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RyanG

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2007
502
40
A swap file would be much preferable to just terminating the app. Restarting an app and reloading the data is usually much slower than accessing a swap file.

excessive writes on nand flash is not ideal for longevity so I would have to disagree with that. the optimal solution is..... to add more RAM.
 

Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,688
4,400
Here
Those who insist 1gb RAM is plenty, try to browse iPhone 6 case on Apple's website using any current iDevice and tell us what you think.:rolleyes:

I noticed that. I think it's pitiful not to have an iPad optimized version because it would make unaware users think their device has problems.

On my Mac I watched activity monitor and just visiting the iPhone page used 300MB. Browsing though it for 5 minutes used 600MB. No site should use that much today. Maybe in the future.
 

WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,924
3,800
Seattle
I don't see what the big deal is. My iPhone 5c with only 1 gig of RAM has no problem with 50+ backgrounded apps. That's over 50. No noticeable hit in performance. Don't get caught up in the spec wars like Android users do.

You don't have 50 backgrounded apps. You have 50 apps that you had opened, and no longer do. That's why when you switch to them, they have to reload.
 

terraphantm

macrumors 68040
Jun 27, 2009
3,814
663
Pennsylvania
excessive writes on nand flash is not ideal for longevity so I would have to disagree with that. the optimal solution is..... to add more RAM.

Assuming they implement some sort of wear leveling, it'd take quite a while to run into the limit. Optimal solution is to add RAM (I never said otherwise), but a swap file is much preferable to having nothing.
 

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
I don't see what the big deal is. My iPhone 5c with only 1 gig of RAM has no problem with 50+ backgrounded apps. That's over 50. No noticeable hit in performance. Don't get caught up in the spec wars like Android users do.

I don't think you understand how ram is utilized on iOS.
 

Really Cool

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2013
6
0
Can I ask, what are you people doing to fill up one Gig of RAM on a cellphone?

Besides big data files, I'm sure there are better workflows for RAM 'intensive' tasks on the go?

or are you opening 50 safari tabs and then complaining, claiming that's a pro issue?

or is it just for games?

I'm more concerned about app reload than Safari reload.

For example, I browse Facebook, see a video, switch to Youtube app to watch. When finish, switch back to Facebook, and Facebook reloads.
 

sk1wbw

Suspended
May 28, 2011
3,483
1,010
Williamsburg, Virginia
You don't have 50 backgrounded apps. You have 50 apps that you had opened, and no longer do. That's why when you switch to them, they have to reload.

If I have Tweetbot opened and set to background refresh, then I have an open app running in the background. That doesn't take RAM? It seems based on the comments here, that the only app that uses RAM is Safari. So how is it on OS X that all those apps that are opened are consuming RAM?
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
I'm more concerned about app reload than Safari reload.

For example, I browse Facebook, see a video, switch to Youtube app to watch. When finish, switch back to Facebook, and Facebook reloads.

and how sure are you that's a RAM issue and not a software issue?

I imagine it's an intentional thing by Facebook to refresh whenever you open the app so you have the latest content ready.
 

monotious

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2014
23
3
Funny all the newbies coming on here to say I'm done with Apple lol. Apple products just work. If there is only 1 gig of ram I'm not concerned because I'm sure it will work fine. My Galaxy s4 has 2gb of ram and I cannot tell any performance difference between my husbands iPhone 5c and my galaxy s4. If anything my galaxy crashes and freezes up often. The iPhone 5c doesn't.

I am a newbie, and I registered for the sole purpose of replying to this post, and I should say if "working fine" is your standard, really, you should be happy with iPhone 3GS. As far as I know, it worked fine, and it's still working fine. If I am going to far, let's leave it at 4s. Still works fine. Makes calls, gets emails, send text, run apps...

Why do we pay !@#$load of money for a new phone? We expect some improvements. Not the kind of improvements that will cost you gazillion. Adding 1GB of additional ram will increase the user experience by a huge margin, over and above just "working fine", at probably the least cost of any component you can upgrade.

