Orange Pi 5 Plus vs Orange Pi Zero 3W

Benchmarks, specifications, and real-world performance data

Tested by Bret Weber Last updated 30 October 2026

Orange Pi 5 PlusvsOrange Pi Zero 3W

Fastest

Orange Pi 5 Plus

3,117 GB6 multi-core

Best value

Orange Pi Zero 3W

34.5 GB6 pts/$ at $50

Most efficient

Orange Pi Zero 3W

6.6W under load

Comparison Summary

The Orange Pi 5 Plus and the Orange Pi Zero 3W go head to head below, with every figure taken from our own hands-on testing. In raw CPU performance the Orange Pi 5 Plus leads, its 3,117 Geekbench 6 multi-core score coming in 80% ahead of the Orange Pi Zero 3W at 1,727. Factor in price and the Orange Pi Zero 3W makes the strongest case, working out to 34.5 Geekbench 6 points per dollar at $50.00. If power budget matters, the Orange Pi Zero 3W draws the least at 6.6W under load (1.8W at idle).

Specification	Orange Pi 5 Plus 8GB RAM	Orange Pi Zero 3W 4GB RAM
Basic Specifications
Price	$135 AMZ**	$50
RAM	8GB	4GB
SoC	Rockchip RK3588 Mali-G610 MP4 Rockchip NPU 3.0 (6 TOPS)	Allwinner A733 Imagination BXM-4-64 MC1 NPU (3 TOPS)
Architecture	ARM	ARM
CPU Cores	8 cores 4× Cortex-A76 @ 2.4GHz 4× Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz	8 cores 2× Cortex-A76 @ 2.0GHz 6× Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
Hardware Video Decode	Not Tested	None (CPU only) Tested formats and drivers

Connectivity
USB Ports	4× USB ports 1× USB-A 2.0, 2× USB-A 3.0, 1× USB-C 3.0	1× USB ports 1× USB-C 3.0
Display Ports	2× HDMI 2.1	1× mini-HDMI 2.0
Ethernet	2× 2.5Gbps (PoE None) RTL8125BG	N/A
WiFi	N/A	802.11ax
Bluetooth	N/A	5.4, BLE
Storage & Expansion
SATA Ports	None	None
M.2 Slots	M-key PCIe 3.0 x4 (2280) E-key PCIe 2.0 x1 (2230)	N/A
PCIe Support	N/A	PCIe 3.0
Power & I/O
Power Requirements	5.1V	5V/3A
Power Inputs	USB-C	USB-C
GPIO	40-pin RPi compatible	40-pin RPi compatible
Features
Real-Time Clock	Yes	No
Power Button	Yes	No
Fan Header	Yes	Yes
Mainline Linux	No	No
Armbian Support	Official	No

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Environment	Orange Pi 5 Plus 8GB RAM	Orange Pi Zero 3W 4GB RAM
Last Tested	12 October 2025	16 September 2026
System Configuration
OS Version	Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)	Armbian 26.8.1 trixie
Kernel Version	6.1.43-rockchip-rk3588	6.6.98-vendor-sun60iw2
CPU Governor	performance	performance
Video Hardware
Jellyfin Hardware Path	N/A	None (CPU only)
Hardware Decoding Tested With	N/A	No hardware decoder
Drivers Installed by the Test	N/A	None: the image had everything
Hardware Decoder Support	N/A	No hardware video decoder could be used on this board and image.
Hardware Setup
Boot Device	Crucial P5 Plus 1024GB (M.2 NVMe)	Raspberry Pi 64GB (microSD)

Every figure above comes from hardware run in-house by Bret Weber, on the exact OS build, kernel, firmware and boot device listed here. Boards are tested to a fixed procedure so results stay comparable between them: see our testing methodology for how each benchmark is run.

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)

CPU Performance

Processor performance across single and multi-core workloads

Geekbench 6

Higher Scores are Better

Single-Core

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)863 #22 of 72

863 #22 of 72

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)662 23% slower #34 of 72

662 23% slower #34 of 72

Multi-Core

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)3,117 #13 of 72

3,117 #13 of 72

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1,727 45% slower #33 of 72

1,727 45% slower #33 of 72

7-Zip Benchmark

Higher Scores are Better

Single-Core Combined

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)3,134 MIPS #23 of 118

3,134 MIPS #23 of 118

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)2,474 MIPS 21% slower #33 of 118

2,474 MIPS 21% slower #33 of 118

Multi-Core Combined

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)16,584 MIPS #10 of 113

16,584 MIPS #10 of 113

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)11,236 MIPS 32% slower #34 of 113

