NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB

The Jetson Orin Nano is NVIDIA's entry-level edge AI module with 8 GB of unified memory at 68 GB/s and a 7-15W power envelope. At ~$250 (or $199 for the developer kit), it's the most affordable way to get into Jetson-based AI development. It runs 3-4B models comfortably and smaller 7B models with limited context.

Quick verdict

The Orin Nano is for edge AI and robotics projects that need on-device inference. It runs small SLM models like Llama 3.2 3B at usable speeds (~15 tok/s). For desktop AI use, a Raspberry Pi 5 with cloud inference or a used PC with a GPU is more practical.

Spec breakdown

• Memory: 8 GB unified (LPDDR5)
• Memory bandwidth: 68 GB/s
• TDP: 7-15 W
• GPU: 512-core Ampere with 16 Tensor cores
• CPU: 6-core Arm Cortex-A78AE

Real-world AI inference

Model	Tokens/sec	Source
Llama 3.2 3B Q4_K_M	~15 tok/s	Jetson community
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Q4_K_M	~12 tok/s	Community
Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M	~4 tok/s	Community (tight)

Honest alternatives

• Jetson Orin NX 16GB (~$599): 2× memory, 2× performance
• Raspberry Pi 5 (~$80): Much cheaper, CPU-only inference