So, I use my iPP3 for work and play. It’s a media consumption monster. I often triple-task (Chrome open on main screen, Twitter along the side, and Xfinity stream in a little box in the bottom left corner. I experience very little, if any lag. My only concern is looking at the 4GB ram in the specs. I saw the Surface Pro has literally double that, and 4GB for a machine as expensive and impressive as this seems like too little. I admit I’m a bit cpu ignorant... but am I right about being worried about this.. or is the processor good enough to the point where it doesn’t matter? TIA
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About that 4GB RAM..
- Thread starter Harmony316
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I’m aware. I got the 512 GB. Couldn’t justify the extra expense when so much of my needed storage is cloud-based.
You can't compare Windows 10 running on x86 with 8GB of RAM to iOS running on ARM with 4GB.
These new iPads have been released for a month now. And no one has posted a video showing where they ran out of RAM. And considering how many people love to be hyperbolic on YouTube, if you could make a new iPad Pro choke due to lack of RAM, someone surely would have done it by now.
Federico Viticci did. He created a process via the Shortcuts app that eventually crashed the iPad due to lack of RAM. The 1TB iPad didn’t crash. Of course it was an extreme example and something that he would probably never do in real life. He just wanted to prove that the additional RAM wasn’t just to support higher storage and that iOS will use it if it’s available. This is one area of Apple that drives me nuts. Would there really be a significant hit to margins if the 256 and 512 models supported 6GB RAM? Or is it just about upselling people to the most expensive model?
More RAM would be helpful, I especially dislike returning to a reclaimed app and having to navigate afresh.
However, on the flip side, having a 4GB majority does ensure developer attention and provide a little more longevity to existing users. Not forgetting that, in other aspects, the previous IPad Pros are quite capable, so it seems wasteful to leave them behind.
One example is Viticcis test, the Shortcut app can reclaim resources after each run in the test loop. This indicates that for some other app which has 5GB RAM requirement, the developer can work to optimise below that.
The more interesting threshold will be when we find an app that cannot make that optimisation, in a performant manner. I think that will be unlikely, 6GB is not too far apart from 4GB, if the app cannot work at 4GB, 6GB threshold would also be crossed in time.
While Apple does plenty of things that juice their margins, I’m not convinced that skimping on RAM is one of them. They have to know that the extraordinary price premium they are charging for the 1TB model is priced out of reach of the vast majority of potential purchasers. If they really wanted to entice people with RAM they would have added it to the 512GB model as well where they would have up-sold a lot of users.
The reality is that with the volume of devices that Apple sells, they can’t just add an extra 2GB of RAM to every device Willy-nilly. The supply chain simply isn’t able to provide an 2GB of extra RAM for hundreds of millions of devices. It’s the same reason why they probably stopped including the lightning to 3.5mm adapter with the phones. With that adapter they were including three lightning connectors with every phone sold, which was apparently why there are essentially no certified 3rd party cables available. Apple was consuming the entire supply. So yes, it saves Apple some money not to include it, but there are also real-world constraints at play as well.
I don’t believe anyone accurately breaks down iPad sales, but as a whole, they sell ~40 million iPads/year. Apple likely has some interest in keeping all classes of iOS devices at approximately the same RAM capacity lest they encourage development of programs that end up really being device-specific.
The Surface Pro runs a full desktop operating system (Windows 10) with all the multitasking capabilities and more complex software of a full-fledged computer.
iPads, including the iPad Pro, run a mobile OS with mobile apps and limited multitasking. It definitely doesn't require the amount of RAM that the Surface does for smooth performance.
This is not a knock against the capabilities of the iPad, but it's a simple fact that it and the Surface Pro run very different types of software.
More RAM is alway better! Keep the device future proof!
$400 Android phones already have as much RAM as the Surface Pro for a lot less.
Banana to Apples and Oranges.
Comparing Surface Pro and iPad Pro based on RAM is not good idea IMO. iOS and Windows work with RAM differently.
You are saying that you don't see any performance issues now in multitasking. I honestly would not worry that much for the specs. I would think more on how those specs fit in with the end user experience you have.
