Pi 3 painfully slow (Raspbian)

[marekpi]

Hello,

I'm new to Pi although I've used Linux for many years. Just got a Pi 3 and it's painfully slow... Even web browsing is sooo slow. Does it need any setup?
It shouldn't be that bad even with 1gb of ram.. I'm running latest Raspbian.

Any advice appreciated.

[jamesh]

Browsing can be a pain if you open too many tabs - modern web browsers are very memory hungry.

What other things appear slow?

[W. H. Heydt]

It may have more to do with what you're used to and what your expectations are. I've found that Pis (all the way back to the Model B with 256MB of RAM) have acceptable performance for the tasks I use them for. However, I have never expected a Pi run like a 2.5+GHz x86-64 system.

[rpdom]

The description of a Pi 3B is that it can be an "entry level desktop" system. Many people assume that means it can perform as well as a basic Windows PC that you can get from your high street PC vendor. That is not what it means.

[k-pi]

It's not your RPI3, it's the web browser, modern ones use up all the resources, when online, only open one or at most two tabs, else it'll be like waiting for paint to dry.

[steveb4pi]

B3 = 'entry level' ???? .. well. yes if we are speaking of Tablets and smart phones (or the dawn of Windows)

The Pi CPU is a 'RISC' style machine, so the GHz should be 'discounted' by about /5 ... so 1GHz Pi is about the same as a 200MHz PC .. i.e. what we used to run Windows 95/98 on ...

HOWEVER the Pi GPU is capable of HD movie playback .. and that's quite amazing (for sure a 200MHz PC couldn't do that) ... but it seems the GPU isn't well suited to displaying Desktop windows, so you are stuck with the 200MHz (equivalent) CPU .. which makes the Desktop GUI rather slow (compared to a modern PC)

... and yes, modern Browsers are unbelievably RAM hungry = on my PC I note that Firefox (with about 30 tabs open) is currently using about 1Gbyte RAM + 1 Gbyte 'virtual' ...

So see if you can find a 'lightweight' browser (like Opera Mini) ... I would say 'use the B3 to run Android', however I gather thats even slower

[rpdom]

B3 = 'entry level' ???? .. well. yes if we are speaking of Tablets and smart phones (or the dawn of Windows)

The Pi CPU is a 'RISC' style machine, so the GHz should be 'discounted' by about /5 ... so 1GHz Pi is about the same as a 200MHz PC .. i.e. what we used to run Windows 95/98 on ...

Not true. The Pi is a lot faster than the 200MHz+ PCs I used to run Windows 98Se on. The original ARM RISC CPU was very efficient. The newer versions have a new instruction set that makes them even faster. Don't forget the power usage - they use a tiny fraction of the energy that those 200MHz machines used.

[marekpi]

Browsing can be a pain if you open too many tabs - modern web browsers are very memory hungry.

What other things appear slow?

Yes, browsing is very slow, even with just 2 or 3 tabs open. And when I open youtube it just stops responding. I'm using default browser - Chromium.

Everything is very slow, trying to play videos using Kodi for example.

[rpiMike]

My Pi3 is fine browsing - albeit with a slight overclock. What temperature is your CPU running at ? Have you installed a heatsink ?

You can add a temperature monitor panel applet to the task bar.

I assume your using the latest Raspbain Stretch ?

[W. H. Heydt]

The Pi CPU is a 'RISC' style machine, so the GHz should be 'discounted' by about /5 ... so 1GHz Pi is about the same as a 200MHz PC .. i.e. what we used to run Windows 95/98 on ...

You may have run Win98SE on a 200MHz system but I still have my Win98SE machine that I built with a 1GHz P3 and 512MB of RAM.

[asandford]

Too much info missing from the OP:
-What class and size SD card
-What sort of connectivity to the internet
-What sort of speed do they get from their ISP

But in all honesty, did the OP expect a $35 sbc to replace a $300ish laptop?

The pi is brilliant at what it does, it shouldn't try to sell itself (or be seen) as something it isn't (a desktop/laptop PC replacement)

[apoldion]

As a noob, I couldn't be more happy with my Pi3. Runs Youtube flawlessly with the video element taking up around 1/3 of a 22'" screen, and although not at high definition, displays a crisp image with my monitor resolution at 1920x1080, with the added bonus its multi-touch works very well too...
GIMP works well, Scratch2 works well , as does the LibreOffice suite, and any of the other programs i've used and installed. In fact, the Rasp community should be very pleased with the software that's available for the Pi, it's fantastic imo, and seems incredibly stable.

Just keep your expectations realistic and don't push it too much, install Conky, keep an eye on it, and get to know its limitations. It's serving well as our home-school computer, and i'm no longer firing up a 1.2KW Seasonic PSU all day, nor miss the expensive DAC card for day-to-day use, the Pi3's analogue out is more than acceptable going through a decent amp..

Anyway, it's exceeded my expectations, has a great community ethos, affordable, and cuts down massively on wasted energy. What's not to like ?

The Pi0 I was setting up yesterday via VNC was a different beast altogether, the CPU was running at 100pc almost continuously, haha