Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $25/year with no ads, private forums, and more!
How will the average user differentiate 1gb vs 2gb of RAM?
- Thread starter MultiMediaWill
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
No. It won't matter.
Multitasking maybe but not really it's not like Desktop computers. There will be no sluggishness either way.
Multitasking maybe but not really it's not like Desktop computers. There will be no sluggishness either way.
I dunno about that. I would say the apple software engineers have compensated for this. Apple software is much more efficient then its rivals.
Safari will actually be able to keep two+ tabs open without reloading every single time you switch.
Switching apps will be much faster, not waiting for the app to reload again.
Can you really say that, though, without having used the phone extensively? You state with some authority that doubling the RAM would yield little to no benefit.
No, its not even close to anything so ridiculous. 99 percent of users don't know or see the difference and the 1 percent are just caught up in the spec number.
So where do I fit in? I'd love it if I could switch from app A to app B without app A being instantly killed half (or more) of the time. I'd also love it if I could switch from tab A to tab B in safari without tab A being flushed to make room in memory, and having it reload when I go back to that tab.
There *are* tangible benefits to having more memory, and saying that anyone who cares about it is just "caught up in the spec number" is insulting.
Of course Apple wouldn't. It's never happened before.
*cough* iPhone 4 antenna *cough*
*cough* G4 Cube *cough*
*cough* Buttonless iPod Shuffle *cough*
*cough* Ping *cough*
*cough* 1st gen Apple TV *cough*
*cough* iPod Hi-Fi *cough*
*cough* Hockey puck mouse *cough*
*cough* Apple Maps *cough*
Wow I better go find some cough syrup...
Last edited:
Have you ever used Safari? My favorite is when I've been filling out a page-long form and switch tabs, come back and everything is reloaded. Or check an email that came in and then go back and the page reloads part way through a long-winded MacRumors reply (I actually select all and copy before leaving Safari or switching tabs when I'm leaving a comment in a text box).
I would say RAM is fairly important. Nothing else really matters at this point because phones are plenty fast. Number of cores? Nah. Video chip? Most AAA 3D games are designed to support devices that are several years old anyway (see Bioshock). AC Wifi? Maybe a little bit if you have a newer router and you have signal issues at the edges of your house or out on the deck. But RAM? Yeah it has been under-specc'd for at least a year. Anand of Anandtech (who was recently hired by Apple) said that 64-bit chips like the A7 use 20-30% more RAM than the 32-bit A6. I've noticed it on my Retina iPad Mini vs. my iPhone 5. Apple does so many other things well that I just deal with it. If they could eliminate that one issue then the iPhone would be nearly perfect. The lack of decent RAM is by no means a reason to switch to Android, but if you have a 5S I would sit tight until the 6S, but even then there is no guarantee they will add more. Most people thought last year would see 2GB for sure, and yet here we are and it seems likely the 6 won't even get it.
I never see apps killing off in the background unless I kill them. Try not running 50 apps in the background. And if the iPhone 6 got 2GB of RAM, you would just open 100 apps in the background and complain that 2GB in't enough RAM. The VAST majority of users experience no RAM related issues.
Safari tabs is the only example that anyone can come up with. And even with that, how do we not know its just a programming issue?
The whining on this issue is becoming tiresome already.
Have you used the 5S?
I can hook it up to my projector via Apple TV and run games that look like graphics for an average PS3 game.
Even the 5.
What else do you need to do. If this OS doesn't need it it doesn't need it. Simple.
Yes, the 5S' graphics are comparable to an 8+ year old gaming console system. That's something to be proud of!
You're making some pretty big assumptions about me.
I keep my app tray pretty clean, usually only a couple apps in there. Try opening up a heavy duty game like Bioshock, XCom, etc, jump out to reply to an email or google something, and go back to the game. Chances are the game has to reload all over again.
The fact that these issues don't present themselves in your day to day usage doesn't mean these issues don't exist.
Of course it is.
The effect will be more noticeable on the 6+ than the 6, but of course RAM is important and has a noticeable effect on performance.
Amazing at all the rationalization on this on these boards.
Have you, though, used this phone with this OS at this screen size with a gigabyte of RAM versus two?
If not, how can you be so sure it "doesn't matter"? People on either extreme ("NO WAY IT CAN RUN AT 3X AND BE USABLE", "APPLE KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING, IT'LL BE PERFECT") are both jumping to conclusions about something they have never witnessed way too fast.
You are not running 50 apps in the background. The app switcher just shows you a list of recently used apps. At best, only several apps are actually kept in memory (RAM), and others will be reloaded once you open them (the same thing as if you closed them). By adding 1gb more, you'd be able to keep twice as many apps in memory (and actually save battery, because the phone won't have to reload everything from zero).
After I sold my 5s, I tried to run my exercise logging app on my iPad Air. One time, I flipped over to check a new email during the rest timer. I thought that 60 second timer was unusually long.. yeah because it closed the app from running the timer in the background when I flipped to email
It never did that on the phone, presumably because the lower resolution screen required less system RAM. Now that the iPhone 6+ has a screen resolution close to the iPad Air, it just might be as bad as it is on the iPad Air..lol so the only options we have are be perfectly happy with everything about the iPhone, or go elsewhere? Good grief. We want more RAM, why does that offend you so much?