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iPad Pro Eight. Gigabytes. Of RAM.
- Thread starter MF878
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Most iOS devices have less than 8 so I would think it would need to be optimized for most users. If the next iPhone goes to 12 or 14 then you know it’s a need.
iPadOS also implements memory caching AFAIK so if an app was previously in memory, it would still be in memory even once closed. The memory wouldn’t be freed up until more apps need that memory.
Unfortunately we are totally in the dark on how Apple manages memory, other than the fact that it's well know that Apple uses memory compression et some form of memory swap for M series (but no information on how much or based on what, system based, app based etc.). I have done many tests with my 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, 6GB and 8GB iPads and it's not easy to infer precise criteria. On thing I have noticed with 4GB devices is that the limit is generally not per tab but it's a sort of threashold past which all tabs reload, but even that is not consistent, there are exceptions.
Sounds cynical, but realistic to me...
Sure. However, I mainly use just Safari, Mail, Messages, Notes and a couple of ebook/comic reading apps. Chances are it’s Safari using most of the RAM.
At 4GB RAM or less, I think it’s just hitting the ceiling quickly.
Note, what I meant by per tab limit is iOS Safari caps the amount of memory used by a tab.
Previously, there was one webpage that would go on a constant reload cycle on me whenever I try to scroll down even on 16GB RAM (lotsa dynamic elements so likely seriously bloated JavaScript). When I tried opening the same webpage on MacOS Safari, it was using like 2GB RAM. Mind, the same webpage works on iPadOS 17 now. Not sure if the site designer made it more efficient or if iOS increased/lifted the memory limit for Safari.
Yeah 4GB or less is clearly annoying if you use a browser with several tabs on iPadOS.
6GB makes a big difference and that's expected since that's not only 50% more, but once you remove the part allocated to the OS it's at least 2/3 more RAM for apps.
Sure 8 does even better, but again I don't see a huge difference between 6 and 8 and some here say 8 and 16 are similar in terms of reloads... So not much of an improvement to have 16 in the end. Probably it helps for memory intensive apps though.
Ha. Nope not bitter... just acknowledging reality for what it is. I'm quite happy with my approach to purchasing Apple products. I get excellent quality at bargain-basement prices. No complaints from me (at least not about Apple products and pricing). Perhaps a bit irritated at pointless whining.
I have talked to computer hardware engineers about what Apple is doing and they all told me Apple is on a razor blade between performance and battery life. I got 1TB on my 13" iPad pro, I got it for the 16GB of RAM, I have a 1TB iPhone 14 Pro Max. From it I have learned that with an Mac Studio with has a total of 20 TB of available storage, plus 2TB of iCloud storage, I have only used 1/2 of what the iPhone has, and that is mostly personal music files. One of the nice things about the USB4 port of this iPad Pro is I have several 4 to 8TB external SSD that I can plug into this iPad, You need to use powered hub but I have powerful Anker batteries to power them.
If you are going to be resistant to someone helping you by acting hostile then you won’t get help.
I am not lol, my 2018 still works fine for what I do with it as my Mac does all the heavy lifting. I will upgrade when it gets too long in the tooth, or if iPadOS finally shakes off some of its quirks/limitations.
Helping me? You are not helping me or anyone by making assuptions (and giving numbers) on things you have absolutely no hard data on (e.g. "iPadOS takes about 750MB"). And by the way, what is "hostile" in what I said? If what I said was hostile, anyone here saying that someone has not enough data to back their statements would be hostile.
Being able to take feedback allows a costructive dialogue that helps everyone, getting defensive as soon as someone questions what you say goes in the opposite direction.
That’s plenty of ram for someone who only puts 1 word in each sentence.
It’s because my 2018 Pro only has 4GB, don’t want to push it into swap and wear out the SSD!
My sister has a old MacBook Pro, and intel i7 unit I think. It has 8 gigs of RAM. She was having self inflicted trouble with it and told her to call apple support. I was not going to touch that situation. I speculated that she might need more RAM. With the laptop it would have been easy for me at least to go the the max 16GB. The Support person went remote with her Mac and looked at her logs. He told her she had plenty of RAM, and there was no need to increase it. The Mac would notify her if she didn't have enough at any rate.
Was looking at complains about iPadOS taking up to much space. Most of the complaints I am seeing is people doing the old hopscotch line "............sitting on a fence, trying to make a Dollar out of 15 cents. People are just going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade. I realized this in my almost 4 years ago iPad Air 1st gen. Apple stopped updating, it didn't have the security features, and no Apple Pay. it is now in its box, alongside the retired iPod Touches.
I’m appalled that my joke about 2+ word sentences filling 4GB of RAM wasn’t technically accurate.
Does the RAM really matter? I would say for 95% of users the answer is no. Even for video editing it will handle just fine for most peoples needs with 8GB.
Since iPadOS is quite limited in multitasking and what it can do, even the 8GB might be overkill.
95% of users of even the iPad Pro are going to use it for watching YouTube, reading ebooks, browsing websites, and scrolling Facebook. All things that would be just fine with even a 5+ year old or even 10+ year old iPad.
Since iPadOS is quite limited in multitasking and what it can do, even the 8GB might be overkill.
95% of users of even the iPad Pro are going to use it for watching YouTube, reading ebooks, browsing websites, and scrolling Facebook. All things that would be just fine with even a 5+ year old or even 10+ year old iPad.
I see what you're saying, but you're exaggerating. The iPad Air 2 is the top of the line iPad from 9.5 years ago, and it's basically unusable for many common things in 2024. Surfing on it is absolutely horrible. It's OK for Netflix though.