RTX 5090 and Raspberry Pi: Can it game?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What the experiment is “for”

  • Many see it as a playful “because we can” hack, not a practical build.
  • The value is in proving the ARM Linux + PCIe + emulation stack is mature enough to run modern PC games at all, not in the FPS numbers.
  • Some commenters think an old x86 box would’ve been a “more meaningful” pairing, others argue that misses the point: a tiny SBC driving a monster GPU is what makes it fun.

Performance and bottlenecks

  • Everyone agrees the Raspberry Pi CPU and PCIe bandwidth are the bottlenecks; the RTX 5090 is severely underutilized.
  • Cyberpunk hitting ~16 FPS on a Pi 5 is described as surprisingly good given historical experiences with underpowered PCs.
  • Several note that modern games are more CPU-bound than people realize, especially on older or low-end CPUs.
  • Others argue that for actual gameplay, a modest SoC with a reasonable iGPU (or something like an RK3588 board) is more sensible than bolting on a flagship GPU.

Nostalgia for low-FPS gaming

  • Multiple stories of playing classics (Morrowind, WoW, Diablo II, Halo, Skyrim, Falcon 4.0, SNES emulation) at single-digit or low-teens FPS.
  • Consensus that as kids, people tolerated terrible performance and “if it ran at all, it was a win,” often after extreme config tweaking.

Pi vs mini-PCs and other SBCs

  • Strong thread claiming Pis are now overpriced for desktop-like use versus x86 mini-PCs and used thin clients.
  • Counterpoint: Pi’s ecosystem, documentation, compatibility and stable platform justify the premium for education and maker projects.
  • GPIO is debated: some see it as redundant given cheap microcontrollers; others say Pi’s low-latency GPIO and “it just works” platform are still unique.
  • Concerns raised about Pi 5’s power draw, cooling needs, fragile PCIe ribbon, EMI issues, and awkward I/O for desktop duty.
  • Rockchip/RK3588 and Radxa boards are cited as powerful, PCIe-rich alternatives, albeit with GPL and support concerns.

ARM gaming/emulation stack

  • Commenters are impressed that FEX (and Box64) plus DXVK can run modern x86/Windows titles on ARM at all.
  • eGPU here is “just PCIe,” no extra translation, but the software layers (Proton, FEX/Box64) are praised as technically impressive.
  • One view: the article is really a stress test of the current ARM Linux gaming stack, more than of the Pi hardware.

DRM / anti-cheat tangent

  • Discussion around Doom: The Dark Ages and Denuvo: whether it’s DRM, anti-tamper, “malware,” and why it matters for single-player games.

GPU compute / AI angle

  • Several note this setup makes more sense for GPU-heavy, bandwidth-light workloads like AI inference; the Pi essentially becomes “an Ethernet port for a 5090.”
  • Some wish the post weren’t about AI, others are glad it focused on gaming while acknowledging AI is a viable use case.

Raspberry Pi architecture trivia

  • Explanation that on Pi SoCs, a Videocore processor/GPU-like block actually boots the system and historically handled video and some 3D, with a separate GPU for modern graphics.
  • Today, that older block is less relevant as ARM cores and dedicated video hardware improved, but it explains quirks of Pi boot and GPU usage.

Tone and meta reactions

  • Many readers emphasize how amusing the “GPU with a computer attached” inversion is, including jokes about “the last days” when we plug PCs into GPUs.
  • Some praise the writing and enjoy that the piece treats the project as a playful exploration rather than serious hardware advice.