Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 2019 Quad Core 64 Bit… vs Raspberry Pi 5 8GB — Head-to-Head (2026)

Our verdict

Raspberry Pi 5 8GB is our pick.

For a new project in 2026 the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB is the better buy. It has 2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 cores and 8 GB of RAM versus the Pi 4's 1.5 GHz Cortex-A72 and 4 GB, plus a PCIe FPC connector that lets you boot from an M.2 NVMe SSD instead of a microSD card. The Pi 4 Model B 4GB only wins on cash.

Buy the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB if you are building a fixed-function, always-on appliance, such as a Pi-hole, MQTT broker, Zigbee/Home Assistant bridge, retro console, or digital signage. It fits jobs where 4 GB and 1.5 GHz were never the bottleneck and the 5.1 V/3 A USB-C or PoE HAT power path is already wired up. Buy the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB if the board is a general-purpose Linux machine you will compile on, run containers on, drive dual 4K displays from, or attach NVMe storage to. That covers anything where 8 GB of RAM and 2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 cores change what is actually possible.

SpecPicks editorial verdict, written August 27, 2026. Prices move, so check the current price on each listing before you buy.