11,236 MIPS 32% slower #34 of 113

High Performance Linpack

Higher Scores are Better

Performance

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)46.07 GFLOPS #11 of 80

46.07 GFLOPS #11 of 80

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)24.86 GFLOPS 46% slower #33 of 80

24.86 GFLOPS 46% slower #33 of 80

Performance/Watt

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)2.93 GFLOPS/W #12 of 74

2.93 GFLOPS/W #12 of 74

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)2.54 GFLOPS/W 14% slower #24 of 74

2.54 GFLOPS/W 14% slower #24 of 74

UnixBench

Higher Scores are Better

Single Core

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)1,483 #12 of 118

1,483 #12 of 118

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1,061 28% slower #31 of 118

1,061 28% slower #31 of 118

Multi Core

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)6,908 #5 of 109

6,908 #5 of 109

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)4,031 42% slower #34 of 109

4,031 42% slower #34 of 109

PassMark CPU

Higher Scores are Better

CPU Score

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)3,211 #11 of 96

3,211 #11 of 96

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)2,093 35% slower #37 of 96

2,093 35% slower #37 of 96

CPU Mining (cpuminer-multi)

Higher Hashrates are Better

Fastest Thread

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)3.67 kH/s #27 of 108

3.67 kH/s #27 of 108

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)3.34 kH/s 9% slower #35 of 108

3.34 kH/s 9% slower #35 of 108

Total

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)21.64 kH/s #18 of 104

21.64 kH/s #18 of 104

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)16.99 kH/s 21% slower #32 of 104

16.99 kH/s 21% slower #32 of 104

Geekbench 7

Higher Scores are Better

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)Single-Core: 596#7 of 11

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

MAME: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

Higher Speed is Better

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)Emulation Speed: 753.12%#6 of 22

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

Memory Performance

Memory bandwidth and throughput benchmarks

PassMark RAM

Higher Scores are Better

RAM Score

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)1,337 #18 of 87

1,337 #18 of 87

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1,003 25% slower #34 of 87

1,003 25% slower #34 of 87

TinyMemBench

Higher Bandwidth is Better

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)memcpy: 6,768.5 MB/s#14 of 65memset: 8,528.4 MB/s#23 of 65

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

AI & LLM Performance

Large Language Model inference performance

Ollama LLM Benchmark

Higher Scores are Better

Tokens/sec

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)9.47 tok/s #19 of 66

9.47 tok/s #19 of 66

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)8.15 tok/s 14% slower #27 of 66

8.15 tok/s 14% slower #27 of 66

Tokens/Watt

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)0.87 tok/W 34% slower #23 of 64

0.87 tok/W 34% slower #23 of 64

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1.31 tok/W #2 of 64

1.31 tok/W #2 of 64

Tokens/Dollar

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)0.07 tok/$ 2.3× slower #12 of 59

0.07 tok/$ 2.3× slower #12 of 59

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)0.16 tok/$ #2 of 59

0.16 tok/$ #2 of 59

Storage Performance

Disk I/O throughput measured with FIO

fio Storage Performance - microSD

Higher Speeds are Better • Raspberry Pi 64GB (64GB microSD)

4K Random Read

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)7.6 MB/s 6% slower

7.6 MB/s 6% slower

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)8.1 MB/s

8.1 MB/s

4K Random Write

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)11.1 MB/s 23% slower

11.1 MB/s 23% slower

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)14.4 MB/s

14.4 MB/s

fio Storage Performance - eMMC

Higher Speeds are Better • Orange Pi 32GB (32GB eMMC)

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)4K Random Read: 33.4 MB/s4K Random Write: 49.8 MB/s

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

fio Storage Performance - M.2 NVMe

Higher Speeds are Better • Crucial P5 Plus (1024GB M.2 NVMe)

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)4K Random Read: 993.3 MB/s4K Random Write: 738.6 MB/s

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

Network Performance

Ethernet and WiFi throughput measured with iPerf3

iPerf3 Network Performance

Higher Speeds are Better

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)Ethernet Up: 2,353 MbpsEthernet Down: 2,352 Mbps

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

Media & Video

Jellyfin transcoding and FFmpeg video decode and convert speed

Jellyfin Transcoding

Simultaneous real-time streams, more is better

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1080p HEVC → 720p: 1#7 of 13

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

2 more scenarios and the CPU and hardware stream counts are in the benchmark table · every board ranked

Video Decoding

Software decoding on the CPU, higher fps is better

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)HEVC 1080p: 101.24 fps#6 of 21AV1 4K: 30.88 fps#8 of 19

Only this board has been tested so far, so there is nothing to compare against yet.