Like I have regular iPad and it suffers from little RAM (just 2). Now trust me most people would not see this. I see it because I open a lot of tabs in Safari and that seems to be a weak sport for the iPad itself. It's not like the device is unusable though. I just dislike the constant reloading.
The 3rd iPad Pro offers awesome hardware IMO (and have in mind I would not buy it). I bet that you can't even use your hardware up to its full potential or let's say most consumers don't because there are not that many apps that push the iOS limits.
Sure, more RAM is always better, but it doesn't mean that it's always necessary, or that RAM is the bottleneck that will bring about obsolescence of your device. Support of iOS devices seems to be linked to the processor more than the RAM. For instance, Apple will likely stop supporting all A8 devices at the same time, even though some of those devices have more RAM than others, and some have the same RAM as A9 or even A10 devices which will continue to be supported for more years. iOS apps need to be able to run smoothly on devices with 2 or even 1 GB of RAM as such devices are still supported with the latest OS. Extra RAM mainly facilitates multitasking, and let's be honest, iOS only allows for limited multitasking anyway.
Unfortunately, your theory couldn't be more wrong.
In the previous quarter, Apple sold 9.7 million iPads with an ASP of $421. That means the vast majority of those iPads were the $329 model. Apple doesn't sell anywhere close to hundreds of millions of iPads with 6GB or even 4GB of LPDDR4.
The market has a glut of DRAM and NAND this year which has contributed to flat component prices. DRAM prices dropped 5-10% in October and that trend is expected to continue in 2019, particularly with Chinese fabs coming online.
This 4GB/6GB move by Apple is nothing more than penny pinching.
In your excitement to get to tell someone how wrong they are you managed to miss the entire point. I made no claim that Apple currently sells hundreds of millions of iPads with 4 or 6GB of RAM. I claim that Apple has an interest in keeping all modern iOS devices approximately equivalent in terms of capabilities. That currently means the entire line spans the 2 to 4GB range with the exception of the 1TB iPP which is an extreme niche device. If all iPP's contained 6GB, the lower end iPP's would need to be bumped to 4GB, and the high end phones likely bumped to 6GB as well. All combined, that would mean hundreds of millions of devices.
I'm not sure why you would make such a claim when Apple has not shown such interest in the past. Your new claim makes even less sense.
Different Apple devices have different capabilities and are priced accordingly. Why would Apple double the RAM on a $329 iPad to narrow the gap in capabilities in the iPad family?
As a tech product matures, a company will always widen its product stack to attract more consumers with different budgets. iPad now has 5 variations. iPhone has 7.
Because consumers expect that by and large the cheap iPad and the expensive iPad are capable of running the same software. Doubling the ram on the $329 model does not narrow the gap, it simply keeps the gap the same if all iPP's were to be moved to 6GB. Currently, even in the expanded iPhone line, the range spans only 2GB to 4GB.
The thing about iOS is that it was designed from the ground up to deal with small amounts of RAM. It also has a lot less bloat than either Windows OR MacOS. That is one reason why this product appeals to me so much.
The current Apple model already allows consumers to run the same software whether they have a cheap $329 or a $999 iPad Pro. Apple doesn't need to add more memory to the $329 product.
Doubling the memory on a $329 iPad will certainly narrow the gap. Users running Photoshop CC are going to take a second look to see if they really need a $649+ iPad Pro.
Unlike the iPad, the iPhone isn't a content creation device. The difference between 2GB and 4GB makes an appreciable difference on iPad.
iOS can handle a lower amount of RAM. Windows needs more RAM because of how the OS is built. Plus, I believe 6 GB is needed on the 1 TB version to handle the high amount of data on it, if used.
Agreed and that’s why I like the iPhone and iPad so much. They are super efficient. But the iPad needs more features to make it feel like it’s truly different from the iPhone. Right now, it does not. Keep the operating system but beef it up without putting too much extra strain on required power and resources. Maybe rename it to iPad OS. That would be a nice marketing move.
MacOS would not look or run well on an iPad. They just need to optimize the UI for the much bigger screen. Allowing more apps/folders on one page would be a great start.