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Ratsaremyfreinds

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 12, 2019
215
108
Will 4 gb be enough ram for a few years? Also hom many years will apple gie me upgraded os for
 
First ask yourself this question: how do I plan to use iPad Pro 3rd gen? Post it here, and we can give you a better answer.
Otherwise, for general light use (everything about iPad, web browsing, gaming, watching video, doing random multitasking), 4GB is more than enough. If you want to do something more serious, 4GB won’t last even a year. This includes video editing and music editing. 6GB and more is required, just like a desktop computer.
 
Just editing home video.it is so crazy how time changes i recall when 256mb was a lot
It sounds crazy but nowhere near the level we are right now, when 1.5 TB memory may not be enough for those professionals and we have supercomputers. The demand for computing power explodes exponentially, then hardware demand.

As for your case, don’t worry about RAM, unless some apps you use demand 6GB or more.
 
When was that? 2 decades ago?

I skipped the original iPad because I knew I wouldn't be happy with its performance given the single core processor and only 256MB RAM.
Same here.

Skipped 256 MB iPad and went for 512 MB iPad 2.
Skipped 1 GB iPad Air and went for iPad Air 2.
Skipped 1 GB iPhone 6 and went for iPhone 6s.

These are amongst the best (and longest) supported iDevices Apple has made.

However, for home video editing, including multiple 4K videos, 4 GB on the iPad Pro is pretty decent. Luma Fusion with a few 4K video tracks works fine for me on my 10.5" Pro.

But then again, when I upgrade, I'm going to buy the next iPad Pro with 6 GB RAM, just because. Hopefully, all the Pros will be at least 6 GB, even the ones with 128-256 GB storage.
 
Skipped 256 MB iPad and went for 512 MB iPad 2.
Skipped 1 GB iPad Air and went for iPad Air 2.
Skipped 1 GB iPhone 6 and went for iPhone 6s.

These are amongst the longest support iDevices Apple has made.
In fairness, the iPad Air received 5 major firmware updates same as iPad 2 and if you go by years supported, then it actually received longer support. Besides, the iPad 2+iOS 8/9 was pretty unbearable so realistically, it was just okay for 2-3 years while the iPad Air+iOS 12 is slow and prone to app reloads but relatively more tolerable.

Of course, the Air 2 aged the most gracefully. Even on iOS 12, it performs better than an iPad 2 at launch.

iPad 2: iOS 4-9 (5 updates), 2011-2016 (5 years)
iPad 4: iOS 6-10 (4 updates), 2012-2017 (5 years)
iPad Air: iOS 7-12 (5 updates), 2013-2019 (6 years)
 
While I can’t wait for 6gb and more to become standard on the iPad pros, 4gb is definitely enough for music and video editing with the current state of iOS and iPad. Lumafusion on iPad can handle multiplestreams of 4K video from my Sony camera, while still having multitasking capabilities like slideover and split view.

4gb on iPad is not the same as 4gb on Mac. I mean...yes it is just ream, but Mac OS architecture leaves many processes, workspaces, apps, and more open constantly. Also, apps like final cut, capture one, etc... are full-fledged with buyer large demands. Apple has done a great job with resource management on iOS. The nature of iOS is also that it simply requires less immediate memory.

I understand why people will just say "no 4gb is not enough and wait", but I don’t think they have used iOS at capacity. I have. I do. I edit 4K video, then multi layer photos in affinity, with 8 safari tabs on on the side, etc.... Trust me when I can it works perfectly fine.
 
4GB is good for multiple years unless you're doing crazy stuff with video that you most likely are not doing..?

Particularly if you dont particularly care about 4K.. And why should you? Most people's displays still aren't 4k, if it's just home video it's probably unnecessary. Why use all that extra space and horsepower?
 
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4GB is good for multiple years unless you're doing crazy stuff with video that you most likely are not doing..?

Particularly if you dont particularly care about 4K.. And why should you? Most people's displays still aren't 4k, if it's just home video it's probably unnecessary. Why use all that extra space and horsepower?
All new iPhones do 4K for example, and it's a significant improvement, even on 1080p screens..
 
