Raspberry pi 4 place your bets here!

Fruitybit

So, I need to understand what it means when the chip is described as having four layers. Is this the 'four cores' that defines a pi3?

Let's say, just for example, I have a pi3 on my counter at work, and a customer (regular and on good speaking terms with) says something along the lines of
"That's a pi, I work for their development. We're experimenting with a six layer chip rather than the four layer version now"
At which point I would, had this conversation happened, have replied something like
"It's rather important to me that you discuss this further with me promptly sir."
After which, noting my apparent marginal knowledge and interest, this hypothetical customer becomes rather coy and refuses to be drawn further on the subject.

Am I to infer something from this theoretical conversation? Which, in that very same theory could well have gone on marginally longer than my above (purely of course) imagined transcript.

(Redactions and theorem due to promises made, take from it what you may)

glennlake

I think this needs to be looked at from a different perspective. We are looking for a faster or smoother running game experience on the Raspberry Pi. I have been told that RetroPie only run on one core of whatever Pi is used. For it to run better the software, not the hardware needs to be upgraded to make use of the multi cores of the Pi 3

Fruitybit

@glennlake Genuinely, I couldn't tell you what it means or how it could affect Retropie. I know my pi3 runs games better and faster than my pi zero, but I don't know how it works. I was replying to speculations about a pi4, not emulationstation2 or Retropie 8.4.18.

sonriks6

H.265 hardware decoder could be BOOM!

NastyButtler322

@codedrawer said in Raspberry pi 4 place your bets here!:

@lilbud I'd like to be able to not have to over-clock the pi to play n64 games. How much processing power do you need to play n64 games without over clocking them?

You don't have to. My Pi 3 is not overclocked. I installed RetroPie on top of Raspbian.

For some reason the N64 only plays well from one of my USB cards with this RetroPie image I made. It is a 64GB SanDisk Ultra Fit.

I bought mine on Amazon, and the model I bought is no longer being sold. This one that looks just like it is being sold instead, and has all of the same overheating problems that damage equipment that the one I bought received complaints about.
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-SDCZ43-064G-GAM46-Newest-Version/dp/B01BGTG3JA/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1503789130&sr=8-31&keywords=Sandisk+64GB

I put heatsinks on my usb interface on the Pi, and the temperature warning no longer popped up.

The only game I can't get to work right is GoldenEye. The speed of the emulator can be increased while playing GoldenEye to a normal framerate, but then once I get to parts that don't have as much to process it just goes too fast. But the other games I tried work fine.

Dreamcast plays fine with Shenmue, except the protaganist's eyelids are inside of his eyeballs. But I downloaded Hydro Thunder, and it just didn't start, so that may just be a bad file.

NastyButtler322

If one does come out, I want to see:

*2 GB RAM
*USB 3.0 support

I actually wouldn't be bothered if they use the same processor, since the current one can handle more speed than what the RAM can provide it with.

Fruitybit

@nastybuttler322 Any move forward will be welcomed by me! And in regards to the ultra slim, mine get stupid hot too:((

NastyButtler322

@fruitybit said in Raspberry pi 4 place your bets here!:

@nastybuttler322 Any move forward will be welcomed by me! And in regards to the ultra slim, mine get stupid hot too:((

Just put heat sinks on your Pi like I did in the images, and try the N64 games from that card. The overheating problem shouldn't exist for you after.

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lilbud

I say if they do make a Pi 4, they should make 2 versions.

Basic version: Upgraded cpu/gpu, better performance, $35
Pi 4+: more powerful all around, flash storage, more ram, etc.

Fruitybit

@nastybuttler322 Now that's a clever idea:) won't fit in my case though!!

Fruitybit

@lilbud They'll probably have thousands of 3's left over and would sell them as they have done with the 2's, alongside them. Same with the zeros. It would be nice though.

I still don't get what he meant by 'layers in the chip' I'm going to have to brush up and do a bit of research today.

akafox

Like I said in the other post..
(I seem to have lost it)
if they can't fix the heat problem we'll never see a rasp pi 4. And now that the Orange Pi has a "RetroPie" (RetrOrangepi) image of it's own the Raspberry might lose ground quickly.

I want to know if I can get 2GB DDR3 ram and a quad care cpu..maybe even a dedicated GPU for $35 in two years...that would be great!

I would like better N64..but honestly I would just like 3DO to work. As for Saturn or dreamcast...well that would be great...but honestly I think it's a miracle they can even run the handful they do on this Pentium 450MHz single core computer. And yes that is what it breaks down to it terms of hardware and yes it runs about (actually a little better) then the P2 400mhz with 128MB ram I have in the closet.

Aphex

@codedrawer said in Raspberry pi 4 place your bets here!:

@lilbud I'd like to be able to not have to over-clock the pi to play n64 games.

You pretty much nailed it :) A better core would definitely help. It should have it... i hope! But it should also preserve a decent temperature with the standard settings. I suppose today's SoC can manage that.
So yeah:

More powerful CPU ( 1.5Ghz ~ 2Ghz )
More ram ( 2GB)
Support for larger and faster SD cards (thinking about those new ones at 100MB/s read and 90MB/s write)
Oh yeah and h.265 hardware decoder support would be awesome!

That's all i wish :)

Fruitybit

I tried looking up what the layers in the chip mean and how six would be better than four, but I've ended up more confused and with a headache. I need to sit down and just play some more... (Don't think the beer helps either!)

glennlake

@fruitybit I think what people are calling layers really mean cores. When you boot up a Raspberry Pi Zero or 2 you will see a single raspberry on the screen. This represents the single core. When you boot the Pi 3 you will see 4 raspberries across the top of the screen. This is for 4 cores. To take advantage of all the cores, the RetroPie emulators will need a complete rewrite by people much smarter than me.

Fruitybit

@glennlake I was aware of the four raspberries, if layers do equal cores then it could be good news indeed. I'll try to hit him up for more information;)

A Former User

Aside from specs, one thing I hope they do is change the layout of the ports a bit. I'd like to see 2 USB ports on the same side as the HDMI and power outputs and 2 ports on the opposite side (rather than perpendicular to them).

Some improvement to powering on/off would also be welcome. It doesn't have to be a real switch/button, just a pair of pins that would power the system on and off (with proper shutdown if turning it off) if you short it. Then you'd only need a simple switch, rather than something more complicated like the Mausberry circuit.

Lyle_JP

The heat problem has already been solved on the cell phone end. The Pi foundation needs to stop using a chip with a 40 nm die shrink. That's huge compared to most ARM processors today.

akafox

Yes I know there is a way...gigabyte did
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-SBCAP3350-rev-10#ov

just the raspberry pi foundation needs to now..I have faith in them...just have to wait

(waiting sucks lol )

batman

I agree with the majority. At least 2GB of ram and a processor fast enough to run all Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 games without any problems!

Happy for the existing ports to remain the same but move the ethernet port with all the other to the back and USB to the front.

An early 2018 release would also be ideal. The sooner the better.