8 more workloads and the hardware decode speeds are in the benchmark table · every board ranked

Power & Thermal

Power consumption at idle and under various workloads

Power Consumption

Lower is "Better"

Idle Power

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)2.8W 56% more #46 of 74

2.8W 56% more #46 of 74

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)1.8W #30 of 74

1.8W #30 of 74

Load Power

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)7.5W 14% more #79 of 105

7.5W 14% more #79 of 105

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)6.6W #71 of 105

6.6W #71 of 105

Ollama Max

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)10.9W 82% more #44 of 64

10.9W 82% more #44 of 64

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)6W #17 of 64

6W #17 of 64

Linpack Max

Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB)15.7W 64% more #54 of 75

15.7W 64% more #54 of 75

Orange Pi Zero 3W (4GB)9.6W #36 of 75

9.6W #36 of 75

Benchmark	Orange Pi 5 Plus 8GB RAM	Orange Pi Zero 3W 4GB RAM

Geekbench 6 Single-Core	863	662
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core	3117	1727
Geekbench 7 Single-Core	N/A	596
7-Zip Single-Core Combined	3134 MIPS	2474 MIPS
7-Zip Multi-Core Combined	16584 MIPS	11236 MIPS
7-Zip Single-Core Compression	3065 MIPS	2233 MIPS
7-Zip Multi-Core Compression	15761 MIPS	8370 MIPS
7-Zip Single-Core Decompression	3202 MIPS	2714 MIPS
7-Zip Multi-Core Decompression	17407 MIPS	14102 MIPS
Linpack Performance	46.068 GFLOPS	24.859 GFLOPS
Linpack Performance/Watt	2.934 GFLOPS/W	2.537 GFLOPS/W
UnixBench Single Core	1483	1061
UnixBench Multi Core	6908	4031
PassMark CPU Score	3211	2093
CPU Mining Single Core	3.67 kH/s	3.34 kH/s
CPU Mining Multi Core	21.64 kH/s	16.99 kH/s
MAME: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior	N/A	753.12%

TinyMemBench memcpy	N/A	6768.5 MB/s
TinyMemBench memset	N/A	8528.4 MB/s
PassMark RAM Score	1337	1003

deepseek-r1:1.5b
Tokens per Second	9.47 tok/s	8.15 tok/s
Tokens per Watt	0.87 tok/W	1.31 tok/W
Tokens per Dollar	0.07 tok/$	0.16 tok/$
Max Power	10.9W	6.23W

Raspberry Pi 64GB (64GB)
Sequential Read 4K	14.5 MB/s (3717 IOPS)	16.2 MB/s (4166 IOPS)
Sequential Read 64K	37.7 MB/s (602 IOPS)	42.8 MB/s (684 IOPS)
Sequential Read 1M	67.9 MB/s (67 IOPS)	67.3 MB/s (66 IOPS)
Sequential Write 4K	7.7 MB/s (1976 IOPS)	10.5 MB/s (2688 IOPS)
Sequential Write 64K	16.3 MB/s (260 IOPS)	23.1 MB/s (370 IOPS)
Sequential Write 1M	55.8 MB/s (55 IOPS)	57.6 MB/s (57 IOPS)
Random Read 4K	7.6 MB/s (1954 IOPS)	8.1 MB/s (2086 IOPS)
Random Read 64K	36.8 MB/s (589 IOPS)	37.6 MB/s (602 IOPS)
Random Read 1M	65.5 MB/s (65 IOPS)	66.0 MB/s (65 IOPS)
Random Write 4K	11.1 MB/s (2849 IOPS)	14.4 MB/s (3704 IOPS)
Random Write 64K	39.3 MB/s (629 IOPS)	46.2 MB/s (739 IOPS)
Random Write 1M	60.0 MB/s (59 IOPS)	62.1 MB/s (61 IOPS)

Orange Pi 32GB (32GB)
Sequential Read 4K	46.4 MB/s (11889 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Read 64K	52.4 MB/s (838 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Read 1M	241.0 MB/s (240 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 4K	55.7 MB/s (14266 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 64K	166.8 MB/s (2669 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 1M	199.3 MB/s (198 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 4K	33.4 MB/s (8553 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 64K	193.2 MB/s (3090 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 1M	293.3 MB/s (292 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 4K	49.8 MB/s (12760 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 64K	164.9 MB/s (2638 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 1M	191.4 MB/s (190 IOPS)	N/A

