PI 4 4gb or 8gb

Codafire

Hi mates, im going to buy a new raspberry to install retropie and try to play dreamcast games without problems like in the 3 version. I dont know if buy 4gb or 8gb version, im only going to use it for retro gaming with retropie, i must buy the 4gb version because retropie its a 32bits system or better i buy the 8gb for future releases? Thanks a lot.

dankcushions

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26405/emulation-benfit-to-new-8gb-pi4?_=1597673334986

Red_Trev

@Codafire buy the 8GB, you cannot upgrade the RAM further down the line so might as well pay the extra 20 bucks now. I have the 8GB model myself & have tested a few Dreamcast games (using redream emulator). The ones that load work perfectly, bar some audio glitches on intros / character select screens .... see the following Google doc for a list of what I tested: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AD91IcudqHP7dDmEXLO25Pzb85uUgAy4chU2QxlZBQk/edit?usp=sharing

Codafire

@Red_Trev thanks for all mates, i know its only 20 bucks but its like buying a Ferrari for use only on a country road, if retropie its only using 3gb maybe i must buy a pick up better 😜 thanks for all hehehhe

BuZz

4gb is more than enough for retropie.

myzar

even the 2gb is good enough for retropie, buy the 8gb ver if you are planning to use it for something else than retropie

Red_Trev

@Codafire Dreamcast emulation needs quite a bit of RAM to run smoothly, also could be you want to use the Pi for other future projects that need more computing power. For example on my next project I plan to run Supermodel (SEGA Model 3 Arcade Emulator) via Ubuntu Linux, which would need alot more resources than Retropie. Im sure the extra 4GB of RAM will come in handy there ;)

Darksavior

Retropie uses around 1GB (with swap) so the 2GB model is fine. It won't help with dreamcast emulation. It might help with installing emulators from source much faster but that's it.

sirhenrythe5th

@Darksavior just for interest (i dont have a pi4 myself): could it be helpful to increase the vram, i.e. 6GB with the 8GB-Model, to allow emulationstation to play longer videos, use pictures in higher resolutions and so on?

Codafire

Thanks for all the support, finally i think im going for the 4gb. For other purposes im using and old dual core with 8gb and an nvidia 9600gt with ubuntu installed. Thanks mates!!!

Darksavior

@sirhenrythe5th I'm not an expert so I'm not sure. I would assume that would also require a better gpu as well. I mainly use the Pegasus front-end and that got a boost in speed when I switched from a pi3b+ to a pi4.