YOLOv10 vs YOLOv5: Detailed Technical Comparison
Choosing the right object detection model is crucial for computer vision projects, as performance directly impacts application success. Ultralytics YOLO models are popular for their speed and accuracy, offering various options tailored to different needs. This page offers a technical comparison between YOLOv10 and Ultralytics YOLOv5, two significant models, to assist developers in making informed decisions.
YOLOv10: The Cutting-Edge Real-Time Detector
YOLOv10 represents a significant advancement in real-time object detection, focusing on end-to-end efficiency without Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS).
Technical Details:
- Authors: Ao Wang, Hui Chen, Lihao Liu, et al.
- Organization: Tsinghua University
- Date: 2024-05-23
- Arxiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14458
- GitHub Link: https://github.com/THU-MIG/yolov10
- Docs Link: https://docs.ultralytics.com/models/yolov10/
Architecture and Key Features:
YOLOv10 introduces architectural innovations like consistent dual assignments for NMS-free training and a holistic efficiency-accuracy driven model design. As detailed in its arXiv paper, this approach reduces computational redundancy and post-processing latency, enhancing overall model capability and speed. The implementation is available on GitHub.
Performance Metrics:
YOLOv10 achieves state-of-the-art performance with notable reductions in latency and model size compared to previous YOLO versions. For instance, YOLOv10-S is reported to be 1.8x faster than RT-DETR-R18 with similar Average Precision (AP) on COCO, while having significantly fewer parameters and FLOPs.
Strengths:
- Superior Speed and Efficiency: Optimized for real-time inference, offering faster processing crucial for low-latency requirements.
- NMS-Free Training: Eliminates NMS post-processing, simplifying deployment and reducing inference latency.
- High Accuracy with Fewer Parameters: Achieves competitive accuracy with smaller model sizes, suitable for resource-constrained environments.
- End-to-End Deployment: Designed for seamless end-to-end deployment.
Weaknesses:
- New Model: As a recently released model, community support and resources within broader ecosystems might still be developing compared to established models like YOLOv5.
- Optimization Complexity: Achieving peak performance might require specific fine-tuning for hardware and datasets.
Use Cases:
YOLOv10 excels in applications demanding ultra-fast and efficient object detection:
- High-Speed Robotics: Enabling real-time visual processing for dynamic environments.
- Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS): Providing rapid object detection for enhanced road safety, complementing solutions like AI in self-driving cars.
- Real-Time Video Analytics: Processing high-frame-rate video for immediate insights, useful in traffic management.
YOLOv5: The Versatile and Widely-Adopted Model
Ultralytics YOLOv5 has become an industry standard, known for its excellent balance of speed, accuracy, and remarkable ease of use.
Technical Details:
- Authors: Glenn Jocher
- Organization: Ultralytics
- Date: 2020-06-26
- GitHub Link: https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5
- Docs Link: https://docs.ultralytics.com/models/yolov5/
Architecture and Key Features:
Built on PyTorch, YOLOv5 utilizes a CSPDarknet53 backbone and a flexible architecture allowing easy scaling across different model sizes (n, s, m, l, x). Ultralytics provides a streamlined user experience through a simple API, extensive documentation, and a well-maintained ecosystem including the Ultralytics Python package and Ultralytics HUB platform.
Performance Metrics:
YOLOv5 is celebrated for its fast inference speed and robust performance. While newer models like YOLOv10 may achieve higher mAPval for similar sizes, YOLOv5 offers an exceptional trade-off, particularly noted for its efficient training process and lower memory requirements compared to many other architectures, especially transformer-based models.
Model | size (pixels) |
mAPval 50-95 |
Speed CPU ONNX (ms) |
Speed T4 TensorRT10 (ms) |
params (M) |
FLOPs (B) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
YOLOv10n | 640 | 39.5 | - | 1.56 | 2.3 | 6.7 |
YOLOv10s | 640 | 46.7 | - | 2.66 | 7.2 | 21.6 |
YOLOv10m | 640 | 51.3 | - | 5.48 | 15.4 | 59.1 |
YOLOv10b | 640 | 52.7 | - | 6.54 | 24.4 | 92.0 |
YOLOv10l | 640 | 53.3 | - | 8.33 | 29.5 | 120.3 |
YOLOv10x | 640 | 54.4 | - | 12.2 | 56.9 | 160.4 |
YOLOv5n | 640 | 28.0 | 73.6 | 1.12 | 2.6 | 7.7 |
YOLOv5s | 640 | 37.4 | 120.7 | 1.92 | 9.1 | 24.0 |
YOLOv5m | 640 | 45.4 | 233.9 | 4.03 | 25.1 | 64.2 |
YOLOv5l | 640 | 49.0 | 408.4 | 6.61 | 53.2 | 135.0 |
YOLOv5x | 640 | 50.7 | 763.2 | 11.89 | 97.2 | 246.4 |
Strengths:
- Exceptional Inference Speed: Highly optimized for rapid detection, ideal for real-time systems.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Multiple model sizes cater to diverse speed vs. accuracy needs.
- Ease of Use: Renowned for its simple API, comprehensive documentation, and seamless integration within the Ultralytics ecosystem (Ultralytics HUB, Python package).
- Mature Ecosystem: Benefits from a large, active community, frequent updates, readily available pre-trained weights, and extensive resources.
- Training Efficiency: Efficient training process with readily available pre-trained weights.
- Lower Memory Usage: Generally requires less memory for training and inference compared to more complex architectures like transformers.
Weaknesses:
- Anchor-Based Detection: Relies on anchor boxes, which might require tuning for optimal performance on diverse datasets compared to anchor-free detectors.
- Accuracy Trade-off: Smaller models prioritize speed, potentially sacrificing some accuracy compared to larger models or newer architectures like YOLOv10.
Use Cases:
YOLOv5's versatility and efficiency make it suitable for numerous domains:
- Edge Computing: Efficient deployment on devices like Raspberry Pi and NVIDIA Jetson due to speed and smaller model sizes.
- Mobile Applications: Suitable for on-device object detection tasks.
- Security and Surveillance: Real-time monitoring in security systems.
- Industrial Automation: Quality control and process automation in manufacturing.
Other Models to Consider
While YOLOv10 and YOLOv5 are powerful options, the Ultralytics ecosystem offers other state-of-the-art models you might explore based on your specific needs:
- Ultralytics YOLOv8: A versatile model offering detection, segmentation, pose estimation, and classification, known for its strong performance balance and ease of use. See a comparison with YOLOv5 or YOLOv10.
- YOLOv9: Introduces innovations like Programmable Gradient Information (PGI) for improved information flow.
- Ultralytics YOLO11: The latest model from Ultralytics, focusing on further enhancing speed and efficiency across various vision tasks. Compare it against YOLOv10 or YOLOv5.
- RT-DETR: An efficient real-time DETR model integrated into the Ultralytics framework.