TL;DR
The OrangePi 6 Plus packs a 12-core CIX SoC, up to 64GB LPDDR5, dual M.2 NVMe and dual 5GbE into a larger SBC with an integrated heatsink. Performance and I/O are strong, but Linux driver and kernel constraints — especially for the NPU and newer graphics stacks — limit some software flexibility.
What happened
The reviewer tested the OrangePi 6 Plus, a larger single-board computer built around CIX CD8180/CD8160 12-core Armv9.2 SoCs. The board ships with an integrated heatsink and abundant I/O: two M.2 2280 NVMe slots (PCIe 4.0 x4), dual 5GbE, multiple display outputs including HDMI 2.1 and DP1.4, and M.2 Key-E for Wi‑Fi/Bluetooth. RAM options reach 16–64GB LPDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. The review used a Debian Bookworm image (kernels 6.1 and 6.6 available) and noted a required firmware update before the board would boot the Linux image. On the desktop the board felt very responsive, handled high-resolution displays, and had working Vulkan drivers, but those were tied to older stacks. The review highlights software trade-offs: updating Mesa/Panfrost needs a newer kernel that would break board-specific patches (HDMI, NPU). The NPU claims up to ~30 TOPS dedicated and ~45 TOPS system-wide, but it requires the vendor NeuralONE SDK and compiled weights; mainstream frameworks won’t work out of the box. Peripheral setup examples included fixing Bluetooth audio by installing pipewire components and compiling OBS from source with updated CMake and FFmpeg.
Why it matters
- High-end Arm SBC hardware (12 cores, large LPDDR5, dual NVMe) narrows the gap with x86 desktop responsiveness on a single-board platform.
- Built-in NPU and powerful GPU expand SBC use cases toward on‑device AI and high-resolution multimedia, but practical use depends on software support.
- Extensive I/O (dual 5GbE, M.2 NVMe, multiple video outputs) enables more demanding networked and storage-heavy projects than typical small SBCs.
- Kernel and driver fragmentation for new Arm SoCs can force trade-offs between modern graphics stacks and board-specific features like HDMI and NPU support.
Key facts
- SoC: CIX CD8180 / CD8160 (CIX P1), Armv9.2, 12 cores in a tri-cluster layout.
- CPU: 4× Cortex‑A720 (up to 2.8 GHz), 4× Cortex‑A720 (up to 2.4 GHz), 4× Cortex‑A520 (1.8 GHz).
- GPU: Arm Immortalis‑G720 MC10 with hardware ray tracing and 8K decode support.
- NPU: vendor states ~30 TOPS dedicated and up to ~45 TOPS system-wide; supports INT4/INT8/INT16/FP16/BF16/TF32.
- Memory: 16GB / 32GB / 64GB LPDDR5 on a 128‑bit interface (the review used 16GB by default).
- Storage/I/O: 2× M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots, microSD slot, dual 5GbE ports, M.2 Key‑E slot for Wi‑Fi/BT.
- Video and USB: HDMI 2.1 (8K@60), DP1.4, two USB‑C with DP Alt Mode, 2× USB 3.0 Type‑A and additional USB2.0 ports.
- Software: Debian Bookworm images available with kernel options 6.1 and 6.6; a planned Ubuntu image had no ETA.
- Initial boot required a firmware update via USB to work with the supplied Linux image; the board exposes a BIOS‑like interface.
- Desktop: GNOME desktop felt very responsive; Vulkan works but is tied to older driver/kernel stacks.
What to watch next
- Availability and timing of an official Ubuntu 24.04 (or newer) image for the OrangePi 6 Plus — not confirmed in the source.
- Upstreaming/mainlining progress for the CIX SoC drivers (GPU, NPU, HDMI) and whether that will allow newer kernels without breaking board patches — not confirmed in the source.
- Compatibility matrix between Mesa/Panfrost, a newer kernel (6.10+), and the board-specific patches required for full multimedia and NPU support — not confirmed in the source.
Quick glossary
- NPU: Neural Processing Unit: a dedicated processor designed to accelerate machine learning inference workloads on device.
- TOPS: Tera Operations Per Second: a performance metric often used to describe NPU throughput for integer or floating-point operations.
- PCIe Gen4: A high-speed interface standard for connecting components like NVMe SSDs and GPUs, offering higher bandwidth than previous generations.
- LPDDR5: Low-Power Double Data Rate 5: a type of mobile DRAM offering higher bandwidth and efficiency compared with earlier LPDDR generations.
- Vulkan: A low-level, cross-platform graphics and compute API used for high-performance rendering and GPU compute workloads.
Reader FAQ
Can I use standard PyTorch or TensorFlow with the board's NPU out of the box?
No. The review states the NPU requires the NeuralONE AI SDK and models/weights must be compiled into the vendor format; standard PyTorch/TensorFlow won’t work by default.
Is an Ubuntu 24.04 image available for the OrangePi 6 Plus?
A planned Ubuntu image was mentioned but there is no ETA and availability is not confirmed in the source.
Will the board boot directly from NVMe?
Yes — the reviewer imaged NVMe directly, but an initial firmware update was required before the board would boot the Linux image.
Does Bluetooth audio work out of the box?
Bluetooth sources appeared but audio required installing specific pipewire Bluetooth libraries and then pairing via bluetoothctl; after that audio worked.
ORANGEPI 6 PLUS REVIEW: THE NEW FRONTIER FOR ARM64 SBC PERFORMANCE 2025-12-27 By ekianjo So after our previous reviews (that started mainly around RISC-V since we are really interested in…
Sources
- OrangePi 6 Plus Review
- Orange Pi 6 Plus ARM Development Board Full specifications
- Orange Pi 6 Plus board has a 12-core CPU, 45 TOPS AI …
- Benchmarking the Orange Pi 6 Plus Single Board Computer
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