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Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,035
8,405
New Hampshire, USA
I've got an ipad 2. And if the ipad Air 2 doesn't have 2gb RAM, I'm going to continue to hold out. As soon as that spec is confirmed, I'll order. But not until it's 100% official. 'Leaked' images are not enough evidence for me. I want proof, then I'll order.

Wouldn't you rather see if Safari constantly reloads tabs even with 2GB before you buy ?
 

ZBoater

macrumors G3
Jul 2, 2007
8,497
1,322
Sunny Florida
Houston, we may have a problem...
 

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iF34R

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2011
1,274
514
South Carolina
And the performance of other browsers seems to indicate it IS a software issue.

But for some there's no getting off the more RAM bandwagon. Because some article said so.

... for me, it isn't about Safari at all. I want something that will have more legs to develop with. I'd rather have a 2GB RAM ceiling instead of 1GB. ;)
 

wxnats

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2014
898
597
Northern Virginia
The RAM debate is so old. When the 6 came out last month, this place was abuzz with the usual RAM complaints. I haven't noticed any issues on my 6 plus. People on here like to complain, for the sake of complaining.
 

IbisDoc

macrumors 6502a
Apr 17, 2010
527
371
You can be sure that Tim Cook will sanction the least amount of RAM necessary to take your money.
 

yegon

macrumors 68040
Oct 20, 2007
3,405
1,983
The RAM debate is so old. When the 6 came out last month, this place was abuzz with the usual RAM complaints. I haven't noticed any issues on my 6 plus. People on here like to complain, for the sake of complaining.

It's nice that the constant app refreshes don't bother you.

I really like my 6 Plus, but it's laughable that I can't switch between writing an email, looking at a web page, browsing Reddit, without any/all having to reload the app each time I re enter. It IS fast at doing so, but when you've loaded a heavy site in Alien Blue to look at something, checked an email or sent an iMessage, then come back and you have to reload it again, it feels so retrograde and like a vestige of computers years ago.

Equally, sometimes I can listen to a podcast, pause, do some other stuff, open up CC to press play. Press play....and music starts playing as Overcast has been flushed and its defaulted back to the music player. This isn't an experience I should be having on such a mature, otherwise powerful item of technology.

There's two camps on the RAM issue, those that do and those that don't care. That's fine. I'm not telling people who don't care to start caring. I am, however, constantly being told that RAM isn't an issue and I shouldn't care about the shortcomings I repeatedly experience as a result. I don't know why people who don't care about RAM constantly pop up in these topics. I never bother with a case, you won't find me in the accessories forum telling people "why bother with a case? Who cares?".
 

Donka

macrumors 68030
May 3, 2011
2,842
1,439
Scotland
My two requirements for a purchase are a better screen and 2GB RAM. We have the screen so now I'm just waiting on confirmation of the RAM. Forget about tab reloading issues in safari, there are plenty of other reasons for the need to increase this. RAM is now a limitation for many apps and games. Photo editing for example is dependant on available RAM for working on high resolution images and multiple layers and filters. Flight sim apps are currently limited by the 1Gb ceiling. While an iOS device can run great on 1GB, it is stopping many apps from realising their full potential and why wouldn't we want better apps?
 

farqueue

macrumors 6502
Jun 18, 2006
452
26
they really need to upgrade this to 2gb of ram. my ipad air reloads like abitch when browsing on safari!:mad:
 

Rockies

macrumors 6502
Oct 4, 2011
310
32
My two requirements for a purchase are a better screen and 2GB RAM. We have the screen so now I'm just waiting on confirmation of the RAM. Forget about tab reloading issues in safari, there are plenty of other reasons for the need to increase this. RAM is now a limitation for many apps and games. Photo editing for example is dependant on available RAM for working on high resolution images and multiple layers and filters. Flight sim apps are currently limited by the 1Gb ceiling. While an iOS device can run great on 1GB, it is stopping many apps from realising their full potential and why wouldn't we want better apps?

They really pushed the functionality of the Ipad being used for photo/video editing during the presentation. I believe to obtain full potential of these editing applications, there needs to be 2GB of RAM. Shame on Apple if there is not. I wish Apple would stop making stupid purchasing decisions like Beats and U2 Albums. All the money they wasted they could have put 2GB RAM in all Iphones and Ipads.
 

OS X Dude

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,128
611
UK
What if tabs refresh because Apple think users will always want to see the latest content of that site?

I can imagine leaving tabs open for sites I frequent, and Apple making Safari refresh them often so I don't have to do it manually for each one. It actually could be beneficial in some cases.

Just a thought.
 

