Exclusive: RK3572 First look & Geekbench results

Thursday, 12 March 2026 - 22:00

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

We had the exclusive opportunity to test the upcoming RK3572 EVB on the Embedded World 2026 showfloor. This EVB is only 1 month old and it is the first time it was shown in public therefore I’m happy I was able to not just capture pictures but also tell you that I was able to benchmark it’s single core, multi core and even GPU performance with Vulkan.

Overview#

But before we dive deep into the benchmarks let me give you a brief overview about the SoC and where it lands in the Rockchip Lineup.

As you can see this SoC is in the same class as the RK3568 and even its more powerful brother the RK3576. From what I was able to gather this SoC is utilising some of Rockchips latest IP in regards to the DRAM memory controller, UFS and video processing unit. It is also the first non flagship SoC of theirs that is getting a Mali GPU from the V10 Generation (with “CSF”) that we have seen on RK3588 with Mali G610. Meaning it is not only already supported upstream but actually will benefit completely from all work that is happening around Panthor and Tyr at Mesa.

But now enough with the background lets get some hard numbers and comparisons.

I just want to say the disclaimer that the Evaluation Board is running pre-release software and by the time we will see board vendors adopt the RK3572 things can improve.

CPU Tests#

GPU Tests#

Power Consumption & Thermals#

I was not able to gather power consumption results on the show floor but what surprised me about its thermals was that even during the benchmarks the SoC package was not burning hot to touch rather just warm. This is something I cannot say about the RK3588.

Conclusion & Outlook#

With RK3668 planned for Q4-2026 and RK3688 for Q1-2027 the RK3572 is giving us an outlook on what Rockchip is not only capable of but its ability to lead as a fabless SoC designer in terms of performance, thermals and utilising the latest technological IP to bring a cost effective solution to the market. I’m excited to see at which price bracket board vendors will incorporate this chip and of course hope open source developers like the Armbian Team are given the chance to let makers experience the full potential of the hardware.

Now what is unanswered is which RGA IP was used here and if for the Homelabbers this can be a new option for software like Jellyfin which currently needs certain aspects of the GPU and VPU only available in RK3588 but you can be certain if the information becomes available you will hear it here first.

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Author: Mecid Urganci
I'm a full time Applied Cognitive and Media science student who in his free time loves to tinker. This sparked an interest in embedded hardware, which I try to make more accessible with this platform I created "SBCwiki".

You can find me on X/Twitter at @mecoscorner and GitHub at @HeyMeco