In comparison another recent Rockchip SBC: NanoPi R5S (RK3568 based and as such comparable to Rock 3A): idle temperature: 32.5°C, idle consumption: 2740mW (measured via same PowerBOX and 15W RPi USB-C charger).
RK3568 features exactly same cores (4 x Cortex-A55 / r2p0) and the device is running exactly same kernel with same relevant settings (Rockchip’s 5.10.66 BSP kernel with CONFIG_HZ=300) and exactly same userland (Focal Fossa arm64) so we’re seeing here the difference memory access and process node makes (RK3588 made in a much more advanced and expensive process).
Sysfs/Tested: MIPS / Temp / Watt
408 / 410 : 336 37.6°C 3133mW
600 / 600 : 486 40.0°C 3243mW
816 / 820 : 651 41.0°C 3286mW
1104 / 1160 : 895 41.9°C 3410mW
1416 / 1480 : 1112 43.1°C 3510mW
1608 / 1680 : 1277 44.2°C 3663mW
1800 / 1840 : 1378 45.2°C 3773mW
1992 / 1940 : 1428 45.9°C 3800mW
The A55 in RK3588 at 400 MHz achieves an 380 7-ZIP MIPS score at a relative consumption of just 180 mW (3463-3280). The A55 in RK3568 scores only 336 at 390 mW (3133-2740). Higher memory latency resulting in lower ‘overall performance’ and worse process node in way higher consumption at the same time:
RK3588 RK3568
MHz MIPS / mW MIPS / mW
~405 380 / 183 336 / 393
600 566 / 163 486 / 503
~855 798 / 200 651 / 546
~1455 1295 / 386 1112 / 770
~1665 1478 / 496 1277 / 923
1840 1629 / 600 1378 / 1033