Originally posted by danmcgrew
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The Pi 4's performance might be hampered without proper cooling, but it still might be good enough and an improvement over previous models. It's priced the same, so: hey. RPi was never about sheer performance. And there are other reasons to go with the Pi 4 over previous models: fast networking, dual HDMI, multiple USB 3, etc.
Another way to think about this is that the RPi 4 has performance "headroom" over its out-of-the-box experience if you're able to invest in cooling for your money and use case. It's a bit offensive because this isn't overclocking headroom, but rather achieving the normal operating potential of the silicon, but the end result is really the same. Out of the box you get X, and you can improve it to Y with better cooling.
You buy a Pi for entirely other reasons than performance, and they really are all wonderful reasons. So I consider this still to be a good product, but I wish they were more transparent about the cooling requirements in their released information because obviously it left a bitter taste in the mouths of some of us.
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