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

A12 Bionic in New iPad Paired With 3GB RAM, Clocks in at Same Speed as Latest iPhones

EugW said:
IIRC, stuff like this happens when new models are released as the Geekbench app hasn't been updated to specifically support those models. However, that's often with brand new chips. The A12 isn't brand new.
Click to expand...
Makes sense. Then perhaps it's not "iPad11,2" either? Or is that just a string the App reads from the device?
 
Very specifically, it appears the Synthetic Benchmarks are NOT testing the switching capabilities of processors ... in AAPL's case, what they call the Performance Controller.
 
EugW said:
IIRC, stuff like this happens when new models are released as the Geekbench app hasn't been updated to specifically support those models. However, that's often with brand new chips. The A12 isn't brand new.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, Geekbench bases it off the motherboard, not the chip itself. I've noticed for less common configurations (e.g. LTE iPads), they still show generic info weeks or months after the wifi version has been properly identified.
 
  • Like
Reactions: locovaca, EugW and MrUNIMOG
MTW said:
A ram cut hurts. We all know what 1 gig of ram costs, what 4 gigs of ram costs. It costs near nothing. This is more nonsense from Apple, a desperate attempt to drive sales to higher end models by limiting the useful life of the less expensive models.
Click to expand...
”Desperate attempt” ;-)

Uh, Apple is really desperate these days, nearly bankrupt.

If Apple wants to drive the sales of iPad Pros..why release the Air in the first place? Wouldn’t that be so much easier?

People outside MR i.e. 99% of iPad buyers do not care how much RAM it has. They look at the price and buy whatever fits their budget. 3GB sounds stingy perhaps, but in practice it’s plenty for everything you will ever do on it.

By the way, did you know that a 7 series BMW is not twice as expensive to manufacture as a 3 series BMW, although you pay double?

Do you go nuts about it?

(No, you don’t)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: philryan, KeithBN, Stridr69 and 1 other person
Seanm87 said:
Why is everyone so obsessed with ram on this forum? Even Apple doesn’t advertise it
Click to expand...
There's been a handful of iOS devices (notably the first ever iPad, and iPod touch 4 A4 but only 256MB RAM when the iPhone 4 had 512; iPhone 6 plus and iPad Air 1GB) that have been negatively impacted by not really having enough RAM to see them through their useful lives. Now we're up to 2 (3, even) as a base I don't think there's as much cause for concern, but 3GB is definitely a nice to have to make sure these iPads run smoothly right up to their last iOS version.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShaunAFC3, JXulo, PickUrPoison and 2 others
rui no onna said:
As far as I can tell, Geekbench bases it off the motherboard, not the chip itself. I've noticed for less common configurations (e.g. LTE iPads), they still show generic info weeks or months after the wifi version has been properly identified.
Click to expand...
OK that would make sense then. The new iPads have the same SoCs as the iPhones, but different (unrecognized) motherboards.
 
Falhófnir said:
There's been a handful of iOS devices (notably the first ever iPad, and iPod touch 4 A4 but only 256MB RAM when the iPhone 4 had 512; iPhone 6 plus and iPad Air 1GB) that have been negatively impacted by not really having enough RAM to see them through their useful lives. Now we're up to 2 (3, even) as a base I don't think there's as much cause for concern, but 3GB is definitely a nice to have to make sure these iPads run smoothly right up to their last iOS version.
Click to expand...

As for the (1st) iPad Air and the iPhone 6, I don't think the 1 GB RAM is all that limiting really. If you do a clean install of iOS 12, the 6 runs buttery smooth, opens Apps reasonably fast for such an old device and doesn't really struggle keeping Apps in memory. The Air runs a little less smooth admittedly, but that's due to the higher screen resolution paired with a bit less GPU power I'd say, not the RAM.

As for the 4th gen iPod touch, I agree, 256 MB probably kept it from receiving iOS 7 which the iPhone 4 runs fine on.
The 1st gen iPad is even stuck on iOS 5, but that probably is more due to the much higher resolution which would have hindered performance too much on iOS 6. I'm just making guesses tho.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Falhófnir
QCassidy352 said:
There are pros and cons to each for sure. I’d go for the new one personally. A12 and flush camera are what do it for me.
Click to expand...

