Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (2024)

Putting the Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro was something I’d wanted to do since seeing the MQ Pro’s announcement and specifications. It just seemed to make sense. On paper, they’re largely similar, with 1GHz single-core CPUs, and 512MB of RAM. A 1GB MQ Pro is also available and is what I’ll be using here so your mileage may vary slightly if you have the 512MB version.

Side note: If you’re interested in my content and really bad puns, follow me on Twitter – it’d really mean a lot! Now, back to the data..

Specifications

MangoPi MQ ProRaspberry Pi Zero W
CPU1GHz Allwinner D1 C906 RISC-V Processing Unit1GHz ARM1176JZF-S – BCM2835
HiFi4 DSP
RAM512/1024MB DDR3L RAM512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM
GPUG2D 2D Graphics AcceleratorVideoCore IV
4K capable H.264/H.265 Processing UnitH.264 MPEG-4 decode (1080p30)
4Kp30/1080p60 HDMI Output*
Connectivity802.11 b/g/n WLAN (2.4GHz – RTL8723DS)802.11 b/g/n WLAN (2.4GHz)
Bluetooth 4.2Bluetooth 4.1 / BLE
u.FL Antenna Connector
USB-C 2.0 OTG (1)Micro USB 2.0 OTG (1)
Mini HDMI (1)Mini HDMI (1)
24 pin DVP/RMII Camera Connector (1)CSI-2 Camera Connector (1)
microSD Card SlotmicroSD Card Slot
40 Pin Raspberry Pi compatible GPIO header40 Pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header
Audio via audio out pads
PowerUSB-C (5V)Micro USB (5V)
via GPIO Headervia GPIO Header
Dimensions65x30mm (Length x Height)

Benchmarking Information / Hardware

For these benchmarks, the boot storage is the best-performing Amazon Basics 64GB microSD card and the SSD is a Samsung 850 EVO (500GB). For USB Ethernet, I use the Linksys 1Gbit USB Ethernet adapter. A 120mm fan is blowing across the board for all tests (unless mentioned) to ensure no thermal throttling takes place.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro – Compute Performance

As always, I’ll start with UnixBench and move on to a mix of “real-world” and other synthetic benchmarks.

The Mango Pi MQ Pro under PHPBench testing shows a 50.31% performance increase over the Raspberry Pi Zero W and its compute dominance doesn’t end there. PyBench also completes 22.26% faster and the WavPack encoding test is 7.43% quicker on the MangoPi board.

When we move to GZIP compression, Crypto++ and OpenSSL work though, the Pi Zero W starts to fight back. With GZIP, it’s 34.98% faster to complete the same test, OpenSSL benchmarks show around 50% increases across the board and whilst with Crypto++’s Integer and Elliptical curve run the MQ Pro pulls ahead by 31.23%, Keyed and Unkeyed Algorithm runs were 20.73% and 10.91% faster respectively.

UnixBench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (1)

PHPBench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (2)

PyBench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (3)

WavPack Audio Encoding

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (4)

Crypto++

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (5)

OpenSSL Bench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (6)

GZIP Compression

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (7)

Memory (RAM) Performance

It should be noted that we are testing the 1GB RAM model of the MangoPi MQ Pro here. If you compare it to a 512MB board, your results will likely differ! The MQ Pro also gets an advantage from its newer DDR3 memory and this is clearly shown across the board with tinymembench and CacheBench with performance increases between 20% and nearly 700%!

tinymembench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (8)

CacheBench

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (9)

Networking Performance

The MQ Pro train doesn’t stop when we move onto networking performance either, with WiFi tests showing it 60% and 17.37% faster during download and upload testing. We see a slightly odd result with a USB Ethernet adapter where the Pi Zero offers a 16.66% gain on the download side, though trails by 26.27% on the upload front.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (10)

Storage Performance

MicroSD Card Reader

The micro SD card results are taken from my Best SD Cards for Raspberry Pi piece and show that in comparison to other similar boards, the SD card reader in the MQ Pro isn’t exactly the speediest of things. With the board’s limited compute resources though, this shouldn’t hold it back too much unless you’re hoping to run a speedy full desktop environment but top tip, don’t.

