Should I buy a Pi 4 or better 3 for RetroPie?
-
Hi, I am new here and was wondering if this or the General forum is the right place so please excuse me if chose the wrong one... I would love to build a RetroPie system and wanted to buy a Raspberry Pie for it. Strangely, in the shops here the 3 and the 4 cost the same. So I thought of going with a Pi 4, since it has more power just in case for new versions - but I've seen that RetroPie for Pi 4 is still in beta. As I am very new to all of this, I would not want to risk a hassle of it not working or of complications that maybe could be avoided by sticking to the previous (final) version? But then I'd need to buy a Pi 3, not 4, right?
What would be your advice, get the 4 and the beta or get a 3 and the previous final version? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thank you and cheers, Mark
-
I'm running Retropie on my Pi 4 Rev 1.2 since Retropie 4.6 came out, and I faced only some problems like the Sound bug coming from upstream Raspbian Buster, and that the video screensaver can't show the game's title as a subtitle anymore.
The Former can be fixed (see my link above) and the latter doesn't bother me much. Since the Pi 4 has many advantages over the Pi 3, I would recommend the Pi 4 to buy nowadays. You simply get much more Pi for your money.
edit: some typos
-
definitely get the 4.
-
I would go with the 4. It's still in beta but most things are functioning properly and it's only going to get better as they bring it out of beta. The Pi4 opens up opportunities for better emulation on more systems.
-
Thank you all!
-
So far the Pi4 is doing a superior job at running games. I am able to run Mame2016 which has a great deal of games that didn't run on my Pi3, or run way better without glitches.
-
@GreenHawk84 I still prefer fb-neo due to its lower hardware requirements but I do use 2016 for games it can't run correctly or not at all like mk1+ era of midway games, and sega system 16-32. I believe 16 is properly emulated in fbn but I like to keep them together.
There are games like some Parodius game that won't run on fbn and runs too slow on 2016, so I use 2010 for that one. -
If you want to be able to play Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Sega Naomi 1, Atomiswave, 3DO games then definitely get a Raspberry Pi 4
I couldn't run any of the systems on my Raspberry Pi 3B+
-
@Darksavior yes FBNeo is still the primary arcade core to use but Mame2016 is looking great for certain titles, especially Kombat.
-
While I still have my Pi3 sitting around; I recently made the switch to ODroid myself. I have the XU4 with a 64GB emmc (much faster than SD) and a 2TB drive for external roms. I have nearly 60,000 roms on it and around 2,900 BGM tracks. Everything from Pong to PSP; and it all seems to run great.
The Pi4 will suit you fine for most everything you'll need; and has gotten better at handling 3D emulation a little better; but if your heart is set on N64, PS2, PSP or Nintendo DS/3DS titles; the ODroid can handle that much better; while still running RetroPie through Ubuntu or via The Retro Arena distros.
The downside, ODroid with all its accessories is a bit more steep than the Pi.
Best of luck on your shopping journey, hope you find some great deals. -
@dbrown1986 you've got PS2 running on the XU4 well? I might have to dust mine off and check that out.
-
@ReadyPlayaWon said in Should I buy a Pi 4 or better 3 for RetroPie?:
If you want to be able to play Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Sega Naomi 1, Atomiswave, 3DO games then definitely get a Raspberry Pi 4
I think you mistook me for the TO. 😉
-
oops .. my apologies :)
-
@dbrown1986 said in Should I buy a Pi 4 or better 3 for RetroPie?:
but if your heart is set on N64, PS2, PSP or Nintendo DS/3DS titles; the ODroid can handle that much better; while still running RetroPie through Ubuntu or via The Retro Arena distros.
Which Odroid model do you refer to here? (or maybe a better question: which odroid model handels these kind of games best?)
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.