I feel similarly. I was picking between a refurbished 10.5 and the new mini, but I realized I wouldn’t want to lug the 10.5 around, and it would be awkwardly large for reading books. I just put in my order for a mini, excited!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShaunAFC3 and MrUNIMOG
Cosmosent said:
If it's the same A12 + (pseudo) 3 GB DRAM setup as in the XR, then it's NOT a true 3 GB DRAM device !

Specifically, the XR does NOT act like a true 3 GB DRAM device ! ... that has been proven !

However, many won't notice the issue since neither the new 10.5" Air or 7.9" mini include a 12 Mpx image sensor ... specifically here, for those who don't know, a sufficient amount of DRAM is required when capturing Full-Res 12 Mpx photos ... this is where most will notice the Diff between 2 GB vs 3 GB vs 4 GB.

Both of the new iPads include the same set of cameras, 8 Mpx on the Back, & 7 Mpx on the Front ... so, 3 GB is ok with both.

I believe AAPL learned from their XR mistake.

The XR would have been fine with 4 GB of DRAM, but is a Dog / Performance Lemon with it's current (pseudo) 3 GB DRAM setup.

Few in the General Public know this.
Click to expand...

You're going to need to back up your claims with some evidence. I have a XR and don't experience any slowness whatsoever. It does whatever I throw its way. Same with my SE before that... no noticeable performance problems at all. Earlier devices did have issues with different versions of iOS, but my SE and XR have been nothing but stellar in terms of remaining fast and slick to use.

Now, what may be the differentiating factor is what is being done on these devices. If someone loads up 20 tabs in Safari, which is insane on a phone anyway, then maybe the user experience is degraded. Or if they are installing poorly-written apps, that could also have an effect. But saying that the XR is "dog slow" with its current memory capacity is nonsense without more specific details of each device and usage patterns.
 
  • Like
Reactions: philryan, KeithBN, realtuner and 1 other person
coolfactor said:
Part of me is glad that Apple is being conservative with RAM. Because the real problem in the wheel are the developers. If you give them a huge amount of RAM, they will deliver bloated apps that are not optimized. But force them to operate within less headroom, and suddenly optimization becomes more important.
Click to expand...
Yeah but I'd still rather have more, if given the choice. It's nice to push developers to be efficient, but the bottom line is they often are not, and there's nothing we can do about it really.

MrUNIMOG said:
As for the (1st) iPad Air and the iPhone 6, I don't think the 1 GB RAM is all that limiting really. If you do a clean install of iOS 12, the 6 runs buttery smooth, opens Apps reasonably fast for such an old device and doesn't really struggle keeping Apps in memory. The Air runs a little less smooth admittedly, but that's due to the higher screen resolution paired with a bit less GPU power I'd say, not the RAM.

As for the 4th gen iPod touch, I agree, 256 MB probably kept it from receiving iOS 7 which the iPhone 4 runs fine on.
The 1st gen iPad is even stuck on iOS 5, but that probably is more due to the much higher resolution which would have hindered performance too much on iOS 6. I'm just making guesses tho.
Click to expand...
I found the 1 GB RAM limiting even in my iPhone 5s. The Safari tab reloads irritated me to no end. Jumping to 3 GB on my next iPhone was a very nice improvement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShaunAFC3, JXulo, motulist and 4 others
coolfactor said:
Now, what may be the differentiating factor is what is being done on these devices. If someone loads up 20 tabs in Safari, which is insane on a phone anyway, then maybe the user experience is degraded. Or if they are installing poorly-written apps, that could also have an effect. But saying that the XR is "dog slow" with its current memory capacity is nonsense without more specific details of each device and usage patterns.
Click to expand...
I do 20+ tabs all the time (online shopping, research, etc) and there's really no slowdown. There is, however, the dreaded Safari tab refresh. Even on 4GB, I still hit a point when I get refreshes. It's just that I can open more tabs before that happens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShaunAFC3, motulist, Neodym and 2 others
EugW said:
Yeah but I'd still rather have more, if given the choice. It's nice to push developers to be efficient, but the bottom line is they often are not, and there's nothing we can do about it really.


