Poking At The Radxa Dragon Q8B Raspberry Pi 5 Killer

Although the asking worth of $209 plus delivery appears excessive for the Radxa Dragon Q8B, that includes the Qualcomm SC8280XP and eight GB of LPDDR4X, that is 2026, and amid the RAMpocalypse, even the 8 GB LPDDR4X-equipped Raspberry Pi 5 now prices $175. This, to [Jeff Geerling], makes it fair to directly compare the two to see whether or not you could wish to take into account this board for extra intense computing functions.

There’s additionally a written summary of the outcomes and particulars in a GitHub difficulty, although the direct comparability with the Raspberry Pi 5 is within the video.

Although this Qualcomm SoC isn’t new, its major use is for Windows laptops, which supplies considerably of a touch as to what its efficiency could also be like, tempered by the truth that it was introduced in 2021.

The Dragon QXB gives about 2x every part over the RPi5, plus Windows and UEFI assist. For Linux, it seems that you continue to want personalized pictures, which appears perplexing in mild of the UEFI side. You even have to choose between totally different Linux pictures from Radxa and use their Rsetup replace instrument, making it a lower than ewbie-friendly providing.

The Radxa-provided Linux expertise is considerably uneven. Raw efficiency in e.g., Geekbench 6 multi-core reveals why you’d wish to use this SBC, because it triples the RPi5 rating. Power effectivity can also be higher, with [Jeff]’s HPL effectivity displaying 3.73 Gflops/W versus 2.75 for the RPi5. There are twin 2.5 Gbit Ethernet ports and extra PCIe too, all of which may actually be utilized by the uncooked CPU energy.

This implies that there’s rather a lot to love about this Q8B SBC. [Jeff] expresses his appreciation for it, regardless of points with the Radxa UEFI BIOS. It looks like Radxa continues to be making an attempt to work out the BIOS-related kinks, which could even permit for the set up of generic OS pictures, moderately than their very own pictures.

Per the documentation, the SBC is available in a variety of RAM sizes, from 4 to 32 GB, so you’ll be able to nonetheless get a less expensive model too, if you will discover one on the market. As famous within the video, these SBCs are nonetheless fairly scarce, and because the AI-induced private computing and SBC collapse continues, this example is unlikely to enhance.