Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie

Ecks

Hi so i was planning on buying my Pi 4 today because i have seen for certain arcade games to be working out a lot better than the 3B+ and would like to know would there be any big difference between the 2gb and the 4gb Pi's when it would come down to using RetroPie because i don't want to buy the 4gb model if it would perform the same on the 2gb model you know so any info would help me out on my buy and thanks.

Darksavior

@Ecks Emulators don't use a lot of ram. You'd be fine with 2GB. Extra ram helps if you're compiling emulators from source or using the raspbian desktop environment.

Ecks

Oh ok cause i saw a video awhile back of someone playing Killer Instinct on their Pi 4 and of course they were using the 4gb model of the Pi (cause it is rare to find a emulation video of someone using the 2gb models) and the person was getting 56 to 60 fps when playing and wanted to replace the Pi 3B+ i have in my bartop unit with one that can play games better if you know what i mean.

Darksavior

@Ecks Mame depends on cpu power, not ram. Even overclocked to 1.9Ghz, Killer Instinct gets slowdowns in the 40s sometimes. Even at ~55fps the audio skips and it's too annoying to play.

Retro

I suppose it depends on what you're using it for. If it's purely to replace the 3B+ in your bartop unit then I second what others have said here regarding emulators not using too much RAM, but if you do plan on using the Pi for different things (swapping out the RetroPie image with a Linux desktop image) then you're probably best to go for the 4GB model.

dankcushions

@Ecks said in Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie:

Oh ok cause i saw a video awhile back of someone playing Killer Instinct on their Pi 4 and of course they were using the 4gb model of the Pi (cause it is rare to find a emulation video of someone using the 2gb models) and the person was getting 56 to 60 fps when playing and wanted to replace the Pi 3B+ i have in my bartop unit with one that can play games better if you know what i mean.

n64 killer instinct will probably be more performant than MAME, since it has a dynarec, accelerated graphics, and so on. neither will need 2gb of ram.

Ecks

@dankcushions said in Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie:

@Ecks said in Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie:

Oh ok cause i saw a video awhile back of someone playing Killer Instinct on their Pi 4 and of course they were using the 4gb model of the Pi (cause it is rare to find a emulation video of someone using the 2gb models) and the person was getting 56 to 60 fps when playing and wanted to replace the Pi 3B+ i have in my bartop unit with one that can play games better if you know what i mean.

n64 killer instinct will probably be more performant than MAME, since it has a dynarec, accelerated graphics, and so on. neither will need 2gb of ram.

Ya i saw KI Gold and MK4 for the N64 play pretty smooth just love the first one as well but the SNES version of KI doesn't feel the same and if i was to add in console games in my Pi i always have to own it first which i never owned a N64 in my life cause i jumped to the PS1 for the RPG games.

Ecks

Oh ya and for overclocking the Pi i plan on doing the 2.14GHz with the 700MHz GPU overclock because when i buy the Pi 4 i am getting the Horizontal ICE Tower Cooler and also near where i would be mounting my Pi are vent holes with a dust filter so i could have the hot air exhaust from it because i know having it overclocked that much in a closed off space will make it heat up like it i was only using heatsinks.

Impman66

Glad this question has been asked, I have built an Arcade Fight Stick with a Pi 3B in it. I am in the process of getting things together to make myself a Bartop Arcade, and was wondering what Pi to use in it. Whether or not getting the Pi 4 instead. But apart from the added HDMI (mini), to allow 2 monitors, and a bit of an upgrade in CPU, and RAM, I wasn't sure what advantage it would give me.
Given most Retro Games run with very little memory, I wondered if it was worth paying the extra.
Again, this forum has provided good answers, and has more or less swayed my opinion, but another "curious" question would be, with the inclusion of 2 USB 3.0 ports on the board, would this give any speed/access/saving advantage to any USB device connected. Such as a SSD drive for the ROMS, and any joystick/button reaction to said device.
Leaning heavily towards the Pi 3+ at the moment as it is established, and RetroPie is at a well tested and supported version for said Pi, whereas the Pi 4, in effect is still in it's infancy and experimental stage.

mitu

@Impman66 said in Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie:

Again, this forum has provided good answers, and has more or less swayed my opinion, but another "curious" question would be, with the inclusion of 2 USB 3.0 ports on the board, would this give any speed/access/saving advantage to any USB device connected. Such as a SSD drive for the ROMS, and any joystick/button reaction to said device.

Definitely a speed upgrade for storage devices. The USB hub on the PI4 is also not shared with the Wifi/Ethernet.

But apart from the added HDMI (mini), to allow 2 monitors, and a bit of an upgrade in CPU, and RAM, I wasn't sure what advantage it would give me.

It's not just a 'bit' of upgrade, it's a sizeable upgrade.

On the other hand, If you already have a setup that works and you're happy with it, then I don't see a reason to upgrade just because there's a newer model out.

Ecks

This gives me an idea now because of the 2 mini HDMI ports on the Pi 4 which i would do something similar to his image but with me i would use HAPP sticks instead (cause of the arcade machines i grew up with) and of course have it in bartop form.

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Ecks

There is one other thing i was getting curious about because i own a old 60gb SSD and bought an enclosure that has USB 3.0 support and was wondering if i am able to boot RetroPie from external drives or am i only able to do with from the SD card?

Thanks in advance.

mitu

@Ecks At the moment, I think USB-only boot is not yet implemented, but it's on the list.

Ecks

@mitu said in Curious question about the Pi 4 for RetroPie:

@Ecks At the moment, I think USB-only boot is not yet implemented, but it's on the list.

ok thanks well i have a 64gb SD card as well just was thinking for using something a little faster you know

mitu

@Ecks You can boot from the SD card and copy the whole system over to the SSD, it's just that you still need the card for the booloader. Look it up in the Raspberry forums.