NVIDIA Jetson Nano

[PoetPhilosopher]

First off, I hope no one minds me beat reporting on the subject of small computer boards like the Pi 4. My Pi 4 started having audio issues so I've looked into getting something which I find intriguing, a competitor board called the NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit board.

Let's compare this board for a second to the Pi 4. It has only half the CPU performance of the Pi 4, but 4GB RAM (same as what the best Pi 4 is), and this is going to sound like a misprint but it's not - about 6 times the GPU performance of the Pi 4.

From what I've read, it will be half as fast at general applications and navigating the OS and such, about three times as fast at normal video games as the Pi 4, and roughly the same as the Pi 4 at the performance produced for emulating games.

I will end up paying $40 more for the Jetson Nano than picking up a Pi 4 4GB, with the advantage that the Jetson Nano case I would be buying, honestly looks a bit more sturdy than many of the available Pi 4 cases for the same price. So there's that.

If you buy one, you are best off buying a MicroUSB charger instead of a DC charger. The MicroUSB charger has the advantage of you not having to mess with jumper plugs to use it, but the disadvantage that the board won't clock quite as high had you gone to all that trouble and used a DC charger.

The Jetson Nano uses an optimized version of Linux that's at least, if not more, as full-featured than a lot of Pi 4 OSes.

Also, I do need to stress that the Jetson Nano IS more marketed toward software developers, for what it's worth, and *may* not hold your hand through every last chore on the device. But I'm part of their target market more or less, so it doesn't really affect me.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

First off, I hope no one minds me beat reporting on the subject of small computer boards like the Pi 4. My Pi 4 started having audio issues so I've looked into getting something which I find intriguing, a competitor board called the NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit board.

Let's compare this board for a second to the Pi 4. It has only half the CPU performance of the Pi 4, but 4GB RAM (same as what the best Pi 4 is), and this is going to sound like a misprint but it's not - about 6 times the GPU performance of the Pi 4.

From what I've read, it will be half as fast at general applications and navigating the OS and such, about three times as fast at normal video games as the Pi 4, and roughly the same as the Pi 4 at the performance produced for emulating games.

I will end up paying $40 more for the Jetson Nano than picking up a Pi 4 4GB, with the advantage that the Jetson Nano case I would be buying, honestly looks a bit more sturdy than many of the available Pi 4 cases for the same price. So there's that.

If you buy one, you are best off buying a MicroUSB charger instead of a DC charger. The MicroUSB charger has the advantage of you not having to mess with jumper plugs to use it, but the disadvantage that the board won't clock quite as high had you gone to all that trouble and used a DC charger.

The Jetson Nano uses an optimized version of Linux that's at least, if not more, as full-featured than a lot of Pi 4 OSes.

Also, I do need to stress that the Jetson Nano IS more marketed toward software developers, for what it's worth, and *may* not hold your hand through every last chore on the device. But I'm part of their target market more or less, so it doesn't really affect me.

If I was still using an actual television? That sounds like a good candidate for a Media PC machine, without all the goofy hoops to jump through, using a Windows (or worse... a mac) machine.

I already have a USB3.0 blue ray optical drive, and it works quite well at playing BluRay movies, so I expect it'd work with this too.

I also expect there are Netflix and Hulu apps for Linux? I cannot fathom that someone, somewhere hasn't either hacked these into working, or there are official releases. Money talks, after all.

Interesting read-- the superior game channel, would be better for this, than a Pi 4?

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Interesting read-- the superior game channel, would be better for this, than a Pi 4?

Basically, it's the difference under ordinary circumstances between playing a game with semi-foggy Playstation 2 quality graphics (the Pi 4), and playing a game that looks as good as a game on a $200 smartphone (the Jetson board). So assuming writers have been to work making games for the Jetson Nano, and I'm sure they have to an extent, expect a difference. To be technical, that difference involves programmable shaders that are much more complex in games, which results in more modern graphics

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Basically, it's the difference under ordinary circumstances between playing a game with semi-foggy Playstation 2 quality graphics (the Pi 4), and playing a game that looks as good as a game on a $200 smartphone (the Jetson board). So assuming writers have been to work making games for the Jetson Nano, and I'm sure they have to an extent, expect a difference. To be technical, that difference involves programmable shaders that are much more complex in games, which results in more modern graphics

I see, so deep into the various graphics/options setting within any given game, then.

A classic, paid-for BluRay player does not possess such esoteric fine controls, rather dependent entirely on the OS's ability to control the graphics.

I would fully expect that under Linux, there are also open source BluRay players too, in fact, I use one myself on Windoze.... but it requires an internet hook, to decode the disc(s). My other one is paid for, and runs fine sans internet-- alas, it is quite ugly to use-- it does not recognize the majority of BluRay startup menus-- you kinda have to guess which of the cryptic file names to start first... even worse, with TV shows, which have many more files. But no internet needed, and lifetime updates made me pay for it.

I still like the idea of one of these "micro machines" to uses as a Media Server/player.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I see, so deep into the various graphics/options setting within any given game, then.

A classic, paid-for BluRay player does not possess such esoteric fine controls, rather dependent entirely on the OS's ability to control the graphics.

I would fully expect that under Linux, there are also open source BluRay players too, in fact, I use one myself on Windoze.... but it requires an internet hook, to decode the disc(s). My other one is paid for, and runs fine sans internet-- alas, it is quite ugly to use-- it does not recognize the majority of BluRay startup menus-- you kinda have to guess which of the cryptic file names to start first... even worse, with TV shows, which have many more files. But no internet needed, and lifetime updates made me pay for it.

I still like the idea of one of these "micro machines" to uses as a Media Server/player.

If you don't plan on playing games, or experimenting with software development, the Odroid N2 is actually a better media machine than both the Jetson Nano and the Pi 4, I really believe. It has a balance of CPU power and GPU power (just not as much GPU power as the Jetson Nano which is packed with it).