Raspberry Pi Rivals in 2026 Bring NPUs, Dual 2.5GbE and Up to 64GB of RAM

The single-board computer market has grown well beyond the hobbyist board that defined it. A new wave of Raspberry Pi alternatives now ships with dedicated AI accelerators, faster networking and memory options that reach 64GB.

As shown in KiwiPi’s 2026 roundup of Raspberry Pi alternatives, the pressure on the Raspberry Pi 5 comes from projects that need more CPU cores, built-in eMMC, dual 2.5GbE, several camera inputs, a dedicated AI accelerator or native x86 software. The comparison covers ten boards, two of them KiwiPi’s own models, and places each one by the workload it suits best rather than by a synthetic benchmark score.

One chip family is definitely the standout. The Rockchip RK3588 (and its RK3588S and RK3588S2 variants) is used in six of the ten boards: the KiwiPi 5 Pro, KiwiPi 5, Radxa ROCK 5B+, ODROID-M2, Khadas Edge2 and the Banana Pi BPI-M7. On the KiwiPi boards the RK3588 has 4x Cortex-A76 @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz and Mali-G610 MC4. All of the boards in that group have a 6TOPS NPU. The chips themselves are pretty much the same so the differences are really down to the board design from each manufacturer.

The KiwiPi 5 Pro is at the top end of the I/O range with the full RK3588 (rather than the lower I/O RK3588S). It supports LPDDR4X from 4GB to 32GB and eMMC from 64GB to 512GB. Its real strength is in connectivity with PCIe 3.0 x4 (for an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD), two 2.5GbE ports, four USB 3.0 ports, Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, a second HDMI 2.0 in/out and M.2 plus Nano-SIM for optional 4G or 5G modules. It’s a very good fit for edge gateways, smart NVRs, and local video processing where fast storage and fast backup networking are key. The Banana Pi BPI-M7 is aimed at a similar application in a 92 x 62mm form factor, featuring the full RK3588, up to 32GB of LPDDR4X, 64GB or 128GB of eMMC, M.2 NVMe, Wi-Fi 6 and two 2.5GbE ports. The 5V to 20V input range gives system integrators a lot more flexibility than a fixed-voltage USB-C design.

Radxa is all about expansion with the ROCK 5B+. It supports up to 32GB of memory, up to 128GB of onboard eMMC, a microSD slot and two M.2 M-key slots (each with 2 PCIe 3.0 lanes). It has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, 2.5GbE (with optional PoE), an HDMI in and support for up to four 2-lane MIPI cameras. The design is ideal if you’re looking to have more than one NVMe device or if you need to share the board between storage and an accelerator. The camera and capture capabilities are excellent for vision and multi-display applications.

Smaller boards sacrifice some I/O for a more compact and efficient design. The KiwiPi 5 uses the RK3588S in an 85 x 56mm package with 8GB of LPDDR4X and 64GB of eMMC as standard, with options available up to 32GB of RAM and 512GB of eMMC. It has Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 over USB-C, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, two four lane MIPI-CSI inputs and a 26 pin header. That makes it a very capable board for Linux desktops, 8K media and camera prototypes, as well as RKNN-based inference. The ODROID-M2 is designed for low power use. Hardkernel state 1W at idle (no peripherals) and around 7.5W under CPU load with the stock heatsink and that it maintains its top speed with the stock heatsink in a 35C room. Again those are Hardkernel’s figures but they do indicate the board’s intent. The Khadas Edge2 is 89 x 62mm and is more in the guise of a small wireless ARM PC with Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, USB-C DisplayPort and 8K video acceleration, although it doesn’t list Ethernet as one of its on-board features.

There’s also a race in terms of raw compute power. The Orange Pi 6 Plus is based on a 12-core 64-bit platform, has 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB of LPDDR5, and claims 45 TOPS combined across CPU, GPU, and NPU. That makes it very much a compact ARM workstation rather than a hobby board. The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super can hit up to 67 sparse INT8 TOPS with 8GB of LPDDR5 and a power range of 7W to 25W. The roundup cautions that TOPS numbers are not always directly comparable between vendors, as the precision, sparsity, supported operators, memory bandwidth, and software optimization can all be more important than the raw figure. It also notes that new hardware like the Orange Pi will take time for the kernels, drivers, and third-party images to mature.

Two boards take a different route to the same end. The ZimaBoard 2 is x86-64 based with an Intel N150 running up to 3.6GHz, two powered SATA 3.0 ports, two 2.5GbE ports, a PCIe 3.0 slot and passive cooling for silent running. It’s ideal for applications such as a small NAS, router, Home Assistant host or container server and avoids a lot of the ARM compatibility headaches. The BeagleY-AI is based on the TI AM67A and has Cortex-R5 subsystems for low-latency control. It’s an open hardware board with full documentation. The limitations are pretty obvious in that it has 4GB of memory max, HDMI is limited to 1080p60 and the Wi-Fi doesn’t support 5GHz or Bluetooth Classic. It’s intended for robotics and machine vision rather than as a faster desktop.

All of these features come with trade-offs that the spec sheets will not tell you about. The alternatives often require you to accept a smaller software ecosystem and support may be dependent on vendor kernels or specific images for GPU, NPU, camera and video acceleration. For the smoothest software experience, the roundup still backs the Pi 5. The bottom line is that an alternative is only worth looking at if you have a specific hardware or software requirement that the Pi simply can’t provide. More cores in themselves aren’t the answer.