Hey everyone, this update is a bit later than I would have ideally liked but here you go. In this one, I will clarify the differences between the two processor variants for the Comet - the I.MX 8M Plus and the I.MX 95 and try and help you make the right choice.

Background - Our original plan was to release with the I.MX 8M Plus, but early in December 2025, we received the early access to the I.MX 95 including its design documents, evaluation kits, and references. We are very excited for the performance boosts that the I.MX95 brings, so instead of releasing them later we decided to provide it as a variant right away.

Design Goal

Keep both the mainboards swappable, so at any point you can upgrade (or downgrade) by purchasing the Mainboard. Like how Framework does.

CPU & Memory

Specifications

Benchmarks

We’ve run the Geekbench6 benchmarks on both the I.MX 8M Plus version of the Comet and the I.MX95 Evaluation Kit. Also includes benchmarks for Raspberry Pi 4 to help you get a reference.

Sources
Mecha Comet I.MX8M Plus - https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/16560407
I.MX 95 Evaluation Kit - https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/16559939
Raspberry Pi 4 (3rd party tested) - https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/16590950

GPU

The GPU is a significant improvement on the I.MX 95 compared to the I.MX 8M Plus. The Mali G310 is relatively a newer and more capable GPU from ARM. The GPU effectively has easily 2x better performance than the I.MX 8M GPU in most usecases.

[?] Vulkan version for propreitary driver is not known, at least to me

Mesa Driver Support

The proprietary drivers for both the I.MX 8M Plus and I.MX 95 are not useful for the Comet and we won’t be shipping them in our OS images. This is primarily because they don’t support the larger OSS ecosystem on Linux.

This is where the kind hearted but wicked smart people contributing to Mesa embrace us with open-source GPU drivers that are usually at-par or even outperforming their proprietary twin. This is the current status of the open-source drivers for our both processors.

For more information you can refer to below links -
Mesa Matrix - https://mesamatrix.net/
Panfrost Driver - https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/panfrost.html

Benchmarks

We’ve run the GLMark2 benchmark for the GPU which stress tests in on GL 2.0. We have used the command glmark2-es2-wayland -s 640x480 and have observed these scores.

[*] We haven't tested with the Panfrost driver on I.MX 95

Sources
We have run for I.MX 8M Plus, Pi 4 and I.MX 95 at our end, you can check this link for the results. For Pi 5, we have used this as reference.

Power Consumption

The Core A53, and Core A55 are smaller cores, they are not as performant as the A72 found in Pi 4, but they are a lot more thermally efficient than what the A72 could ever be. This is an important trade-off for portability. The Comet as compared to a Pi 4 can provide a significantly better battery life.

Now between the I.MX 8M Plus and I.MX 95, the I.MX 95 is more power hungry because of its 2 extra cores, and a significantly better GPU. But at the same time, the I.MX 95 has advanced power management system that is standardized by ARM called the SCMI, which means there is a lot more opportunity to optimize.

Here are some estimated comparisons on how the power consumption varies on different usecases.

[*] The I.MX95 numbers are based on datasheets for evaluation kits and are subject to get revised once our boards are designed, we have assumed higher end in most numbers.

Source for PI: https://www.pidramble.com/wiki/benchmarks/power-consumption.html
 

How to make the choice?

Okay so this is extremely subjective, and because I am saying this - it inherently will be biased. But I am gonna try my best to give an honest opinion below.

Why get the I.MX 8M Plus

• You want a portable sidekick computer that you can carry with you and has enough computing power for your precise usecase.
• For networking usecases, where you are running few docker services, or network or security diagnostic tools.
• The GPU can do 2D gaming well, and scale up for basic 3D games, but you can’t get too much out of it, the Vulkan driver is in Etnaviv’s roadmap but it may take a year or so.
• You want to do light browsing, chatting, messaging on the move. Your usage is simple but you want as much battery life as you can get.
• You want to ocassionally connect the Comet to a larger screen, and use it for a single application usage - like watching a video, or playing 2D games.
• If you are going to use the Comet as your tinkering lab, for building something or work with the IOs available on breakout.

Why get the I.MX 95

• You are heavy user thats need multi-tasking and you want to get as much performance as you can get out of the hardware.
• You are a lot more into gaming - you want better emulation support, access to more indie games.
• You want to do some programming on the move, compile your applications. Compilers such as rust will do better with some more CPU power and number of cores.
• You want to connect the Comet to a larger screen and also use as a portable desktop and have convergence-like experience.
• Your precise usecase requires a lot more CPU and GPU and you are okay if the added performances comes at some loss in battery life.

Why you shouldn’t get any of them 😢

• You want performance comparable to desktop computers. The processors on the Comet are for embedded computers, they are designed for efficiency over performance.
• You want to play AAA games or mainstream mobile games like Fortnite. The GPU on the I.MX95 is at best a low-end GPU if you compare with the GPUs on the mainstream smartphones.
• You are looking for a replacement of mainstream power-beefed up smartphones.

Quick Questions

Can I change my pledge now?

Yes you can update your pledge in Kickstarter, switching between the processor variant might need you to cancel existing pledge and pledge again.

Can I change after the campaign?

Yes we will let you make changes to your pledge from the pledge manager after the campaign ends. We cannot guarantee same prices, but you will be able to.

Can I get both of them?

I like you! As of now Kickstarter limits one pledge per account. But we will support adding more quantities from Pledge Manager after the campaign ends.

Is the Pledge-Over Time available?

Yes, we have enabled this mid-way. Go ahead and make most of it :)

We’d love for you to back us, but we do want to set right expectations before you commit to it. Lastly, benchmarks are only useful to get a representation of what the performance will be like, actual performance or consumption will entirely depend on your usecase. But I hope this updates helps shed some light, and makes your decision easier!

Thank you for reading folks, see you in the next one!