All new iPhones do 4K for example, and it's a significant improvement, even on 1080p screens..
Really? Visible differences? I get it that image looks crispier but anything more than that?
 
If you want to do something more serious, 4GB won’t last even a year. This includes video editing and music editing. 6GB and more is required, just like a desktop computer.
Be sure to state that as opinion :) (same as what I'm saying here) because I have 10 or so programs running in the background all the time while editing RAW photos or large drawing/illustration files (often have 10-20+ layers.) I usually have Pixelmator and Procreate open while also listening to music, having safari, youtube, and facebook open and used cause I have ADD and sometimes take breaks between projects to refresh my brain. ;)
I have also been editing 4K movies on the iPad with no issues or any slow down since the first gen. iPad Pro.
IMO 4GB is plenty of RAM, now sure, IF developers make their apps or programs bigger and with more and more features, or you have projects that are very large then it will not be as good as editing on an iMac with 16GB RAM. Thing is grabbing the one TB 6GB RAM option gives you a little more than 1GB of RAM to work with, (more is better, but the difference will be minimal.) 8GB-12-16 RAM is where everyone will notice a bigger difference.
I work with my own Photography company, where editing RAW photos is constant, I also do design and creative consultation for WB and I use my iPad (very often I use my Xs Max too and have no issue with the RAM AT ALL.) iOS is so efficient that these current 4GB iPads are about equal to a MacBook or iMac with 8GB of RAM. Obviously more RAM is always preferred but the iPads and iPhones are unique creatures due to their hardware design and great OS. the 2nd gen and 3rd gen iPP will be powerhouses for a good 7 or so more years depending on what you do. only last year did my iPad 1 get retired due to the processor and memory being so small.
*Again my opinion, but coming from a person who hasn't used a desktop computer to do work with for 7 years (Only using iPads and iPhones) the 4GB is still solid, but especially iPads with "A" processors that are A10 and up.

OG poster, I suggest you buy any of the current iPads (Best Buy has a great sale going) or buy the 2017 A10X iPads and you will have amazingly fast, efficient, and great tech for many years to come. iOS 12 helped boost that even further since Apple made iOS 12's purpose to have better performance and last longer on older and newer devices. iPad Air 2 uses the software and it is still capable of doing most anything I throw at it. My iPhone SE can do whatever I throw at it too.
It also depends on what work you do and how much you are going to throw at your device, but I wouldn't worry about current gen or 2-3 year old iPads to have any issue.
 
Better colors, HDR, (color is better due to more pixels for it and 4K takes advantage of 10-bit color,) better refresh rate, less aliasing, and clearer/sharper image.
The iPhones don't do HDR for 4K video recording AFAIK.
 
The iPhones don't do HDR for 4K video recording AFAIK.
Yeah there is no iDevice which records in HDR which is odd though lol

.........,.


Also with the 1TB Versions the reason why they have 6GB of RAM is because of the huge capacity, even the Galaxy S10+ has more RAM for its 1TB aversion than its other capacities ( probably for memory management) but I believe that is the case too
 
That was proven false by @tps3443.

Please link to the prove. The same person also claimed many apps were not working on 4GB iPads.

If there was a huge benefit to the average user Apple would likely have pointed that out via its marketing department. They don’t just throw in 2 free GB of RAM, only in the highest top model, don’t mention it anywhere, just for good measure.
 
There is no technical reason for 1 TB storage to require 6 GB RAM. It’s a marketing choice.

It also gives developers a new target. 4 GB is no longer the limit for iOS.
 
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There is no technical reason for 1 TB storage to require 6 GB RAM. It’s a marketing choice.
On a device where they don't advertise RAM specs as an upsell?

I expect there's a technical reason 1TB got more RAM. I do think it got more than was necessary and that even the extra 512MB it would have needed over the lower end models, the storage doesn't require all the time hence, the extra 2GB is more often than not usable by all apps.
 
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