I live in eastern North America, and including whatzit, altimeter? That thing that senses you altitude? That !@#$ doesn't excite me at all. Nowhere to go up or down around here (and yea, so what if it can tell which floor of a building you are in?). I never take pictures with my phone so none of the camera improvements, if any (because I haven't bothered to check), excite me.
As a longtime user of Apple (with no sentimental loyalty whatsoever - I've been liking Apple products for the very reason you cite - they just work, and work fine), I understand what you mean, but I don't think it's acceptable this time.
The only two things I was excited about iPhone 6 were bigger screen and larger ram (which I foolishly assumed - couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that they would again stick with 1GB ram. This is a perversion), because like you said, Apple products otherwise "work fine".
This time, I was hoping a little bit more than that. You know, there's no "innovation" any more, which is fine by me, but if that's the case, you know, start making some improvements in basic functions and usability, you know? I am absolutely disgusted at Apple for this. Saving this improvement for the next model.

And I bet you my whole worth when the next iPhone model is revealed, Mr. Cook will make all the fanfare in the world about the new iPhone having 2GB of ram. As if they are granting us an immeasurable grace. Pffft, please.

And yeah, this is almost a dealbreaker for me. I had already ordered a case and screen protector for iPhone 6 Plus, but I am not sure anymore.
 

sunking101

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2013
7,416
2,656
I am a newbie, and I registered for the sole purpose of replying to this post, and I should say if "working fine" is your standard, really, you should be happy with iPhone 3GS. As far as I know, it worked fine, and it's still working fine. If I am going to far, let's leave it at 4s. Still works fine. Makes calls, gets emails, send text, run apps...

Why do we pay !@#$load of money for a new phone? We expect some improvements. Not the kind of improvements that will cost you gazillion. Adding 1GB of additional ram will increase the user experience by a huge margin, over and above just "working fine", at probably the least cost of any component you can upgrade.

I live in eastern North America, and including whatzit, altimeter? That thing that senses you altitude? That !@#$ doesn't excite me at all. Nowhere to go up or down around here (and yea, so what if it can tell which floor of a building you are in?). I never take pictures with my phone so none of the camera improvements, if any (because I haven't bothered to check), excite me.
As a longtime user of Apple (with no sentimental loyalty whatsoever - I've been liking Apple products for the very reason you cite - they just work, and work fine), I understand what you mean, but I don't think it's acceptable this time.
The only two things I was excited about iPhone 6 were bigger screen and larger ram (which I foolishly assumed - couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that they would again stick with 1GB ram. This is a perversion), because like you said, Apple products otherwise "work fine".
This time, I was hoping a little bit more than that. You know, there's no "innovation" any more, which is fine by me, but if that's the case, you know, start making some improvements in basic functions and usability, you know? I am absolutely disgusted at Apple for this. Saving this improvement for the next model.

And I bet you my whole worth when the next iPhone model is revealed, Mr. Cook will make all the fanfare in the world about the new iPhone having 2GB of ram. As if they are granting us an immeasurable grace. Pffft, please.

A good post Sir, and bang on the money.
 

AceMason

macrumors 6502
Aug 27, 2009
275
27
I am a newbie, and I registered for the sole purpose of replying to this post, and I should say if "working fine" is your standard, really, you should be happy with iPhone 3GS. As far as I know, it worked fine, and it's still working fine. If I am going to far, let's leave it at 4s. Still works fine. Makes calls, gets emails, send text, run apps...

Why do we pay !@#$load of money for a new phone? We expect some improvements. Not the kind of improvements that will cost you gazillion. Adding 1GB of additional ram will increase the user experience by a huge margin, over and above just "working fine", at probably the least cost of any component you can upgrade.

I live in eastern North America, and including whatzit, altimeter? That thing that senses you altitude? That !@#$ doesn't excite me at all. Nowhere to go up or down around here (and yea, so what if it can tell which floor of a building you are in?). I never take pictures with my phone so none of the camera improvements, if any (because I haven't bothered to check), excite me.
As a longtime user of Apple (with no sentimental loyalty whatsoever - I've been liking Apple products for the very reason you cite - they just work, and work fine), I understand what you mean, but I don't think it's acceptable this time.
The only two things I was excited about iPhone 6 were bigger screen and larger ram (which I foolishly assumed - couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that they would again stick with 1GB ram. This is a perversion), because like you said, Apple products otherwise "work fine".
This time, I was hoping a little bit more than that. You know, there's no "innovation" any more, which is fine by me, but if that's the case, you know, start making some improvements in basic functions and usability, you know? I am absolutely disgusted at Apple for this. Saving this improvement for the next model.

And I bet you my whole worth when the next iPhone model is revealed, Mr. Cook will make all the fanfare in the world about the new iPhone having 2GB of ram. As if they are granting us an immeasurable grace. Pffft, please.

