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How much RAM is too much?

S

Spectrum Abuser

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
1,377
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I personally believe the iP5 will still have 512MB just like the iPad 2. From a user standpoint there is no real reason to bump up the RAM this year. The 3Gs is rocking 256MB and will be receiving iOS 5 although this is probably largely due to the iPT4 still having 256MB as well.

But how much RAM is too much RAM? You can buy several Android phones pumping out 1GB.. But I bet nearly half of that isn't getting used.
 
imo, since iOS 5 will be more multi-tasking driven, I say more ram, about 768 MB is my guess.
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
I personally believe the iP5 will still have 512MB just like the iPad 2. From a user standpoint there is no real reason to bump up the RAM this year. The 3Gs is rocking 256MB and will be receiving iOS 5 although this is probably largely due to the iPT4 still having 256MB as well.

But how much RAM is too much RAM? You can buy several Android phones pumping out 1GB.. But I bet nearly half of that isn't getting used.
Click to expand...

You can never have too much. The more ram the more developers can do. It is all in the cost/performance ratio.
 
It would be nice to see it bumped up to 768 or a gig. Even if it's not completely necessary, it'll be a middle finger to the rest of the smartphone world courtesy of Apple.

As for how much is TOO much? 4+ GB seems insane to me lol.
 
Invincibilizer said:
This ^

Although 1GB is perfect, 512 is 2010-ish and no apps require heavy usage of RAM to justify 2GB RAM iPhone
Click to expand...

I'd still say 512MB is fine for the rest of 2011 and first quarter or two of 2012. The most I've ever drained my iP4 down to is 71MB. After that battery performance started taking a big hit. And I used SBSettings for the reading.
 
As it stands right now I have 285MB of free memory with the iPod app running, Facebook, mail and settings. Pretty good although back in the 4.2.1 days I could pull off 380MB of free memory.
 
when every other company is offering 1GB, isn' t it pretty obvious apple will keep the 512MB? My iPad 1 is super slow due to its 216MB of ram. I open 4 apps and I have to open the dock and close them down due to the lagginess. And no, it isn't jailbroken. In my view apple will keep the 512 until the iPhone 6 is released next year.
 
1GB is a must. With the way cell phone technology is advancing soo quickly, keeping it at 512MB for 2012 would be a step backwards.
 
rick98761 said:
You can never have too much. The more ram the more developers can do. It is all in the cost/performance ratio.
Click to expand...

For serious. People should be shamed for using terms like "too much memory" and "too much storage." Open up Firefox with about 12-15 tabs, Excel, Word, Photoshop and TextWrangler on a computer with 2 GB of RAM. Thankfully I'm getting a new MBP soon, but I can totally appreciate RAM now.

As you said, it's all about cost/performance or cost/benefit. Apple could develop an iPhone with 1GB of storage, but it would require a larger device and the cost would put it out of normal smartphone price range. If 64GB chips exist, you plug 20 of those into a circuit board. But if those were to cost even $50 apiece, that's $1,000 just for your storage.
 
Captain America said:
It would be nice to see it bumped up to 768 or a gig. Even if it's not completely necessary, it'll be a middle finger to the rest of the smartphone world courtesy of Apple.

As for how much is TOO much? 4+ GB seems insane to me lol.
Click to expand...

How is it a middle finger to the rest of the smartphone world? "******* you guys, we now offer as much RAM as you do!" :rolleyes:
 
memory management is much better in ios 5 - I think 1GB is way too much for a phone, but 512mb would be good enough

more memory requires more battery power
 
cinek said:
memory management is much better in ios 5 - I think 1GB is way too much for a phone, but 512mb would be good enough

more memory requires more battery power
Click to expand...

With the things smartphones do these days, RAM is the last thing to be concerned about in terms of power consumption.
 
andrewlgm said:
My iPad 1 is super slow due to its 216MB of ram. I open 4 apps and I have to open the dock and close them down due to the lagginess. And no, it isn't jailbroken.
Click to expand...

Uh-huh. That's not how it works.

On a computer, too little RAM will slow you down, because the computer will swap on the hard disk.

iOS doesn't do that. If you have too little RAM, the programs are killed. Eventually even the one in the foreground will "crash".

Your slowdowns are caused by too little CPU power, buggy programs or bugs in iOS. But not because of too little RAM.
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
...The 3Gs is rocking 256MB and will be receiving iOS 5 although this is probably largely due to the iPT4 still having 256MB as well...
Click to expand...

Nope, the iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM ;)

cinek said:
...more memory requires more battery power
Click to expand...

not really... if you add more RAM then this will allow you to process more with the memory rather than relying on virtual memory which uses the hard drive and is much less power efficient. :cool:
 
Dumb question. No one complains about having too much RAM. Everyone complains when there isn't enough RAM and what you can do with the device becomes limited because of a lack of RAM.
 
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