Donka

macrumors 68030
May 3, 2011
2,842
1,439
Scotland
What if tabs refresh because Apple think users will always want to see the latest content of that site?

I can imagine leaving tabs open for sites I frequent, and Apple making Safari refresh them often so I don't have to do it manually for each one. It actually could be beneficial in some cases.

Just a thought.

I wouldn't have a problem if this was the case provided Apple either documented the fact or made it an option in settings.
 

LV426

macrumors 68000
Jan 22, 2013
1,835
2,262
they really need to upgrade this to 2gb of ram. my ipad air reloads like abitch when browsing on safari!:mad:

It's a Safari thing, not a RAM thing. It happens on desktop Safari with oodles of RAM. You can hit the back button on a web page that has explicitly asked to be cached for a good period of time, and yet Safari will trundle off again to the Internet to get the page content.

My guess: the way Apple see it, the Internet is a vast storage device. You can always get the data from there so why clog up your iOS memory when you could have a bunch more apps running locally.

My guess #2: most users use Safari a lot on iOS, and would appreciate an option to prioritise its use of RAM.
 

yegon

macrumors 68040
Oct 20, 2007
3,405
1,983
But, yet again, as illustrated by myself and a million others, the RAM constraints affect usage far beyond just Safari tabs in the form of constant reloading of apps when flipping between apps. Better apps will sometimes reload the exact state it was left in, all apps often just reload to the default first screen. This is very irritating when we're talking about a simple transition e.g. email-podcast-Alien Blue-Safari-email.

Given my old 5S was still plenty fast enough, I'd be happier if Apple spent less time selling us faster CPU's, and more time addressing the inadequacies of iOS. All logic points to RAM being the cause of these issues.

Yet again, if the above "issue" doesn't bother you, lucky you! Myself, and a lot of others, would like the mature, 7th generation of a device (in the case of an iPhone, 6th for iPad) to not exhibit the traits of computers 10 plus years ago. We're always being told how we now have supercomputers in our pockets, that have the equivalent power of an Intel x86 chip from year 20XX. This is absolutely laughable. For example, I don't recall the last plastic MB I had from 2006 being unable to flip between a few programmes without having to completely reload/refresh virtually all the time. Yes, an iDevice can perform a single given task well, even very well, but if you have the temerity to flip to doing something else? Naughty boy, reload time.

Have to say, find this behaviour less irritating on a phone due to what I use it for. On an iPad, a supposed laptop replacement? Frankly pathetic.
 
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LV426

macrumors 68000
Jan 22, 2013
1,835
2,262
All logic points to RAM being the cause of these issues.

Not necessarily. Have a look at these notes on iOS memory management.

"A well-written program uses as little memory as possible."

What constitutes "as little memory as possible"? Is it having three large websites fully in RAM at any one time? Or five? Or twenty? At the same time as having Photoshop in the background ready to go?

It's about priorities. You'll find that if all your lovely applications are in RAM ready to go, you might need an awful lot more than 2GB to give you what you'd ideally want. Safari makes particular choices about what it needs to retain in RAM, whilst at the same time giving all other applications the opportunity to use memory.
 

yegon

macrumors 68040
Oct 20, 2007
3,405
1,983
Not necessarily. Have a look at these notes on iOS memory management.



What constitutes "as little memory as possible"? Is it having three large websites fully in RAM at any one time? Or five? Or twenty? At the same time as having Photoshop in the background ready to go?

It's about priorities. You'll find that if all your lovely applications are in RAM ready to go, you might need an awful lot more than 2GB to give you what you'd ideally want. Safari makes particular choices about what it needs to retain in RAM, whilst at the same time giving all other applications the opportunity to use memory.

That's fair enough, but I don't doubt the addition of more ram would alleviate the problem to some degree. The move to 64bit without a RAM increase clearly made the situation worse - when I bought the rMini I still had my old iPad 3 and, whilst slower, the 3 didn't refresh apps nearly as much as my rMini. Same goes for my iPhone 5 vs 5S. Sure, the speed of the processor alleviated this somewhat and I didn't regret the upgrade, but this is not true progress and had the newer devices had even 512mb more ram they'd likely perform better with same usage pattern. The oft quoted "20-30% more ram needed for 64 bit processes" seemed evident from the user pov right from the off.

Heck, my 6 Plus is marginally worse than my 5S for app refreshing, likely due to the screen being more asset hungry. I'm highly impressed that these devices can run as well as they do on 1gb of RAM, I just wish there wasn't this clear bottleneck.
 
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robert109

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2011
91
0
To be honest, I don't care about the RAM.

The thinness and weight are the main reasons I choose to upgrade.
 
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