Rockchip's SoC lineup, what's actually in each family

This started as a side table while researching Raspberry Pi Zero 2 alternatives, Rockchip alone has more candidates than every other vendor on that list combined. Here’s the naming convention and a quick tour of each family, then the full table.

Rockchip’s documentation reputation is worse than the reality for the popular chips. RK3588, RK3568, and RK3399 all have public datasheets, and even some Technical Reference Manuals (TRM), fairly easy to find with a search. It gets patchier further down the lineup, the alternatives post covers the actual docs situation chip by chip for the three that fit a Zero 2-sized board.

Naming convention

• RK3xxx is the general application-processor line, anything running a full Linux/Android with a GPU.
• RV1xxx is a separate vision-chip line, an ISP plus an NPU for AI cameras, no real GPU.
• RK1xxx is a standalone NPU accelerator with no application use of its own, you plug it into something else’s PCIe/USB.
• PX3x is a low-power automotive/IoT sub-brand.

Suffix letters (S, S2, J, M, B, B2, A, K) mark different SKUs of the same base die, usually a cost-cut peripheral set, a different memory-controller support list, or an industrial temperature grade, not a different chip. Pro is the exception, that one actually adds an NPU.

Flagship tier

Radxa ROCK 5B, built around the RK3588S. Photo: Radxa.

• RK3399 (2016, 2×A72+4×A53) was the first real flagship, the chip in the Pinebook Pro and RockPro64.
• RK3399Pro (2018) added an NPU on top.
• RK3588/RK3588S (2022, 4×A76+4×A55, ~6 TOPS NPU) is the current flagship, RK3588S is the cut-down SKU most boards actually use (Orange Pi 5, ROCK 5B), that’s the one to pick unless you specifically need what the pricier J/M grades add.
• RK3576 (2024) is the budget flagship, ~70% of the RK3588’s performance for ~30% of the price.

General-purpose tier

Radxa ROCK 3C, built around the RK3566. Photo: Radxa.

RK3568/RK3566 (2020/2021, quad A55) is the family behind most recognizable Rockchip SBCs (Radxa ROCK 3, Quartz64, Orange Pi 3B).

RK3566 is the cut-down RK3568, missing the second Gigabit MAC and some PCIe/display lanes, and it’s the better default unless you actually need those.

RK3562 (2023) is more a cost-down cousin than a cut-down, cheaper A53 cores instead of A55, aimed more at tablets than SBCs.

NPU category

Toybrick TB-RK1808M0, a mini-PCIe RK1808 NPU accelerator module. Photo: Rock chips.

RK1808 (2018) goes a step further and drops the ISP too, it’s just two A35 cores and a NPU sold as a standalone USB/M.2 accelerator, mostly made redundant now that the NPU sits directly on the RK356x/RK3588 chips above.

RV1109/RV1126 (2019-2021) and their replacement RV1126B (2025) are ISP+NPU chips for AI cameras, no real GPU, the whole point is a dedicated ISP feeding a NPU for on-camera detection.

SBC Table

To understand the marking under Peripherals, Video D/E and read the notes bellow the table.

Prices with * are using ‘Other Suppliers on LCSC’.

Table notes

Peripheral string legend

order: USB / USB3 / Ethernet / PCIe

• U2 = USB2
• U3 = USB3
• E1 = native Gigabit MAC that still needs an external PHY chip to actually run at 1G
• E100 = 10/100 MAC only
• P = PCIe
• – = not present.

Video D/E string legend

• D = decode
• E = encode, each followed by max resolution@fps and supported codec(s)
• – = that direction (or the whole video block) isn’t present.

Camera/display string legend

Order: CSI in / DSI out ; HDMI ; eDP ; DP:

• C<n> = MIPI CSI-2 camera input
• D<n> = MIPI DSI-2 display output
• <a>x<n> = a independent ports of n lanes each (e.g. C2x2 = two 2-lane CSI ports)
• +I<n> = has a dedicated ISP, max n megapixels
• Dvp = parallel DVP camera input instead of MIPI
• +L/+RGB = also has LVDS / parallel RGB display output
• H = HDMI out
• HR = HDMI out and in
• E = eDP out
• P = DisplayPort out
• * = shares pins with USB
• – = not present

RAM string legend

Capacity, then supported memory types

• D2/D3/D3L/D4 = DDR2/3/3L/4
• L2/L3/L4/L4X/L5/L5X = LPDDR2/3/4/4X/5/5X
• SIP = RAM is built into the chip package (no external memory design needed)
• ? = max capacity not stated by Rockchip.

The three that actually fit a Raspberry Pi Zero 2-sized board (RK3528A, RK3566, RK3562) get their own writeups with pros/cons back in the alternatives post, this page is just the reference table for the rest of the lineup.