MangoPi MQ Pro
SD Card ModelSequential ReadSequential WriteRandom ReadRandom WriteIOPing
SanDisk Ultra (8GB)11.4 MB/s8.57 MB/s4.88 MB/s0.61 MB/s1 ms
SanDisk Ultra (16GB)11.4 MB/s9.07 MB/s4.56 MB/s2.07 MB/s2.95 ms
SanDisk Ultra (32GB)11.42 MB/s9.37 MB/s4.6 MB/s1.87 MB/s3 ms
SanDisk Extreme (64GB)11.42 MB/s10.8 MB/s3.18 MB/s2.68 MB/s0.96 ms
SanDisk Extreme PRO (128GB)11.4 MB/s10.8 MB/s2.74 MB/s2.63 MB/s0.99 ms
Kingston Canvas Select Plus (32GB)5.73 MB/s5.57 MB/s2.97 MB/s1.51 MB/s1.19 ms
KIOXIA EXCERIA (32GB)11.42 MB/s9.67 MB/s5.27 MB/s3.08 MB/s0.93 ms
Samsung EVO Plus (32GB)11.39 MB/s10.63 MB/s4.3 MB/s1.55 MB/s1.45 ms
Amazon Basics (64GB)11.48 MB/s10.77 MB/s5.51 MB/s3.25 MB/s1.18 ms
Verbatim Premium (16GB)11.41 MB/s10.3 MB/s4.9 MB/s1.83 MB/s1.08 ms
SanDisk MAX ENDURANCE (32GB)11.42 MB/s10.7 MB/s3.1 MB/s2.47 MB/s0.87 ms
Integral ultima PRO (64GB)11.48 MB/s10.8 MB/s5.12 MB/s3.03 MB/s1.42 ms
Patriot EP Series (64GB)11.41 MB/s8.03 MB/s4.46 MB/s2.13 MB/s0.98 ms
Kodak (64GB)11.38 MB/s10.6 MB/s2.68 MB/s0.75 MB/s1.05 ms
Intenso (64GB)11.47 MB/s10.8 MB/s5.46 MB/s3.03 MB/s1.23 ms
Transcend (32GB)11.48 MB/s8.03 MB/s5.12 MB/s2.06 MB/s0.86 ms
Samsung EVO Select (32GB)11.38 MB/s10.6 MB/s4.49 MB/s1.45 MB/s1.45 ms
Samsung PRO Plus (128GB)11.48 MB/s10.47 MB/s4.61 MB/s1.13 MB/s0.96 ms
SanDisk HIGH ENDURANCE (64GB)11.4 MB/s10.57 MB/s2.85 MB/s2.46 MB/s0.99 ms
Samsung PRO Endurance (32GB)11.38 MB/s10.63 MB/s3.99 MB/s1.42 MB/s1.33 ms
Raspberry Pi Zero W
SD Card ModelSequential ReadSequential WriteRandom ReadRandom WriteIOPing
SanDisk Ultra (8GB)21.11 MB/s13.53 MB/s4.83 MB/s0.66 MB/s1.21 ms
SanDisk Ultra (16GB)21.19 MB/s12.77 MB/s4.9 MB/s2.01 MB/s3.04 ms
SanDisk Ultra (32GB)21.23 MB/s15.8 MB/s4.87 MB/s1.82 MB/s3.05 ms
SanDisk Extreme (64GB)21.25 MB/s19.07 MB/s4.53 MB/s2.68 MB/s1.15 ms
SanDisk Extreme PRO (128GB)21.23 MB/s18.57 MB/s4.43 MB/s2.7 MB/s1.18 ms
Kingston Canvas Select Plus (32GB)11.03 MB/s9.8 MB/s3.17 MB/s1.68 MB/s1.24 ms
KIOXIA EXCERIA (32GB)21.21 MB/s14.23 MB/s5.1 MB/s3.04 MB/s1.14 ms
Samsung EVO Plus (32GB)20.98 MB/s17.03 MB/s4.68 MB/s1.79 MB/s1.29 ms
Amazon Basics (64GB)21.36 MB/s19.6 MB/s5.49 MB/s2.98 MB/s1.38 ms
PNY Performance Plus (16GB)21.15 MB/s10.8 MB/s4.7 MB/s2.14 MB/s1.36 ms
Verbatim Premium (16GB)20.92 MB/s10.4 MB/s3.02 MB/s0.75 MB/s1.27 ms
SanDisk MAX ENDURANCE (32GB)21.18 MB/s18.9 MB/s4.42 MB/s2.46 MB/s1.06 ms
Integral ultima PRO (64GB)21.29 MB/s19.5 MB/s4.88 MB/s2.9 MB/s1.49 ms
Patriot EP Series (64GB)21.18 MB/s17.37 MB/s4.39 MB/s2.22 MB/s1.15 ms
Kodak (64GB) 21.02 MB/s17.97 MB/s2.56 MB/s0.77 MB/s1.24 ms
Intenso (64GB)21.33 MB/s19.63 MB/s5.52 MB/s2.92 MB/s2.25 ms
Transcend (32GB)21.15 MB/s12.27 MB/s5.02 MB/s2.08 MB/s1.06 ms
Samsung EVO Select (32GB)20.91 MB/s17.23 MB/s4.82 MB/s1.64 MB/s1.33 ms
Samsung PRO Plus (128GB)21.14 MB/s17.17 MB/s4.4 MB/s1.19 MB/s1.21 ms
SanDisk HIGH ENDURANCE (64GB)21.2 MB/s18.6 MB/s3.75 MB/s2.42 MB/s1.17 ms
Samsung PRO Endurance (32GB)20.81 MB/s16.93 MB/s4.89 MB/s1.62 MB/s1.28 ms

USB SSD & microSD Card Comparison

The SD data here is an average of all tested microSD cards so that there’s a more simple comparison.

