How does a Raspberry Pi 4 truly compare against a modern desktop CPU? [duplicate]

I am trying to find raw benchmark numbers between any fairly modern desktop processor and the Raspberry Pi 4gb/8gb, but I am struggling to do so.

I understand that there are architectural differences meaning that some benchmarks can not be run on both an x86 instruction set and an Arm based instruction set.

What I hope to determine from the raw performance numbers is if the Pi 4 is powerful enough to replace a dual/quad core desktop CPU based VPS with a similar amount of RAM.

Solution 1:

It's NOT. You can use a Pi for entry level computing and basic web browsing, but it's limited.

Pis are remarkable for what they are, but their CPU performance is a fraction of a desktop CPU (and it's not an Arm vs x86 thing). A Pi4 is apparently slightly slower than an Atom x5-Z8350 - which puts it at a "Passmark" speed of broadly 900. And that's probably about right; an order of 3 times the speed of the ancient Pentium 4 workhorse. A typical entry level x86 CPU would have a Passmark speed of 3 times that.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1540169 compares the Pi4 against the x5-z8350 - The x5-z8350 is an entry level CPU from quarter 1, 2016.

I've not used a Pi much but have used other embedded boards and you need to watch out for things like disk IO - especially if you are relying on an SD card.