Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MartinAppleGuy

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 27, 2013
2,247
889
It appears some people are not to pleased with the 1Gb of DDR3 RAM in the iPad Air. Personally I was hoping for 2Gb of RAM, but I have come to realise that 1Gb of RAM is more that suffice.

From a fresh start, iOS 7 eats only 300Mb (slightly more). As the OS "settles in" it eats more and more to increase system performance as well as placing opened applications in inactive ram after use. This can lead to the OS eating up around 600Mb. But what I am trying to say it that an app could eat up as much as 700Mb on iOS 7 before the OS force quits it. That is more than enough RAM for any app.

I think we call all agree that iOS 8 will have more features. And more features would eat more RAM. But what I see also happening in iOS 8 is RAM compression The same type of RAM compression as seen in Mavericks. Mavericks used a lot of techniques from iOS to make it more efficient, but only Mavericks has the RAM compression. So the way I see it, all devices running iOS7 will run iOS 8, just better :)


Edit: Sorry; iOS 7 nd 64bit processing with 1Gb of RAM is not amazing...
 
Last edited:

Diversion

macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2007
773
142
Jacksonville, Florida
You seem conflicted man.. Saw you upset with the lack of 2gb and G6630.. You had high hopes and now you're accepting the inevitable, which is you'll end up getting one anyways and find that it's so ridiculously fast you'll never know the difference.. It's 1gb of some of the fastest ram you can find in any tablets. Like others have said, the only issue may be when you want more than 8 tabs opened in Safari.. Everything else will run to perfection since apps are hard-coded to use under 1gb of ram. It's all about the experience and honestly, I don't have more than 5 tabs opened on my desktop PC browser so I know that atleast for me, it's not an issue.
 

Altis

macrumors 68040
Sep 10, 2013
3,153
4,884
Well it's sure a good thing we're going 64-bit given there's a whole gig of RAM available! :rolleyes:

Apple could go 2 GB, but I'm thinking they would rather give you a reason you will need to upgrade. That's often the bottleneck of i-devices as time goes on.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,365
12,304
I think we call all agree that iOS 8 will have more features. And more features would eat more RAM. But what I see also happening in iOS 8 is RAM compression The same type of RAM compression as seen in Mavericks. Mavericks used a lot of techniques from iOS to make it more efficient, but only Mavericks has the RAM compression. So the way I see it, all devices running iOS7 will run iOS 8, just better :)
If you check out the crash logs on iOS 7, it looks like it's already using RAM compression.
 

MartinAppleGuy

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 27, 2013
2,247
889
You seem conflicted man.. Saw you upset with the lack of 2gb and G6630.. You had high hopes and now you're accepting the inevitable, which is you'll end up getting one anyways and find that it's so ridiculously fast you'll never know the difference.. It's 1gb of some of the fastest ram you can find in any tablets. Like others have said, the only issue may be when you want more than 8 tabs opened in Safari.. Everything else will run to perfection since apps are hard-coded to use under 1gb of ram. It's all about the experience and honestly, I don't have more than 5 tabs opened on my desktop PC browser so I know that atleast for me, it's not an issue.

I have been thinking about this. 64bit increases an apps RAM footprint by 30%. So the Air really has 30% less ram than before. I found the Air to be a bit of a let down so I have been think of alternatives.

My choice is the following(might not be the most obvious :) )

A Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM, 2.X Ghz i5, 256Gb of SSD storage with Intel Iris graphics.

At £1249, it is a tad more expensive than a 128Fb iPad Air but I feel I will get more out of it. Gaming (GTA San Andreas and Borderlands 2...) plus video editing and web browsing.

If you compair an iPad to a MacBook, an iPad feels weak in comparison.

iPad Air 128Gb : £639
MacBook Air 11" 128Gb :£849

So for that extra £110, you get a bigger screen(lower PPI though), an i5processor, proper OS, keyboard (an iPad keyboard is £69 to £99), an amazing touchpad, proper apps,
iLife and iWork is better on Mac...

So I am going for the Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb of SSD storage.
 

CallOfDuty

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2012
330
2
I do understand that 1GB of RAM is certainly enough.
We have come to a point whereby most consumers will find 1GB of ram to be adequate. After all, its not like every single app crashes upon opening because of insufficient memory.
But my greatest concern is: Is the iPhone 5S and the iPad Air or any other device with the A7 Chip simply just a test product for 64bit architecture?

I was quite worried when I saw that the iPhone 5S is coming with just 1 GB of ram. But at that time, not so much. Its a phone, and apps certainly will use lesser ram.
But now, we are talking the iPad, with a much larger internals to work about, and don't forgot iPad apps are certainly more RAM demanding than their iPhone counterparts. And Bam, 1GB of ram. Is this a joke?

Apple can't talk 64bit WITHOUT increasing RAM! Yes, 64Bit does bring more advanced processing as it can crunch even more numbers, but what's the point when barely 2 or more heavy apps can be kept in the background without it closing down all the time? Safari on my 5S just keeps reloading my tabs. This is worse than what I have experienced on my 5. At least my 5 keeps all my tabs open even with maybe 5 apps I have launched after it.

