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saintforlife

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
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2GB RAM is the among the top features many users seem to be looking forward to on the iPhone 6S. Just wondering how much of a difference it made on the iPad Air 2? Do you feel the constant Safari tab reloads and app refreshes have gone for the most part? Is web page loading faster? If so, can we expect similar improvements on the iPhone 6S?
 
Multi-tasking is a big plus. And yes, Safari is snappier, just as having more than a few apps open at once. Rumor has it Apple will put in LPDDR4 in the A9 chip which is 2x faster with lower operating voltages.
 
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2GB of RAM does more than just make tabs/apps refresh less. The animations in iOS are actually cached in RAM. So that's why sometimes on an iPad Air 1 for example, the first time you open a folder in a long time, it's extremely laggy and stuttery. But after that, you can exit and open the folder over and over it and it will be a perfect 60fps.

The iPad Air 2's 2 GB of RAM allows for these animations to remain in memory for an extremely long time, and add in the incredible processing power with the A8X, everything is buttery smooth, every time.

2GB of RAM will definitely serve the iPhone 6S quite well. We have been on 1GB of RAM for far, far too long. We should have gotten to 2GB of RAM with the 5S because of its 64-bit architecture. The 64-bit system the A7 chip runs has larger instructions, so more RAM is used. 2GB of RAM was ESPECIALLY needed on iPad Air and iPad mini 2/3.
 
For basic day to day operations I don't think it's a big performance bump. More safari tabs? Sure. Some high end games may run a tad smoother? Possible. Certainly isn't a night vs day difference though.
 
It was a pretty significant difference. On the Air 1, Safari would begin to refresh with just 2-3 tabs open. With the Air 2, you can take it to 4-5 tabs, and with a 3rd party browser, pretty reliably to ~10 tabs. Switching between programs is much faster as well - you no longer have to wait for programs to reopen as you switch, which makes the process feel a lot more computer-like.
 
For basic day to day operations I don't think it's a big performance bump. More safari tabs? Sure. Some high end games may run a tad smoother? Possible. Certainly isn't a night vs day difference though.
Although, yes, it depends, larger memory could bring improvements. A simple fact is: 1GB is way too small for various use. Current iOS 9 beat 3 doesn't see significant improvement on memory management and experience changes, to good ways, of course. I think lots of users in here is wishing Apple could release a great iOS in this September.
 
iPhone 6+ have 1GB? I didn't know that. I never noticed it. I think 4GB would be nice. Apple knew memory price is cheap so why not?
 
Depending on the task at hand, it is a noticeable improvement and I personally will never buy another iOS device unless it has at least 2GB RAM.
It also allows for more complex apps and games. There is a noticeable difference with the likes of Aerofly 2 flight sim on the Air 2 as it uses higher resolution imagery which really enhances the experience and just isn't possible on the Air.
 
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The performance leap is coming more from that 8 core GPU/tri-core CPU A8X rather than the 2GB of RAM. The extra RAM helps with moving between apps and not having them close/reboot, but the fluidity is coming from the A8X first and foremost.
 
I see little to no difference at all not sure why you guys claimed big leap in performance.

Open 3-4 tabs in Safari. Then exit and open another program of moderate resource requirements. Let's say open Evernote where you want to take some notes on something you are researching. Flip back to Safari. On the Air 1 Safari tabs will all likely reload. When you switch back to Evernote you will be presented with the splash screen as the app reloads. All this only takes a couple of seconds, but it's very disruptive to multi-tasking. On the Air 2 you would be able to switch back and forth nearly as fast as on a full computer.
 
Lots. My iPad 4 was reloading like hell and I was pretty annoyed. Sold it and got the iPad Air 2. And the iPad 4 has technically more ram than its 64bit brothers as it's still running a 32bit A6X. And the air 2 does not reload as much as the generations before it. Like pre iOS 7 days.
 
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