And yeah, this is almost a dealbreaker for me. I had already ordered a case and screen protector for iPhone 6 Plus, but I am not sure anymore.

It's cause they needed a "feature" for the 6S ...
 

CiccioAtSea

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2010
165
40
Principality of Monaco
This is another reason why :apple: only uses low amounts of memory. It forces devs to programm intelligently.
Otherwise older devices wouln't run new apps anymore.

This is true but...
as you know we already have apps (particularly games) requiring some min. hardware spec., so what you say is a bit pointless IMO
 

phillytim

macrumors 68000
Aug 12, 2011
1,747
1,239
Philadelphia, PA
Apple has a reputation to uphold, and knows its App market very well indeed and what hardware resources are required.

If Apple engineers think 1GB of RAM in its bet-the-company devices is enough, then 1GB is enough. PERIOD.
 
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sunking101

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2013
7,416
2,656
Apple has a reputation to uphold, and knows its App market very well indeed and what hardware resources are required.

If Apple engineers think 1GB of RAM in its bet-the-company devices, then 1GB is enough. PERIOD.

The bean counters decide the spec, not the engineers. The engineers then have to make it work the best they can.
 

phillytim

macrumors 68000
Aug 12, 2011
1,747
1,239
Philadelphia, PA
Oh, YOU have that much factual insight into the inner workings of Apple, do you?

Apple, with well over $100 billion in cash in its bank must be in dire straits to shave off a couple dollars to keep itself afloat????!

Please, tell us more great secrets! Many inquiring minds want to know more about the inner workings of Apple!

Write a book! $$$$!

The bean counters decide the spec, not the engineers. The engineers then have to make it work the best they can.
 

recklesslife85

Cancelled
Sep 17, 2012
462
170
Apple has a reputation to uphold, and knows its App market very well indeed and what hardware resources are required.

If Apple engineers think 1GB of RAM in its bet-the-company devices, then 1GB is enough. PERIOD.

Because engineers can't make mistakes like the antenna on the 4 or the software engineers with maps and so forth. :)
 

monotious

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2014
23
3
Apple has a reputation to uphold, and knows its App market very well indeed and what hardware resources are required.

If Apple engineers think 1GB of RAM in its bet-the-company devices, then 1GB is enough. PERIOD.

Once again, it is "enough". I totally, absolutely agree.
Hell, even 512MB of iPad 2 memory is "enough". It's still a current device by Apple standards. And I have an iPad 2 together with iPad Air. iPad 2 still does almost everything iPad Air does, albeit a bit slowly, but when you say enough, I completely agree.

But that "enough" is really a business decision. And they got it right on, because iPhone 6 Plus pre-order broke the record. I don't think 2GB of ram would've really done much to the sales figure, because people like me who care are in absolute minority. So it's more like Apple marketing thinking 1GB is enough, not the engineers.

By the way, you seem to give Apple engineers (whom I am sure you don't know even one of them by name... maybe a couple of top people there?) a lot of faith... They are nothing more than humans too.
 

unagimiyagi

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2009
905
229
They should have put more ram in the iPhone 6. The battery savings are essentially nil.

This was an economic decision, period.

That said, the iPhone 5s was faster than any android phone, and the iPhone 5 is still just as fast as any flagship phone out there. Apple's iPhones, in the end, are super fast for a long time. And I'd rather have that end game than a specs-fest.

My nexus 7 with its snapdragon 600 is already noticeably slower than a phone with the snapdragon 800, whereas an iPhone 5 feels the same speed with the 5s.
 

sunking101

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2013
7,416
2,656
Once again, it is "enough". I totally, absolutely agree.
Hell, even 512MB of iPad 2 memory is "enough". It's still a current device by Apple standards. And I have an iPad 2 together with iPad Air. iPad 2 still does almost everything iPad Air does, albeit a bit slowly, but when you say enough, I completely agree.

But that "enough" is really a business decision. And they got it right on, because iPhone 6 Plus pre-order broke the record. I don't think 2GB of ram would've really done much to the sales figure, because people like me who care are in absolute minority. So it's more like Apple marketing thinking 1GB is enough, not the engineers.

By the way, you seem to give Apple engineers (whom I am sure you don't know even one of them by name... maybe a couple of top people there?) a lot of faith... They are nothing more than humans too.

Apple would have achieved the same pre-order sales figures if they had reduced the RAM to 512Mb, judging from the responses on this forum. The Apple fans wouldn't care and would believe that performance had been increased.
 
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