RPi benchmarking

2015-05-14 11:03

There is a bunch of different Raspberry Pi boards on my desk (B, B+, 2B):

B and B+ have same CPU, B+ and 2B looks the same. I wanted to compare performance, so I did some benchmarking - the old classic way, by compiling Linux kernel onboard. First, I needed reliable SD card (I/O thingie impacts results a lot). There were several available right away:

Did some tests (h2testw, F3, etc.):

Kingston 4G C4
Writing speed: 4.07 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.6 MByte/s

Kingston 4G C10
Writing speed: 8.73 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.7 MByte/s

SanDisk Ultra 16G U1
Writing speed: 4.95 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.7 MByte/s

Sandisk Ultra 8G C10
Writing speed: 11.0 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.7 MByte/s

Samsung EVO 8G U1
Writing speed: 8.39 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.7 MByte/s

Sandisk Ultra 8G C10 was the best for a job, imaged latest Raspbian on it. Test prep:

$ sudo apt-get install bc
$ mkdir perftest
$ cd perftest
$ wget -c https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1).tar.xz
$ tar -xvf linux*.xz

Performed the same test with the same SD card on 3 RPi Boards:

$ cd linux*/
$ rm -f ../*.deb
$ make mrproper
$ zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
$ yes "" | make oldconfig

Used gpio utility from Wiring Pi to id the board, and timed 'debian way' of compiling kernel to benchmark:

$ gpio -v | tail -2
$ time make -j$(nproc) deb-pkg

Results:

$ gpio -v | tail -2
Raspberry Pi Details:
  Type: Model B, Revision: 2, Memory: 512MB, Maker: Sony

$ time make -j$(nproc) deb-pkg
...
real    741m37.328s
user    693m9.250s
sys     31m57.460s

$ gpio -v | tail -2
Raspberry Pi Details:
  Type: Model B+, Revision: 1.2, Memory: 512MB, Maker: Sony

$ time make -j$(nproc) deb-pkg
...
real    741m18.997s
user    692m32.580s
sys     32m7.080s

$ gpio -v | tail -2
Raspberry Pi Details:
  Type: Model 2, Revision: 1.1, Memory: 1024MB, Maker: Sony

$ time make -j$(nproc) deb-pkg
...
real    111m51.491s
user    377m23.940s
sys     23m14.370s

Summary:

B/B+: 12 hours 21 minutes
2B: 1 hour 52 minutes