The official Raspberry Pi operating system, Raspberry Pi OS, is finally going 64-bit, bringing a significant performance boost, for free!
A Raspberry Pi 4. Credit: Adafruit
After a very long trial phase (the beta was released in May 2020!), the Raspberry Pi foundation finally published on February 2 the official 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS. The jump from 32 to 64 bits allows a single process to use more than 3 GB of RAM, but above all it promises a performance gain “free“. Phoronix, which publishes performance test automation software, carried out last week a series of tests to measure the gains achieved.
A second free performance boost
He revealed that the latest Raspberry Pi 400 with 4 GB of RAM was 48% more efficient on average with Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit than with Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit. The gain is for example 16% for the rotation of an image, 30% for the encoding of an MP3, 13% for the execution of the Python language and 54% for the PHP.
These miniature computers aren’t rocket ships, so any performance boost is noticeable and welcome. The foundation had offered another power boost in November. She had taken advantage of the update of Raspberry Pi OS (ex Raspbian) to Debian 11 Bullseye to carry from 1.5 to 1.8 GHz (+20%) the CPU frequency of the latest hardware revision of the Raspberry Pi 4. Both updates certainly improve the comfort of those who use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a (back-up) computer.
The $15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is 64-bit compatible. Credit: Raspberry Pi
32-bit resists
Unfortunately, Raspberry Pi OS 32 bits remains the version offered by default by Raspberry Pi Imager, the official software for installing operating systems for Raspberry Pi. The 64-bit version will therefore remain reserved for a more enlightened public, who will think regarding choosing the correct version, who probably already knew that there were 64-bit Linux distributions for Raspberry Pi, such as Ubuntu, Manjaro or DietPi.
The foundation explains that it wants to maximize compatibility between its different models. Indeed, these computers have had a 64-bit architecture since the Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016, but the foundation still markets and produces the first Raspberry Pis.
How to benefit
On the other hand, we can hope that the release of the official 64-bit version will soon benefit distributions derived from Raspberry Pi OS, such asOSMCwhich turns a Raspberry Pi into a media player with Kodi, or RetroPiewhich turns a Raspberry Pi into a retro game console.
If you wish to acquire a Raspberry Pi 64 bits in these times of shortages, we recommend the site rpilocatorwhich monitors availability at several retailers, including the main authorized French retailer, Kubii. If you already have a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian or Raspberry Pi OS 32 bits, unfortunately it is not possible to update an installation from 32 to 64 bits, you have to do a new installation.
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