iPad Pro iPad RAM is not THAT important

[Sensamic]

In the last 10 years, we've seen Apple increase progressively RAM in their iPads and iPhones, going from 4GB to 6GB, then 8GB and now 12GB.

It's fair to assume that maybe in 3/4 years they will increase again base RAM to 16GB in their mobile devices, specially if there's big advancements in AI, as many people believe will happen in the next 3/4 years.

So maybe in less than 5 years, 12GB RAM won't be enough anymore, and will not be as futureproof as some may think.

Just think this: M1 and M2 iPad Pros already had 16GB RAM in their top configurations. Has it been any useful? There was that news a while ago that Apple bottleneck RAM to less via software.

Also, those iPads with 16GB RAM won't get longer software support from Apple, and won't get any big demanding AI feature if it requires a more powerful chip like M4 or M5.

So, what's the point? An M4 iPad Pro with 8GB RAM will get longer software support than a 16GB RAM M1 or M2 iPad Pro. Maybe the chip is more important to make the device still fast in 8 years.

Oh, and even if we get 16GB RAM in the base models, battery degradation will probably make us change our iPads before we thought. So, again, not much futureproofing IMO.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Those that have been keeping up with the evolution of the iPad hopefully understand developers have reported not having full access to the RAM so there’s still a limit built in for them. Additionally, Apple has been raising the RAM across all devices because AI reportedly takes up roughly 8gb.

It’s all because of AI…that’s it.

 

[leifp]

I fell for it last time: I have the 1TB iPP M4 with 16GB RAM. I notice zero difference between it and the M2 iPP I had before that. I definitely like the improved screen that tandem OLED brings to the table (100% notice that difference) but otherwise I could have stuck with the older processor and the lower RAM. That said, I have not yet upgraded to iPadOS 26 and I will definitely try it out with my Studio Display, which may well trip up lesser iPads.

Edit: my M1 and M2 iPP had 8GB RAM

 

[rui no onna]

I needed 1TB anyway so the 16GB RAM is a nice bonus. I've noticed more frequent reloads on my iPad mini 7 versus my 1TB M1 iPP so I reckon the extra 8GB RAM does help. That said, I wouldn't pay the $600 upcharge for the extra RAM alone.

 

[Digitalguy]

That's what I used to think too, until little more than a year ago... I had a 16GB RAM M1 11" and a 8GB one (12.9"). And I couldn't see much difference between the 2. So I said to myself, it's not worth it. And when I got the M4 13 I decided to go with the base model (cellular, all my iPads are cellular).
And again I could not see much difference. I wasn't expecting any difference in speed, but I was expecting a difference in terms of reloads, which plagued my old 4GB RAM iPad pro 3rd gen.

Then I completely changed my mind after updating to iPadOS 18. My M4 started reloading my tabs all the time, I couldn't leave a few tabs open with stuff unfinished (youtube video paused, comments half written, forms half filled) without my tabs reloading after I had used a few others app in the meantime. My 16GB RAM M1 hardly ever reloaded. iPad 26 changed very little. Still a lot of reloads on 8GB and none on 16GB.

At this point this has nothing to do with future proofing.
8GB RAM are a problem today for me, not a possible issue in the future. So yes, RAM is important to me.
What's not important is CPU and GPU speed. M1 is still fast enough for me, as I don't do anything considered heavy or demanding like gaming or video editing.. But RAM is an issue.
Still I don't want to get rid of the light form factor of the M4. So at this point M5 could be the solution, especially the 16GB one.
Maybe for other uses cases 8GB are plenty. Maybe many people don't care about reloads or even realize they are there, because they never leave unfinished stuff. So I am not speaking for everybody.

I am speaking for myself here. And for iPad RAM is THAT important. So well, I respectfully disagree.

 

[muzzy996]

I'm of the opinion that there shouldn't be different RAM configurations in the Pro lineup. All it serves to accomplish is more fragmentation of capabilities within that single lineup that potentially hinders progress in development of applications for users all for the sake of profit by making the upselling of capacity more attractive. Base iPad 6gb? Air 8gb? All fine. Make the Pro's all 16gb - you're calling them Pros and charging more for them so just make them all the same on the RAM front.

 

[baconcat_8964]

iPad RAM is not that important unless the iPad remains a single-task tablet or only supports multitasking with two or three windows. With the new windowing system (and Stage Manager) introduced in iPadOS 26 across all iPad models, even if apps still have a maximum memory limit, the system will require more RAM to run effectively in this new style.

 

[Brapple]

I have constant browser tab/page reloads and even Safari crashes that wipe out all of the tabs. This happens much more when I play a game and go back to Safari, which I’m doing constantly. This is absolutely a ram problem.

I just hope 12GB is enough to fix this vs the 8GB in my M4.

It’s extremely irritating on a $1200 device.

