspberry Pi 4

Component / Board	Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
Architecture	ARM Cortex-A72
SoC	Broadcom BCM2711
Processor Cores	Quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
Processor Speed	1.5GHz per core
RAM	1GB, 2GB, 4GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM
Video/Audio output	2 × micro-HDMI ports (up to 4kp60 supported) Dual-monitor support
Video-Input	2-lane MIPI DSI display port 2-lane MIPI CSI camera port
Audio Headphone jack	Yes, Output Only
Storage Interfaces	2 USB 3.0 ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports, Micro-SD Slot
Header Pin Extension	24Pin – 2 independent native USB 2.0 Host + PCIe x2 Standard 40 pin GPIO header
Onboard eMMC	No
Wireless LAN	2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Dual-Band On-Board Antenna, supporting IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac
Gigabit Ethernet	Yes
Max Power Draw	3A
Ethernet / Local Area Network	1000mbps Gigabit (802.3ab using dedicated chip)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.0
Video Chip	Broadcom VideoCore VI @ 500MHz
2 Pin RTC battery input connector	No
Power management chip	Yes, MaxLinear PMIC

NanoPi M4V2

Component / Board	NanoPi M4V2
Architecture	ARM big.LITTLE
SoC	RockChip RK3399
Processor Cores	Dual-Core Cortex-A72(up to 2.0GHz) + Quad-Core Cortex-A53 (up to 1.5GHz)
Processor Speed	1.5GHz – 1.8GHz per core
RAM	4GB Dual-Channel 4GB LPDDR4
Video/Audio output	HDMI 2.0a supports [email protected]，HDCP 1.4/2.2 one 4-Lane MIPI-DSI
Video-Input	one or two 4-Lane MIPI-CSI, dual ISP, up to 13MPix/s，supports simultaneous input of dual-camera data
Audio Headphone jack	Yes, Input & Output
Storage Interfaces	4 USB 3.0 ports, Micro-SD Slot
Header Pin Extension	Standard 40 pin GPIO header
Onboard eMMC	Yes, via Module
Wireless LAN	2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Dual-Band On-Board Antenna, supporting IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac
Gigabit Ethernet	Yes
Max Power Draw	3A
Ethernet / Local Area Network	1000mbps Gigabit (802.3ab using dedicated chip)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.1
Video Chip	ARM Mali-T860 MP2 @ 700MHz
2 Pin RTC battery input connector	RTC Battery: 2 Pin 1.27/1.25mm RTC battery input connector
Power management chip	Yes, RK808-D PMIC

Stress Test with the Sysbench tool

Raspberry Pi 4

Operating system: Raspbian Buster

sysbench –num-threads=4 –test=cpu –cpu-max-prime=20000 –validate run

total time: 62.6426s

Results were taken from the following sources:

Raspberrypi.org Offical Forum: https://bit.ly/2YFU3fE
Geeks3D website: https://bit.ly/35eZwfM

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          62.8169s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 251.2240
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                 24.94ms
         avg:                                 25.12ms
         max:                                 68.14ms
         approx.  95 percentile:              25.10ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           2500.0000/4.24
    execution time (avg/stddev):   62.8060/0.01

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000

Test execution summary:

total time: 62.8169s

total number of events: 10000

total time taken by event execution: 251.2240

per-request statistics:

min: 24.94ms

avg: 25.12ms

max: 68.14ms

approx. 95 percentile: 25.10ms

Threads fairness:

events (avg/stddev): 2500.0000/4.24

execution time (avg/stddev): 62.8060/0.01

NanoPi M4V2

Operating system: Armbian

sysbench –num-threads=4 –test=cpu –cpu-max-prime=20000 –validate run

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          10.0022s
    total number of events:              19546
    total time taken by event execution: 251.2240
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                 1.42ms
         avg:                                 2.05ms
         max:                                 17.37ms
         approx.  95 percentile:              3.55ms
         sum:                                 39985.88

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           4886.5000/2101.50
    execution time (avg/stddev):   9.9965/0.00

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000

Test execution summary:

total time: 10.0022s

total number of events: 19546

total time taken by event execution: 251.2240

per-request statistics:

min: 1.42ms

avg: 2.05ms

max: 17.37ms

approx. 95 percentile: 3.55ms

sum: 39985.88

Threads fairness:

events (avg/stddev): 4886.5000/2101.50

execution time (avg/stddev): 9.9965/0.00

Translating the data to more clear to understand results:

SBC	Latency (ms) Min	Latency (ms) Max	Total execution Time
Raspberry Pi 4	24.95	68.14	62.6426s
NanoPi M4V2	1.42	17.37	10.0022s
The Winner	NanoPi M4V2

Note: Lower execution time it better!

Final Words

Based on my personal opinion and above preliminary results, the NanoPi M4V2 outperforms the new raspberry pi 4 by approximately %84. Although raspberry pi 4 offers much better software support and a wide selection of Linux distributions, including better documentation and a more robust community for bug-testing. My advice, if you are looking for a more powerful SBC go with the NanoPi M4V2. If you don’t need much computing power than raspberry pi 4 is the best choice between the two.