The most useful to me is faster single thread speed on at least one machine. A reason my notebook is Intel with maximum clock speed instead of the "equivalent" AMD with twice as many cores but a slower clock speed.Do you want a FASTER chip or do you want a COOLER chip?
For the other machines, low power usage for 24/7 operation and no fan to annoy anyone. Backup and file servers work on a Pi 4 at maximum network and USB disk speed. Small copper heatsinks but no fan.
The Pi 5 adds extra speed for video conversions in a media server plus the speed of NVMe. Given that I rarely have multiple media conversions in parallel, my Pi 5 fan rarely switches on. I am looking for a big heatsink that does not block the WiFi.
Outside of my notebook, the Pi range does everything I need as fast as the network can deliver. Something like MIMO WiFi with external antenna would be the next most useful thing but that does not need 2nm. USB 3 WiFi devices offer MIMO and the Pi 5 can then have a giant fanless heatsink.
A Zero 2 with double the memory would be the next most useful thing. Perhaps a future Zero could be based on the Pi 5 silicon manufacturing process but that is unlikely to happen until the RAM shortage is fixed with heaps of new factories.
The other potential advantage of smaller silicon is cutting more chips from the one silicon sheet. I do not know how that compares to the increased cost of tighter lithography.
Statistics: Posted by peterlite — Mon Feb 09, 2026 12:16 am