Crucial P5 Plus (1024GB)
Sequential Read 4K	1069.9 MB/s (273906 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Read 64K	1312.6 MB/s (21002 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Read 1M	3127.6 MB/s (3127 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 4K	750.2 MB/s (192061 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 64K	2876.3 MB/s (46021 IOPS)	N/A
Sequential Write 1M	2879.6 MB/s (2879 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 4K	993.3 MB/s (254297 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 64K	3123.4 MB/s (49973 IOPS)	N/A
Random Read 1M	3127.6 MB/s (3127 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 4K	738.6 MB/s (189099 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 64K	2874.6 MB/s (45994 IOPS)	N/A
Random Write 1M	2877.0 MB/s (2876 IOPS)	N/A

Idle Power	2.8W	1.8W
Load Power	7.5W	6.6W
Ollama Max Power	10.9W	6W
Linpack Max Power	15.7W	9.6W

Ethernet Upload	2353 Mbps	N/A
Ethernet Download	2352 Mbps	N/A

Jellyfin: 1080p H.264 → 720p	N/A	2 streams CPU 2 streams
Jellyfin: 1080p HEVC → 720p	N/A	1 stream CPU 1 stream
Jellyfin: 1080p HEVC → 1080p	N/A	1 stream CPU 1 stream
Jellyfin: 4K HEVC 10-bit → 1080p	N/A	0 (slower than real time) CPU 0 streams
H.264 1080p Decode	N/A	157 fps 6.6× real time on the CPU
HEVC 1080p Decode	N/A	101 fps 4.2× real time on the CPU
HEVC 10-bit 1080p Decode	N/A	57.7 fps 2.4× real time on the CPU
VP9 1080p Decode	N/A	161 fps 6.7× real time on the CPU
AV1 1080p Decode	N/A	107 fps 4.4× real time on the CPU
HEVC 4K Decode	N/A	25.8 fps 1.1× real time on the CPU
AV1 4K Decode	N/A	30.9 fps 1.3× real time on the CPU
H.264 1080p Decode (One Thread)	N/A	51.7 fps 2.2× real time on the CPU
H.264 → HEVC Conversion	N/A	7.0 fps 86% smaller than the H.264 source
H.264 → AV1 Conversion	N/A	17.2 fps 82% smaller than the H.264 source

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is faster, the Orange Pi 5 Plus or the Orange Pi Zero 3W?

The Orange Pi 5 Plus is faster in our testing, scoring 3,117 in Geekbench 6 multi-core versus 1,727 for the Orange Pi Zero 3W, a 80% advantage.

Which board is the best value?

Of the boards in this comparison, the Orange Pi Zero 3W offers the best performance per dollar: 34.5 Geekbench 6 multi-core points per dollar at $50.00.

Add One More Board

You can compare up to 3 boards at once. Add one more to get the complete comparison.

Orange Pi 5 Plus vs Orange Pi Zero 3W

Comparison Summary

Test Environment

CPU Performance

Geekbench 6

7-Zip Benchmark

High Performance Linpack

UnixBench

PassMark CPU

CPU Mining (cpuminer-multi)

Geekbench 7

MAME: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

Memory Performance

PassMark RAM

TinyMemBench

AI & LLM Performance

Ollama LLM Benchmark

Storage Performance

fio Storage Performance - microSD

fio Storage Performance - eMMC

fio Storage Performance - M.2 NVMe

Network Performance

iPerf3 Network Performance

Media & Video

Jellyfin Transcoding

Video Decoding

Power & Thermal

Power Consumption

Benchmark Data

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is faster, the Orange Pi 5 Plus or the Orange Pi Zero 3W?

Which board is the best value?

Add One More Board

Orange Pi 5 Plus vs Orange Pi Zero 3W

Comparison Summary

Test Environment

CPU Performance

Geekbench 6

7-Zip Benchmark

High Performance Linpack

UnixBench

PassMark CPU

CPU Mining (cpuminer-multi)

Geekbench 7

MAME: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

Memory Performance

PassMark RAM

TinyMemBench

AI & LLM Performance

Ollama LLM Benchmark

Storage Performance

fio Storage Performance - microSD

fio Storage Performance - eMMC

fio Storage Performance - M.2 NVMe

Network Performance

iPerf3 Network Performance

Media & Video

Jellyfin Transcoding

Video Decoding

Power & Thermal

Power Consumption

Benchmark Data

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is faster, the Orange Pi 5 Plus or the Orange Pi Zero 3W?

Which board is the best value?

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