 

[Digitalguy]

I have constant browser tab/page reloads and even Safari crashes that wipe out all of the tabs. This happens much more when I play a game and go back to Safari, which I’m doing constantly. This is absolutely a ram problem.

I just hope 12GB is enough to fix this vs the 8GB in my M4.

It’s extremely irritating on a $1200 device.

It's exactly the question I am asking myself. Will 12GB be enough? My 8GB M4, which I will be selling, has the same issue, while my 16GB M1 has none of these issues. I am trying to decide today before the back to school promotion ends (I am a university teacher).
This time the difference is not as big (4 more GB RAM) with the 1TB model, but the price difference is still $600. I tend to use 200 to 300 GB storage so I could make the 256GB work (especially as I have the storage on older devices), but if the reloads start again in a couple of years I will want to sell the M5 like I am doing with the M4...

 

[pdoherty]

Just think this: M1 and M2 iPad Pros already had 16GB RAM in their top configurations. Has it been any useful?

It's been very useful to me. Safari tab reloads on iPads before I got my 16GB M1 Pro were annoying. I'd be composing a reply in one tab, doing research in another, and I'd come back to paste in a URL or text and the reply I'd been putting in gets refreshed and lost. That doesn't happen with 16GB of RAM.

 

[FlyingDutch]

In the last 10 years, we've seen Apple increase progressively RAM in their iPads and iPhones, going from 4GB to 6GB, then 8GB and now 12GB.

It's fair to assume that maybe in 3/4 years they will increase again base RAM to 16GB in their mobile devices, specially if there's big advancements in AI, as many people believe will happen in the next 3/4 years.

So maybe in less than 5 years, 12GB RAM won't be enough anymore, and will not be as futureproof as some may think.

Just think this: M1 and M2 iPad Pros already had 16GB RAM in their top configurations. Has it been any useful? There was that news a while ago that Apple bottleneck RAM to less via software.

Also, those iPads with 16GB RAM won't get longer software support from Apple, and won't get any big demanding AI feature if it requires a more powerful chip like M4 or M5.

So, what's the point? An M4 iPad Pro with 8GB RAM will get longer software support than a 16GB RAM M1 or M2 iPad Pro. Maybe the chip is more important to make the device still fast in 8 years.

Oh, and even if we get 16GB RAM in the base models, battery degradation will probably make us change our iPads before we thought. So, again, not much futureproofing IMO.

Software support won’t be an issue. It depends on user’s case: for many customers 4 Gb are still enough. Even on a business usage, 8 GB are enough for me.

 

[FlyingDutch]

It's been very useful to me. Safari tab reloads on iPads before I got my 16GB M1 Pro were annoying. I'd be composing a reply in one tab, doing research in another, and I'd come back to paste in a URL or text and the reply I'd been putting in gets refreshed and lost. That doesn't happen with 16GB of RAM.

It is quite strange you have reloads on 8 GB with just two tabs opened…
In this exact moment I have 7 opened e no reloads switching among them.

 

[SiXiam]

Meanwhile my Windows desktop be using 9GB of RAM with 2 Chrome tabs open plus an unknown amount of VRAM to drive a 4K OLED tv.

 

[Digitalguy]

It is quite strange you have reloads on 8 GB with just two tabs opened…
In this exact moment I have 7 opened e no reloads switching among them.

All tabs don't take the same amount of ram, that's why.
You can check this on Chrome on Windows and MacOS.
I'll give you some example. Macrumors page only takes between 50 and 200MB I guess it depends on the browser, on how long the tab has been active (RAM usage tend to increase when you leave things open)
A gmail page takes between 300 and 600 MB
Youtube videos can vary wildly from under 200MB to almost 1GB.

I generally have 3-4 gmail tabs (multiple accounts, work, personal etc.), 2-3 youtube videos and maybe another 1-2 tabs. That's 5-8 tabs, on average sometimes less. But they can easily take over 4GB (say 2GB for gmail, 2GB for youtube etc). Plus the RAM for the browser itself, which is probably a couple of hundreds MBs, plus iPadOS which probably takes 2GB just for running. We are already around 7GB, not surprising when you open other apps (games can easily take over 1GB each based on Gary Sims iOS RAM tests) your tabs start reloading. Now if you only have stuff like Macrumors, even with 10+ tabs open you will see no reloads as they take 100-150MB on average.
PS edited to add, switching among tabs is not the best way to test, since iPadOS will be ejecting other stuff from RAM first, not the tabs you are switching among, unless you have very little RAM like 3-4GB devices (my iPad mini 5 does this even when just using the browser). Also iPadOS tends to give priority to things used more recently and do all it can to keep things in RAM but once you leave your device unused for a few hours it will free up RAM. Also sometimes you have the impression a tab is still on RAM (say a paused video on youtube) but then when you try to play it it freezes or crashes.