I am not asking Apple to increase their RAM until it only gives diminishing returns. (3GB of RAM, note 3 seriously?) Perhaps even an additional 500Mb of RAM is more than enough to avoid all these outrage. But rarely anyone doesn't follow the 'integer' rule beyond 1GB of RAM. Beyond 1GB, its 2GB, rarely would anyone opt for 1.5GB.

So that been said, the A7 chip is powerful yes, but is bottlenecked by the stingy 1GB Ram, not to mention that 64bit optimized apps need more ram. 64bit apps cannot be fully utilized unless Apple decides to do something about the RAM situation.
 

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
I have been thinking about this. 64bit increases an apps RAM footprint by 30%. So the Air really has 30% less ram than before. I found the Air to be a bit of a let down so I have been think of alternatives.

My choice is the following(might not be the most obvious :) )

A Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM, 2.X Ghz i5, 256Gb of SSD storage with Intel Iris graphics.

At £1249, it is a tad more expensive than a 128Fb iPad Air but I feel I will get more out of it. Gaming (GTA San Andreas and Borderlands 2...) plus video editing and web browsing.

If you compair an iPad to a MacBook, an iPad feels weak in comparison.

iPad Air 128Gb : £639
MacBook Air 11" 128Gb :£849

So for that extra £110, you get a bigger screen(lower PPI though), an i5processor, proper OS, keyboard (an iPad keyboard is £69 to £99), an amazing touchpad, proper apps,
iLife and iWork is better on Mac...

So I am going for the Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb of SSD storage.

Isnt it $210 difference though? Either way, for what you need it sounds like the macbook IS the right choice. Enjoy! :D
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
2GiB is not only common for higher end Android phones now, my $300 Blackberry Z10 also has 2GiB, which is excellent news.

I already bought a skimpy 256MB iPad 1, I'm not doing that again.

The maxipad better have at least 3GiB RAM, like the latest Samsung stuff. And there should be at least a 256GB storage option.
 

Cyloncat

macrumors regular
Oct 26, 2012
168
45
NC, USA
why does 64bit use 20-30% more ram?

Addresses are twice as large - 8 bytes instead of 4. Every object reference, every method reference in a dispatch vector, every parameter reference in a method call.... it adds up.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,223
6,350
US
I found the Air to be a bit of a let down so I have been think of alternatives.

I'm curious how you've had access to an iPad Air so you could use it enough to be let down?


If you compair an iPad to a MacBook, an iPad feels weak in comparison.

Apples and Oranges...

Tablet and laptop are fairly different usage models. Yes they do overlap in many areas, but they're not directly comparable. IMHO you do yourself a disservice focusing on specs and "what you get for your money" instead of looked more to what you need to do with the devices and their actual ability to satisfy those needs.

For example say you could get a transit van for just a little more than a people carrier. Surely you'd just buy the transit van with the larger engine and greater cargo space, right? :D
 

xNYMetsx

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2013
251
0
I'm curious how you've had access to an iPad Air so you could use it enough to be let down?




Apples and Oranges...

Tablet and laptop are fairly different usage models. Yes they do overlap in many areas, but they're not directly comparable. IMHO you do yourself a disservice focusing on specs and "what you get for your money" instead of looked more to what you need to do with the devices and their actual ability to satisfy those needs.

For example say you could get a transit van for just a little more than a people carrier. Surely you'd just buy the transit van with the larger engine and greater cargo space, right? :D

The iPad has less RAM... Kinda a let down as it'll probably only hold 3 web pages at once
 

Diversion

macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2007
773
142
Jacksonville, Florida
I have been thinking about this. 64bit increases an apps RAM footprint by 30%. So the Air really has 30% less ram than before. I found the Air to be a bit of a let down so I have been think of alternatives.

My choice is the following(might not be the most obvious :) )

A Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM, 2.X Ghz i5, 256Gb of SSD storage with Intel Iris graphics.

At £1249, it is a tad more expensive than a 128Fb iPad Air but I feel I will get more out of it. Gaming (GTA San Andreas and Borderlands 2...) plus video editing and web browsing.

If you compair an iPad to a MacBook, an iPad feels weak in comparison.

iPad Air 128Gb : £639
MacBook Air 11" 128Gb :£849

So for that extra £110, you get a bigger screen(lower PPI though), an i5processor, proper OS, keyboard (an iPad keyboard is £69 to £99), an amazing touchpad, proper apps,
iLife and iWork is better on Mac...

So I am going for the Retina MacBook Pro with 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb of SSD storage.

I never thought a full PC would be an alternative to a tablet singular app type device.. Sounds like your priorities are a little skewed but of course, if you have the extra pounds (I didn't know you were English, by the way) then by all means get an Haswell Macbook Air. I have a 13" Haswell Macbook Air and I absolutely love it.. I get about 13 hours battery life - I can only fault the Airs for their low resolution LCD. Next year i'm hoping for Retina IPS panels in the Macbook Air.

Good luck with your choice my friend and greetings from Florida.

----------

Thanks :) Could you tell me the GPU perfromance in Gflops of the rMBP 13"?

I woudn't be concerned? The new Haswell powered devices do have the Intel HD 5000, right? I mean it's comparable to something like Nvidia's 640LE.. You can run most games at low to medium settings.. Higher settings aren't recommended unless older games.. You'll just take too much of a perf hit.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.