Raspberry Pi vs NVIDIA Jetson: the ultimate 2025 comparison
- Pi 5 / Pi 4 / Zero 2 W versus Jetson Nano, Orin Nano Super, Orin NX and AGX Orin -
1. 2025 comparison chart
| Card (year) | CPU | GPU / AI | RAM max | Perf AI | Consumption | Price May 25 | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 5 (2023) | 4 × Cortex-A76 2.4 GHz | VideoCore VII | 16 GB | - | 2.4 W idle / 10 W peak | 85 € (8 GB) | PCIe, 2 × HDMI 4K, large community |
| Raspberry Pi 4 B (2019) | 4 × Cortex-A72 1.8 GHz | VideoCore VI | 8 GB | - | 1 W idle / 6.2 W peak | 55 € (4 GB) | HDMI 2.0, USB3, low price |
| Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (2021) | 4 × Cortex-A53 1 GHz | VideoCore IV | 512 MB | - | 0.6 W idle / 3 W peak | 22 € | Postage stamp format (< 1 W) |
| Jetson Nano (2019) | 4 × Cortex-A57 1.43 GHz | 128C Maxwell (0.5 TOPS) | 4 GB | 0.5 TOPS | 5-10 W modes | 99 $ dev-kit | First prize IA + CUDA |
| Jetson Orin Nano Super (2024) | 6 × Cortex-A78AE 1.5 GHz | 1024C Ampere + 32 Tensor | 8 GB LPDDR5 | 67 TOPS | 7-25 W | 249 $ kit | Generative AI, NVMe |
| Jetson Orin NX 16 GB (2023) | 8 × Cortex-A78AE 2 GHz | 1024C Ampere + Tensor | 16 GB | 157 TOPS | 10-40 W | 399 $ module | 5× Xavier NX in the same format |
| Jetson AGX Orin 64 GB (2022) | 12 × Cortex-A78AE 2.2 GHz | 2048C Ampere + 64 Tensor | 64 GB | 275 TOPS | 15-60 W | 1 999 $ dev-kit | Robotics & multi-cam vision |
*Consumption measured with bare card; the case, cameras or SSD can add 1-10 W.
2. CPU & GPU: raw power
- Pi 5 improves by 2-3× on Pi 4 thanks to A76 2.4 GHz and upgraded Vulkan 1.2 GPU; ideal lightweight desktop but without dedicated AI acceleration.
- Jetson switches to Ampere architecture: even the modest Orin Nano Super boasts 1,024 CUDA cores and 32 Tensor Cores, enough to run Stable Diffusion, LLaVA-7B or a real-time YOLO-v8.
- Visit Zero 2 W is still 5× faster than the Zero W, but its VideoCore IV GPU has a ceiling for OpenGL ES 2.0.
3. AI / TOPS: the gap is widening
| Pi | Perf IA * (int8) | Jetson | Perf IA (int8) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pi Zero 2 W | - | Jetson Nano | 0.5 TOPS |
| Pi 4 / 5 | OpenCL ≈ 1 TOPS (CPU + GPU) | Orin Nano Super | 67 TOPS |
| - | - | Orin NX | 157 TOPS |
| - | - | AGX Orin | 275 TOPS |
*Pi estimates via NNPACK/Vulkan; no hardware NPU: CPU remains busy.
4. Consumption and cooling
- Pi Zero 2 W holds 1 W 24/7, perfect for battery-powered IoT.
- Pi 5 requires an official fan: 10 W in stress-ng, 2.4 W in the office; but Power Off On Halt drops to 0.9 W.
- Jetson Orin Nano Super offers three nvpmodel profiles (15 W default, 7 W eco, 25 W perf) to remain fanless or deliver 67 TOPS.
- AGX Orin requires a 20 V / 5 A power supply; the giant passive heatsink handles 60 W for multiplexed inferences.
5. Software: Debian vs CUDA / TensorRT
| Family | Official OS 2025 | IA Toolchain | Key points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm (kernel 6.12) | ONNX-Runtime, OpenCL, OpenCV | Plug-and-play support, giant community |
| NVIDIA Jetson | Jetson Linux 35.4 (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) | CUDA 12, cuDNN 9, TensorRT 10, Triton | Complete IA stack + Docker l4t |
The Pi boots in 15 s via micro-SD; the Jetson boots faster on eMMC but requires 9 GB of SDK Manager to flash CUDA.
6. Price / value
- < 100 € Pi 4 (lightweight desktop, ARMhf servers) or Jetson Nano if you need entry-level CUDA.
- 100-300 € Pi 5 (multi-purpose projects) versus Orin Nano Super for real-time AI.
- > 400 € Orin NX (advanced robotics) or AGX Orin (multi-camera, LLM 7-13 B). No Pi reaches this TOPS level.
Jetson models include power supply and heatsink; Pi models require case + SD/SSD (≈ +30 €).
7. Recommended use cases
| Need | Ideal choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Weather station, LoRa sensor | Pi Zero 2 W | < 1 W, Wi-Fi, GPIO |
| NAS 2.5 GbE + Nextcloud | Pi 5 + NVMe | Native PCIe, 12 W max. |
| AI line-following robot | Jetson Nano | CUDA + DIY cam at 120 $ |
| On-board LLM agent (Llama-3 8B) | Orin Nano Super | 67 TOPS, 8 GB LPDDR5 |
| Autonomous multi-sensor drone | Orin NX | 157 TOPS, CSI ×6, 40 W peak |
| Logistics truck / AMR | AGX Orin | 12 CPU cores, 275 TOPS, 10 Gb Ethernet |
8. Advantages/disadvantages summary
| Raspberry Pi | NVIDIA Jetson | |
|---|---|---|
| Easy for beginners | ★★★★★ | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Admission prices | 22-85 € | 99-1 999 $ |
| Makers community | Huge | Smaller |
| High-performance AI API | Limited | CUDA, TensorRT |
| Power consumption < 10 W | Yes (all models) | Nano & Orin Nano in Eco mode |
| Maintainability 10 years | Yes (Pi 5 guaranteed until 2036) | 5 years (Jetson cycle) |
Conclusion: which SBC to choose in 2025?
- General projects, education, light servers → Raspberry Pi 5 / 4 : better price-performance ratio, abundant documentation.
- Ultra-low power IoT → Pi Zero 2 W (or Picο 2 for bare-metal).
- Moderate vision / robotics → Jetson Nano (0.5 TOPS) if your budget is tight but CUDA is required.
- Modern on-board AI → Jetson Orin Nano Super (67 TOPS): the new "sweet spot" 249 $.
- Advanced robots, intensive edge computing → Jetson Orin NX / AGX Orin massive TOPS, but budget, cooling and PSU to match.
In short, Raspberry Pi dominates the consumer maker world, while the Jetson range reigns supreme on the AI edge. Your choice will therefore depend less on the number of GPIOs than... on the number of TOPS your application really needs.
