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SBC Power Consumption Rankings

Compare measured idle and full-load power draw across Single Board Computers

74 boards tested · readings from 0.6 to 13.7 (Idle (W))

Some earlier test runs recorded load power but not idle, so those boards appear only in the load and peak rankings.

105 results

Full Results

Ranked by
04812
  1. 1
    Lowest Idle Power: Arduino UNO Q 2GBQRB2210 · $59
    0.6 W
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
    0.7 W
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
    0.9 W
  8. 8
  9. 9
    Radxa Zero 3W 8GBRK3566 · $92
    0.9 W
  10. 10
    Khadas VIM1S 2GBS905Y4 · $59
    1 W
  11. 11
  12. 12
    1.1 W
  13. 13
    1.1 W
  14. 14
  15. 15
    1.2 W
  16. 16
    1.2 W
  17. 17
    1.2 W
  18. 18
    Radxa ROCK 2F 2GBRK3528A · $15
    1.2 W
  19. 19
    ArmSoM Sige1 2GBRK3528A · $48
    1.4 W
  20. 20
    1.4 W
  21. 21
    Banana Pi M5 4GBS905X3 · $146
    1.5 W
  22. 22
    DEBIX Model C 2GBiMX 93 · $65
    1.5 W
  23. 23
    Radxa ROCK 2A 4GBRK3528A · $30
    1.5 W
  24. 24
    Radxa ROCK 4D 8GBRK3576 · $106
    1.5 W
  25. 25
    1.5 W
  26. 26
    1.6 W
  27. 27
  28. 28
    1.6 W
  29. 29
    1.7 W
  30. 30
    Orange Pi CM4 2GBRK3566 · $40
    1.8 W
  31. 31
    1.8 W
  32. 32
    Dshan Pi A1 4GBRK3576 · $69
    1.9 W
  33. 33
    1.9 W
  34. 34
    Orange Pi 3B 4GBRK3566 · $94
    1.9 W
  35. 35
    Orange Pi 4A 4GBT527 · $50
    2 W
  36. 36
    2 W
  37. 37
    DEBIX Model A 4GBiMX 8M Plus · $135
    2.1 W
  38. 38
    2.2 W
  39. 39
    Radxa ROCK 3C 2GBRK3566 · $40
    2.3 W
  40. 40
    Radxa CM5 Lite 8GBRK3582 · $119
    2.4 W
  41. 41
    2.4 W
  42. 42
    Radxa ROCK 5C 4GBRK3588S2 · $166
    2.4 W
  43. 43
    Cool Pi 4B 4GBRK3588S · $140
    2.5 W
  44. 44
    Radxa Dragon Q6A 6GBQCS6490 · $119
    2.5 W
  45. 45
  46. 46
    Orange Pi 5 Plus 8GBRK3588 · $135
    2.8 W
  47. 47
    2.9 W
  48. 48
    Radxa ROCK 5A 4GBRK3588S · $130
    2.9 W
  49. 49
    ArmSoM Sige5 8GBRK3576 · $239
    3 W
  50. 50
    Radxa 4 SE 4GBRK3399-T · $80
    3 W
  51. 51
    Raspberry Pi 400 4GBBCM2711 · $65
    3 W
  52. 52
    Raspberry Pi 500 8GBBCM2712 · $194
    3 W
  53. 53
    Raspberry Pi 5 16GBBCM2712 · $329
    3.1 W
  54. 54
    Radxa ROCK 4C+ 4GBRK3399-T · $80
    3.3 W
  55. 55
    Raspberry Pi 500+ 16GBBCM2712 · $443
    3.3 W
  56. 56
    3.3 W
  57. 57
    Radxa ROCK 3B 2GBRK3568 · $51
    3.4 W
  58. 58
    Forlinx FET3576-C 2GBRK3576 · $210
    3.5 W
  59. 59
    Radxa NX5 8GBRK3588S · $119
    3.6 W
  60. 60
    ArmSoM W3 8GBRK3588 · $316
    4 W
  61. 61
    4.2 W
  62. 62
    Orange Pi RV 4GBJH7110 · $50
    4.3 W
  63. 63
    Radxa ROCK 4B+ 4GBRK3399 OP1 · $170
    4.3 W
  64. 64
    Radxa ROCK 5T 12GBRK3588 · $125
    4.4 W
  65. 65
    Radxa ROCK 5B 8GBRK3588 · $160
    4.5 W
  66. 66
    Radxa CM3I 2GBRK3568 · $65
    4.8 W
  67. 67
    4.8 W
  68. 68
    Banana Pi R4 8GBMT7988A · $146
    4.9 W
  69. 69
    4.9 W
  70. 70
    ArmSoM Sige7 8GBRK3588 · $312
    5.4 W
  71. 71
    Radxa Dragon Q8B 32GBSnapdragon 8cx Gen 3 · $677
    5.9 W
  72. 72
    9.3 W
  73. 73
    13.3 W
  74. 74
    13.7 W
04812
Idle Power (W), lower is better
Showing 74 boards · median 2.2 W (31 without a Idle result not shown)Top Picks from above

Frequently Asked Questions

Which single board computer uses the least power at idle?

The Arduino UNO Q 2GB currently has the lowest reading in our Power Consumption ranking at 0.6 (Idle (W)), measured on real hardware with our standardised test setup.

How much power does a single board computer use at idle?

Across the 74 boards we have tested, Power Consumption results range from 0.6 to 13.7 (Idle (W)), with a median of 2.2. Anything below the median puts a board in the lower half of the boards we have tested.

About SBC Power Consumption Rankings testing

We measure power at the board's power input with a TC66 USB power meter, sampling twice a second, and subtract anything we had to plug in for testing. Idle is the average over 20 seconds once the board has settled for 30 seconds with its default CPU governor, which is the number that matters for anything left running around the clock. Load is the average over five minutes of stress-ng hammering every core with CPU and matrix work under the performance governor. Linpack peak and Ollama peak are the highest readings we saw during those two benchmarks, which is a good guide to the power supply a board really needs. Lower is better for every figure, but remember that a board drawing very little at load is often simply a slow one: our Linpack GFLOPS per watt and Ollama tokens per watt rankings show efficiency.