I found the 1 GB RAM limiting even in my iPhone 5s. The Safari tab reloads irritated me to no end. Jumping to 3 GB on my next iPhone was a very nice improvement.
Click to expand...

Limiting yes but not unreasonably limiting for a 5+ year old device.
As rui no onna pointed out above, even 4 GB or more is still "limiting" in the same way as you can't have an infinite amount of tabs open.

I'm still impressed how exceptionally well my old 5s handles iOS 12.
2 GB iPhones (or iPads) won't really be limited by their RAM anytime soon, let alone 3 GB ones.
 
iPad Pro 10.5"

Your shipment is on its way. Order No. Wxx / Votre colis est en route. Commande no Wxx

Ordered on: 18 Mar, 2019

Shipped: Delivers 20 Mar, 2019 via Standard Shipping

FROM

Mount Juliet, TN US

TO
Toronto, ON CA
[doublepost=1552945034][/doublepost]
MrUNIMOG said:
Limiting yes but not unreasonably limiting for a 5+ year old device. I'm still impressed how exceptionally well my old 5s handles iOS 12.
2 GB iPhones (or iPads) won't really be limited by their RAM anytime soon, let alone 3 GB ones.
Click to expand...
I'm talking about back in 2016, or 3 years ago. I was very happy when I upgraded in 2016.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ShaunAFC3 and MrUNIMOG
MrUNIMOG said:
As for the (1st) iPad Air and the iPhone 6, I don't think the 1 GB RAM is all that limiting really. If you do a clean install of iOS 12, the 6 runs buttery smooth, opens Apps reasonably fast for such an old device and doesn't really struggle keeping Apps in memory. The Air runs a little less smooth admittedly, but that's due to the higher screen resolution paired with a bit less GPU power I'd say, not the RAM.

As for the 4th gen iPod touch, I agree, 256 MB probably kept it from receiving iOS 7 which the iPhone 4 runs fine on.
The 1st gen iPad is even stuck on iOS 5, but that probably is more due to the much higher resolution which would have hindered performance too much on iOS 6. I'm just making guesses tho.
Click to expand...
I certainly agree it's not quite as severe with the iPhone 6P and iPad Air - I guess maybe you could say they would have benefitted from being the first 2GB devices more than that they suffered from only having 1GB? I think as @coolfactor noted, generally Apple are quite conservative with RAM as there's no need for 6-8-10GB if the apps are well optimised, so Apple tends to increase either when they have a feature that specifically requires more (2GB for multitasking in the iPad Air 2, 3GB for the iPhone 7 plus dual cameras) or when they want to significantly bump the capability of a device (4GB in the iPad Pro). With the iPhone 6 plus, I guess the thinking was it was mainly a larger variant of the iPhone 5s, so it didn't really need extra RAM for more power hungry features as there weren't really any. Where it falls slightly short (I thought from my experience) is the extra VRAM taken for the larger resolution (while it's a 1080p panel, the GPU is actually rendering a 1242x2208 image) just eats into whats available for the system and any apps a bit more than you find with the 5s and 6.

As for the Air, arguably only having 1GB held it back from proper multitasking - though the A7 might not have been up to it either (while the A8 is sometimes dismissed as a minor update over the A7, from memory it did still have on the order of a 50% increase in graphics performance, even if the CPU bump was relatively minor).

I don't think 2GB devices will ever feel 'starved' in the same way, it's just if we get more intensive websites heavy on graphics and HTML features and what have you, alongside more RAM hungry apps in multitasking (I don't think a single App open is likely to exceed what a 2GB device has available for a looong time yet). So 3GB is more comfortable for, though I don't generally like the term, 'future proofing' these devices so they have a bit in reserve for a full life ahead of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrUNIMOG
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back