03-20-2021, 06:27 PM
GPUs are only good for performing math, specifically matrix and vector math, but perform very badly with logic operations. What is great about a Raspberry Pi is that is is small, low power, and very quiet. It would be easy for someone to use a spare Pi to run a sever, then expand on it incrementally as the need arises. A CPU may be able to handle 16 threads, sure, but those loads will run faster if they are on 16 different CPUs.
Now, if you knew going in you wanted to run a sever that could handle 100 players at once, then sure, go and buy the hardware now for it. But if it is just you, and maybe a few friends, then a single Pi works great, $55 and you're good to go with a 4GB Pi 4 with gigabit Ethernet ($70 for an 8G version, 8086.net has some cool cluster support boards for the 5 I bought), and you've got a bunch of GPIO pins you could tie hardware to for whatever fun project you had in mind: LED load indicator, maybe even an asteroid warning light if the server produces that kind of logging. Have more people joining your server? Just add another PI or two to offload processing onto.
Now, if you knew going in you wanted to run a sever that could handle 100 players at once, then sure, go and buy the hardware now for it. But if it is just you, and maybe a few friends, then a single Pi works great, $55 and you're good to go with a 4GB Pi 4 with gigabit Ethernet ($70 for an 8G version, 8086.net has some cool cluster support boards for the 5 I bought), and you've got a bunch of GPIO pins you could tie hardware to for whatever fun project you had in mind: LED load indicator, maybe even an asteroid warning light if the server produces that kind of logging. Have more people joining your server? Just add another PI or two to offload processing onto.