Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Launched in 2019 and still in production, the Pi 4 Model B established USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and dual 4K output on the Pi platform's 85 x 56mm board. The 8GB configuration was added in 2020 specifically for developers who found 4GB limiting when running virtual machines, databases, or multiple Docker containers.

Single-core performance trails the Pi 5 by a wide margin since the A72 cores run at a lower clock and lack the A76's IPC gains, but the board remains fully capable for NAS duty, retro emulation through most 6th-gen consoles, and desktop Linux use. Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a 40-pin GPIO header, Bluetooth 5.0, and PoE HAT support round out the connectivity, though unlike the Pi 5 there's no onboard RTC without an add-on.

The Raspberry Pi 5 4GB outperforms the Pi 4 8GB in almost every CPU-bound benchmark despite having half the RAM, so buy the 8GB Pi 4 mainly for price, existing HAT investment, or projects still validated against Pi 4 specifically. Compared to the Orange Pi 5, the Pi 4 8GB gives up raw speed for far better long-term OS support and community troubleshooting resources. Against the Milk-V Mars in this catalog, a Pi-4-form-factor RK3566 board, the Pi 4 8GB costs more but keeps official Raspberry Pi OS support and a far larger tutorial base that the Mars deliberately trades away for a lower price.