The USB SSD testing surprised me though. Bar the odd sequential read results they’re much the same, with the BCM2835 based Raspberry Pi being slightly ahead. I tried with 2 different USB to SATA adapters and 2 SSDs to try and find what was going on with the sequential read results and each was consistently that far ahead! The only consistent difference was that I used a USB-A to Micro USB adapter on the Pi Zero and USB-A to USB-C on the MQ Pro but I don’t believe this to be relevant given the other tests falling in line.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (11)

Thermals & Power

Temperatures

With an ambient room temperature of 25.8 degrees celsius in both tests we can see that these 2 boards are quite close in terms of operating temperatures. What interested me during this testing was the delta between idle and load on the MQ Pro. As I mentioned in my stand-alone MangoPi MQ Pro Review, I thought I may have been doing something wrong, or stress-ng wasn’t up to the task but with multiple forms of stress-testing I saw the same behaviour.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (12)

Power Draw

Finally, we move on to the overall power draw where the Pi Zero W sips 17.74% more power at idle and a whopping 34.48% more under load. Whilst you may look at the numbers and see 0.73W vs 1.17W and think that’s not a big difference, if you’re thinking of running either of these boards on battery or solar power, this will make a big difference to your potential run-time.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (13)

Closing Thoughts

There’s a theme running throughout these tests and it’s one of surprise for me. I’ll be very honest and say I knew very little about the RISC-V ecosystem before diving in with the MangoPi MQ Pro but I’m so glad that I did. The process of getting it up and running and seeing how it compared to its closest “rival” in the Zero style board lineup was great.

The issue at this point though is that due to MangoPi being a smaller, newer manufacturer with limited resources, they’re not churning out as many units and due to the initial buzz, they’re being snapped up quickly. This means that whilst yes, the MQ Pro is a very valid alternative to the Pi Zero if your software/interests will run on a RISC-V architecture, annoyingly, you still need to wait to get your hands on one.

That also ignores the price side of things. The Raspberry Pi Zero W retails for around £10GBP (keep an eye out on rpilocator if you’re currently in the market) in the UK through authorised retailers whereas the Mango Pi MQ Pro 1GB model tested here will run you around £23 if you manage to get one through the official store when they have stock (these prices both include GST/VAT at 20%). At £23 I still think it’s worth it to get your hands on a small RISC-V based board that offers twice as much, faster RAM and better performance in a lot of areas but if you’re purely interested in the price this may not appeal to you.

Good job, mangobuge and anyone else behinds the scenes! You’ve created a great product with huge potential. With the ARM H616 MangoPi MQ Quad on the way, it’s great to have more alternatives available. On behalf of myself and the community though, please make sure that the operating system images and support is available upon future board launches!

armBenchmarksMangoPiMangoPi MQ ProRaspberry PiRaspberry Pi Zero WReviewRISC-VSBCSingle Board Computers

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (14)

Bret

Bret has worked with Raspberry Pi computers for almost 10 years now and in that time he's benchmarked and tested over 30 Single Board computers. In his day job, he's a systems administrator for a large cloud computing provider.

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro Benchmarks - bret.dk (2024)

FAQs

Is MangoPi MQ Pro better than Raspberry Pi Zero? ›

Raspberry Pi Zero vs MangoPi MQ Pro – Compute Performance

The Mango Pi MQ Pro under PHPBench testing shows a 50.31% performance increase over the Raspberry Pi Zero W and its compute dominance doesn't end there. PyBench also completes 22.26% faster and the WavPack encoding test is 7.43% quicker on the MangoPi board.

What is the difference between PI Zero 2w and Pico? ›

The Pico does not have wireless or Bluetooth connectivity, but the Pico W and WH models do; 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, on-board antenna, Bluetooth 5.2. The Zero 2 W has wireless and Bluetooth connectivity; 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2, BLE, onboard antenna.

What is the difference between pi zero w and wh? ›

The "W" appending the Pi Zero indicates the presence of a wireless module on board. So now what's the difference between the Pi Zero WH? well its Pi Zero W with soldered header, that's it!