 

[Brapple]

I think I should have gotten the 16GB iPP M5, not the 12GB…

I think that 12GB will get immediately swallowed up and I’ll be right back where I am now.

Really irritating Apple is so damn stingy with their memory and gouges so bad on the next step up.

 

[Digitalguy]

I think I should have gotten the 16GB iPP M5, not the 12GB…

I think that 12GB will get immediately swallowed up and I’ll be right back where I am now.

Really irritating Apple is so damn stingy with their memory and gouges so bad on the next step up.

Well, I don't know, I'll be testing it and I will have 14 days to return it and get 1TB. Having said that I'd probably still take the advantages of the base M5 over a 16GB M4 (and I haven't see a new M4 16GB anywhere near that price), but other than that indeed I agree with you, Apple is stingy and will not leave a cent on the table

 

[pdoherty]

It is quite strange you have reloads on 8 GB with just two tabs opened…
In this exact moment I have 7 opened e no reloads switching among them.

The prior iPad had less than 8GB. It was an iPad Air 2 I believe is what I had prior to the M1 Pro.

 

[Digitalguy]

The prior iPad had less than 8GB. It was an iPad Air 2 I believe is what I had prior to the M1 Pro.

2GB RAM devices started reloading since iOS 9, 4GB ones started around iPadOS 14, getting worse on 15 and 16 and 8GB started on 18 (not as much as 4GB devices of course). My 6GB RAM iPad on 17 shows similar reloads to 8GB ones on 18 and 26.

 

[rui no onna]

2GB RAM devices started reloading since iOS 9, 4GB ones started around iPadOS 14, getting worse on 15 and 16 and 8GB started on 18 (not as much as 4GB devices of course). My 6GB RAM iPad on 17 shows similar reloads to 8GB ones on 18 and 26.

Iirc, 2GB did pretty well on 9 and 10. It was 11 that was the RAM hog. iOS 12 wasn't too bad for 2GB either. I still regret upgrading from iOS 12 on my iPP 9.7.

As for 4GB RAM, the reloads started with iPadOS 13.

 

[Digitalguy]

Iirc, 2GB did pretty well on 9 and 10. It was 11 that was the RAM hog. iOS 12 wasn't too bad for 2GB either. I still regret upgrading from iOS 12 on my iPP 9.7.

As for 4GB RAM, the reloads started with iPadOS 13.

I think you are right, I am misremembering, I got my 9.7 pro quite a bit later than my 2015 12.9 (in 2018 I think) and immediately upgraded to 12 and it was reloading on 12, but not badly, I remember I noticed the difference with the 12.9 however, which never reloaded on 12. Reloads became worse on 13 and I left the 9.7 there (where it still is, 13.4).
As for 4GB devices, I don't remember too many reloads on 13 (I remember them on 14 and 15 and 16, they became worse and worse), but maybe I just didn't noticed back then since they were not as evident as they became later.

 

[Brapple]

Well the new 12gb M5 runs at around 98% used memory, just like my old M4 8GB.

I don’t know yet if the tabs are having to reload yet. I’ll know in the next few days.

It’s expected that the iPad will try to keep its cache full at all times with the last set of apps that was opened (and even after you swipe-close the apps) - what we don’t know is if the memory pressure has been reduced by an extra 4gb - and if Safari has any better behavior.

My guess is even the 16GB 1TB models run at ~98% full ram after enough normal use.

 

[max2]

The full next major iPadOS version next year will do the same thing with more reloads. The question is will it have a lot or a little on the latest iPad Pros currently. Impossible to know for sure.

 

[Digitalguy]

Well the new 12gb M5 runs at around 98% used memory, just like my old M4 8GB.

I don’t know yet if the tabs are having to reload yet. I’ll know in the next few days.

It’s expected that the iPad will try to keep its cache full at all times with the last set of apps that was opened (and even after you swipe-close the apps) - what we don’t know is if the memory pressure has been reduced by an extra 4gb - and if Safari has any better behavior.

My guess is even the 16GB 1TB models run at ~98% full ram after enough normal use.

That's normal behaviour, it happens wiht 16GB RAM devices too and third party apps are inconsistent in measuring this anyway (and there is no first party app).

 

[Digitalguy]

The full next major iPadOS version next year will do the same thing with more reloads. The question is will it have a lot or a little on the latest iPad Pros currently. Impossible to know for sure.

As I explained in another post to this same comment "this should not happen to a significant extent for the next 2 OS releases because they have to support 3GB and 4GB devices respectively. The issues might come with iPadOS 29 though. Also Apple tends to have a major release every 3 generations lately (iPadOS 13, 16 and 19/26)"

 

[Benny0001]

With regards to how aggressive iPad OS is in shutting down background tasks and applications, 16GB of RAM seems almost overkill.