NanoPi M4 seems very slow

[Jimmy]

I just received my NanoPi M4, and after booting to friendly desktop, I noticed that the performance was very slow. I have the 4GB version, and expected it to be much more responsive than a Raspberry Pi, but it is quite a bit slower. By slow I mean the responsiveness, when you click on something, or when something is running, like Firefox. I am booting from an SD card. I also tried booting from the eMMC card, which I purchased with the system, but I can't get it to boot from the eMMC card.

Just looking for tips.

[Jimmy]

I did get my nanopi working the way I thought it should. I got it to boot from the eMMC and that seemed to make it faster.

[igorp]

I did get my nanopi working the way I thought it should. I got it to boot from the eMMC and that seemed to make it faster.

Check: https://github.com/ThomasKaiser/sbc-ben ... Results.md
and use
https://www.armbian.com/download/

[NicoD]

It depends on which OS you're running on it.

Arbmian is clocked faster 1.5Ghz/2Ghz. It runs a lot smoother, but it get's a lot hotter too, and it consumes more energy.

The lubuntu armhf is slow and unresponsive. This is a 32-bit OS. Don't use this as your daily OS. Only for things that only run well on armhf.
The Lubuntu arm64 should run well. It's clocked to 1.4Ghz/1.8Ghz. You only notice this difference when you do heavy tasks.

Check my review video for more info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgj9mR6Pl04

Here some of my data about the M4.

Code: Select all

Lubuntu 32-bit
--------------
Problem with keyboard-configuration
Before upgrade do : 
sudo locale-gen "en_GB.UTF-8"
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
sudo nano /etc/environment
  add          -> LC_ALL="en_GB.utf8"
After login it cuts the display and logs me out again. Sometimes display doesn't come back.
zram-config is not working. Does not start zram
         sudo nano /etc/rc.local
             -> delete 1st "exit 0" line
Outdated repository's
Youtube playback with     Chromium is very bad. 420p max - Firefox doesn't work
                     Vivaldi browser is as good as Chromium on Armbian Bionic 
                    https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=29229
                    Change threads to 6 + Upgrade after setup
                    
Lower clock @ 1.8Ghz + 1.4Ghz

Lubuntu 64-bit
--------------
hostapd can't be installed correctly. 
Works great 
Perfect 1080p video playback in Firefox.
Use firefox as video player. qt5-videoplayer does not work well. VLC is better. Firefox is perfect.


Armbian Bionic 64-bit
---------------------
Cant mount some SD-cards xfat/ntfs
acceptable youtube playback 1080p in Chromium - Great in Firefox

Armbian Stretch 64-bit
----------------------
Less responsive than Bionic
https://vivaldi.com/nl/blog/snapshots/vivaldi-1-15-rc-2/
Often stops downloading. In terminal and chromium.

Amperage
--------
No load Lubuntu 32-bit 0.3A  With fan 0.45A
Maxed Lubuntu 32-bit   1.3A  With fan 1.5A
Maxed Armbian          2A


Temperature
-----------
Armbian Bionic/Stretch 64-bit 2Ghz + 1.5Ghz
                  With fan idle    32°C
                  With fan maxed   65°C
                  No fan idle      40°C
                  No fan maxed     Throttles at 85°C after 14m30s
                  
Lubuntu armhf/arm64 1.8Ghz + 1.4GHz
                  With fan idle    29°C
                  With fan maxed   54°C
                  No fan idle      42°C
                  No fan maxed     69°C (after 30 minutes maxed)

Blender BMW 1080p results
-------------------------
Lubuntu 32-bit 1.8Ghz/1.5Ghz      2h20m51s 
Lubuntu 32 bionic                 2h02m54s
Lubuntu 64-bit                    1h28m13s
Armbian bionic display @ 1080p    1h13m50s With fan
                                  1h15m47s No fan with trottling after 14m30s
               display @ 720p     1h05m00s With fan
            
Kdenlive 10minute bench
-----------------------
Lubuntu 32-bit                    1h00m13s
Lubuntu 64-bit                    49m21s
Armbian Bionic                    41m01s
            
SBC-Bench
---------
Armbian bionic                     http://ix.io/1nLh  10.2kH/s CPU Miner
Armbian stretch                    http://ix.io/1odF  8.66kH/s CPU Miner
Lubuntu 32-bit                   http://ix.io/1oCb
Lubuntu arm64                      http://ix.io/1oGJ  9.24kH/s CPU Miner

[seasalt]

I just received my NanoPi M4, and after booting to friendly desktop, I noticed that the performance was very slow. I have the 4GB version, and expected it to be much more responsive than a Raspberry Pi, but it is quite a bit slower. By slow I mean the responsiveness, when you click on something, or when something is running, like Firefox. I am booting from an SD card. I also tried booting from the eMMC card, which I purchased with the system, but I can't get it to boot from the eMMC card.

Just looking for tips.

I agree on the slow response.. I was not shipped the right heat sink so I am just using Raspberry pi heatsinks as a temporary measure so some of my problem may be heat related.

It just seems slow when you click on something. It can take a while to start. I am running Armbian Ubuntu. I would say for any one considering a M4 with Armbian it is not ready.

But if you are happy to be part o the experiment then buy one. I think at this stage $65.00 for m4 plus heatsink is too much money. Considering for double the money you can get a Celeron compatible mini motherboard that is twice as fast. CNX has some good bench-marking on this.

[igorp]

I agree on the slow response.. I was not shipped the right heat sink so I am just using Raspberry pi heatsinks as a temporary measure so some of my problem may be heat related.

It just seems slow when you click on something. It can take a while to start. I am running Armbian Ubuntu. I would say for any one considering a M4 with Armbian it is not ready.

You call this slow response?

phpBB [video]

You need to use proper cooling (large heatsink and/or large fan) otherwise throttling happens which has big effect on performance. RaspberryPi is way way slower than this board in all possible scenarios.

Armbian for RK3399 is labelled as "suitable for testing" but it is already in a good shape.

ps Trash your SD card.