What is the difference between Raspberry Pi Zero and PI 3? ›

The Pi Zero W has:a 1 core ARMv6 processor running at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. The Pi3B has a quad-core Cortex-A53 ARMv8-A processor running at 1.2GHz with 1GB of RAM. The Pi Zero W has a single micro USB port and a mini-HDMI connector. The Pi3B has 4 full sized USB-A ports and a full sized HDMI connector.

Which Raspberry Pi has the fastest processor? ›

Raspberry Pi 5 features the Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor @ 2.4GHz, making it up to three times faster than the previous generation. With RAM variants up to 8GB, this is the fastest, smoothest Raspberry Pi experience yet.

What is the best performance Raspberry Pi? ›

Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400

It's the most powerful Pi, with a fast clock speed, the most RAM available on a Pi yet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the ability to run two screens at 4k resolution. If you need speed and power, you want this one. The Pi 4 has a price range depending on the amount of RAM you need.

How powerful is the Raspberry Pi Zero? ›

Overclocking and General Performance

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W comes with four cores running at a stock 1 GHz, and the increase in cores and speed translates to an increase in heat. At idle, the Pi Zero 2 sits at 36.5 Celsius, compared to the Raspberry Pi Zero W which idles at 32.6 Celsius.

What are the advantages of Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W? ›

The Zero 2 W is up to five times faster than the original Pi Zero in most applications. The hardware is based on the Raspberry Pi 3A0, a proprietary system-in-a-package from the Raspberry Pi company. It uses a quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor running at 1GHz and has 512MB of SDRAM.

Why Raspberry Pi Pico is better than Arduino? ›

When it comes to processing power, the Raspberry Pi Pico boasts a dual-core ARM Cortex-M0+ processor running at 133 MHz, making it a formidable contender in the microcontroller arena. On the other hand, Arduino boards vary in terms of processing capabilities, with some featuring simpler architectures than others.

What are the disadvantages of Raspberry Pi Zero W? ›

Disadvantages of Raspberry Pi Zero WH:
  • Limited Processing Power: The Zero WH is equipped with a single-core 1GHz ARM processor and 512MB of RAM. ...
  • Lack of Standard Ports: Due to its compact size, the Zero WH sacrifices some standard ports found on larger Raspberry Pi models.
May 18, 2023

Is Raspberry Pi Zero W worth it? ›

It's not the fastest piece of hardware, but it does perform as well you'd expect for the price. Because of the performance and connectivity gap, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the better choice for the first timer, but if your builds are becoming smaller and more efficient, the Zero W is an intriguing piece of kit.

Is the Pi Zero pinout the same? ›

Do all Raspberry Pi have the same pinout? Yes, all Raspberry Pi boards have the same 40-pin header, with the same pinout, with the exception of the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W, which have a smaller header with a slightly different pinout.

Why are Raspberry Pi zeros so expensive? ›

The shortage in stock is due to supply chain issues which affected any components which used semiconductors. The Raspberry Pi range was not alone in this: graphics cards, along with other PC components, also saw stock shortages and high demand. It's also difficult to buy a bare board.

Is there a better alternative to Raspberry Pi? ›

The Banana Pi BPI-M4 and M5 are powerful Raspberry Pi alternatives developed by SinoVoip. The BPI-M4 offers similar performance to the Raspberry Pi but includes more ports, including HDMI, and built-in support for Android and Linux.

Why we use Raspberry Pi Zero? ›

A tiny Raspberry Pi that's affordable enough for any project - now with WiFi and Bluetooth! The Raspberry Pi Zero W is the smallest member of the Raspberry Pi family but still packs a LOT of features including WiFi, Bluetooth, mini-HDMI, a micro-USB port and camera connector.

Is there anything better than a Raspberry Pi? ›

The Banana Pi BPI-M4 and M5 are powerful Raspberry Pi alternatives developed by SinoVoip. The BPI-M4 offers similar performance to the Raspberry Pi but includes more ports, including HDMI, and built-in support for Android and Linux.

What is the fastest interface for Raspberry Pi? ›

The Raspberry Pi 5 uses faster LPDDR4X RAM, clocked at 2133 MHz, up from the Pi 4B's 1600 MHz LPDDR4. The USB selection has stayed the same, though, with two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 (or in modern terms, USB 3.2 Gen 1) ports, capable of simultaneous 5 Gbps operation (thanks to the RP1 chip).

What is the best Raspberry web server? ›

Re: Best choice of web server on Raspberry Pi

Tomcat is an option for Java based web applications, flask and django are popular options for Python web applications. On their own they might be good for a small site, as you scale up you might need to add something in front (like apace or nginx).

What is the best Raspberry Pi database? ›

During my experiments, I found that SQLite, TinyDB, and MariaDB are the best databases for Raspberry Pi devices and, in general, for IoT applications. They are compatible with Raspberry Pi hardware and don't consume a lot of resources. They also support a variety of programming languages and tools.

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