rui no onna
Contributor
The A12X/Z actually have a unified memory architecture. Lower memory bandwidth compared to M1, though, iirc.
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iPad iPad Stage Manager
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The A12X/Z actually have a unified memory architecture. Lower memory bandwidth compared to M1, though, iirc.
bcortens
macrumors 65816
The M1 is really a supped up A14X - It has some updates to make it more suitable to macs (which the iPads then also benefitted from) such as Thunderbolt instead of USB-C and I believe a wider GPU core (32bit vs 16bit floating point units in prior A12X/Z series). It is the next evolution of the X series of SoCs that had been going for years but taken just a little further than they had been taken before.
From what I can remember the A12X had 32 GB/s memory bandwidth, about half the M1 but about the same as a Core i7 6700…
I have a 14' pro so not worried about upgrading iPad for it. Remember when the iPad was a tablet and not a computer.
The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
Tyler O'Bannon
macrumors 65816
The only iPad I’ve ever hand was the iPad Air (launch day purchase).
The next year, multitasking came to the iPad, and it was ONLY supported on the Air 2’s A8X.
This is like that happening all over again.
People with an Air 4 or A12X/Z iPad Pro are missing out on a big feature that significantly increased the productivity usage of an iPad.
Stinks to miss out on a feature that is only available on the newest Gen hardware
The next year, multitasking came to the iPad, and it was ONLY supported on the Air 2’s A8X.
This is like that happening all over again.
People with an Air 4 or A12X/Z iPad Pro are missing out on a big feature that significantly increased the productivity usage of an iPad.
Stinks to miss out on a feature that is only available on the newest Gen hardware
enricoclaudio
macrumors 6502a
I wanted to use my iPad Air 4 with my ASDs but now that I know it's not going to be supported, I just traded in an iPad mini 5 for $200 and got a new iPad Air 5 256GB. Apple wanted to give me $290 for the Air 4 as trade in so I put the iPad Air 4 for sale over FB Marketplace and got $475 in less than 1 hour.
rui no onna
Contributor
Exactly why one shouldn’t count on futureproofing.
Although in fairness, the A12X iPad Pro is 4 years old at this point and the A12Z iPad Pro is pretty much sporting 4-year old hardware. There was a time when even my laptops didn’t stay viable that long (pre-Nehalem).
BhaveshUK
macrumors regular
The more I’ve seen of this feature today online and through YouTube video, the more I realise it’s not something that would make me upgrade. As you’ve said, it’s minimal utility of what already is.
I’m a 2020 iPad Pro owner and I’m not mad or disappointed at all to “miss out”. It’s weird because external monitor support is something I’ve always wanted for iPad. But this implementation just doesn’t feel all that different. It feels more a redressing of what already exists on iPad.
It’s nice being able to have 8 apps open, but thinking about how I work, I personally can only focus on one or two apps side by side at a time anyway. This is true even on my iMac. And I can already do that on my 2020 iPad Pro. The only thing I dislike is the black bars when mirroring my screen but that’s a first-world problem — it’s really not that big of a deal when put into perspective.
And as it stands the iPad apps are still the exact same as they were a week ago with all their limitations. The majority of apps don’t have feature parity with their Mac counterparts and I’m not sure that’s going to change. This is where my actual frustration is because it’s what actively prevents me from getting all my work accomplished on the go.
I understand why others are having FOMO right now. But if Apple purposefully cut off the 2018 and 2020 iPad Pro off to try and get people to upgrade, they haven’t got me just yet. I’m happy to sit on the sidelines and see if those iPad apps actually progress in any meaningful way.
Ludatyk
macrumors 604
This is where Apple mentioned Desktop apps in the keynote... in attempt to bridge the gap between features of Mac apps to iPad apps. By Apple addressing this it's only a matter of time before that gap is closed.
And I don't think it's a manner of cutting off features in effort to get 2018 and 2020 iPP owners to upgrade. Apple has had a history of omitting features where existing specs don't meet their standards.
Outdoordude01
macrumors member
But how long until that gap is closed? Isn't it ultimately up to the developers? For example, the Excel Safari web-app on the iPad is more powerful than the native iPad app. When do we get an Excel app on the iPad that is comparable to what is on the Mac?
Likely never. Microsoft's mobile implementation of its Office apps has been a subset of its mainline product - you see the same limitations on Android as you do in iPadOS. I believe they had done this by choice.
It is indeed an "artificial" limitation. But maybe not what people think. Let me explain the reason (by copying something I wrote earlier today on another website).
"It's the same reason why M1 and M2 only support one external monitor instead of several.
Apple sells 6k and 5k monitors and those monitors require too much bandwidth to run more than 1 5-6k display plus the device display. M1 and M2 could probably run 2 external 4k displays but not 2 Apple displays.
A12X/Z could probably run 1 4k external display or at the very least 1440p (Dex on Galaxy Tabs, which are weaker than A12X in GPU power, can run 1440p displays plus the device display), but not ultra high resolution displays. So here you go. Apple could have made them work at lower resolutions with third party displays, but why do that when you can push sales of newer iPads? And advertise they can run the pro display XDR? They have done it with M1 (only 1 display), now they are doing it with A12X/Z on another scale (no external display).
"
bcortens
macrumors 65816
Again though, the external displays can already be utilized at full external resolution if the app developer has chosen to allow a second non-interactive window to populate the second display.
Its possible of course that 4GB of memory is too little and maybe apple has decided on some minimum performance target for iPads (that didn’t stop them releasing iPadOS 5 for the iPad 3 which was dreadfully slow).
Generally I think external display support is probably possible with high performance on the A12X/Z series but maybe they would have had to limit the number of simultaneous windows to 3 per screen? We won’t really know till someone jailbreaks it and enables stage manager on the A12X equipped iPads.
Not happening. Desktop software developers have no interest in porting their apps to iPad (see this post for more explanations https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ro.2346963/page-2?post=31159969#post-31159969)
As for "omitting features where existing specs don't meet their standards" see my previous post above. The real reason is only speculation, nobody can tell for sure. But as I mentioned it's not hard to make educated guesses on why they set the standards so unreasonably high in certain situations
That's a different thing.
Exactly, they could have implemented swap on those devices to solve the problem (see below)
As I said above these are 2 different things, resolution and RAM. I think A12X could run a 4k external display, but not the pro display or the studio display, that's why it didn't get it. RAM can be addressed via swap. Would it make it a little slower? Let users choose as Samsung does. And it's not like they haven't made older iPads much slower in the past. But why do that when they can push sales of newer devices?? And just look at this forum, they were damn right! People are planning to upgrade their 2020 iPad pro to the M2. They wouldn't have planned that if they had monitor support (even a more limited one) on their device. Apple knows well what they are doing.
We'll never know
Ludatyk
macrumors 604
Developers will go where the audience is. It’s as simple as that… follow the money. If enough M1 iPad users request their app on the platform or if there’s enough M1 iPad users to justify it… then it will come to reality. To act as if it will never happen is as saying ”Adobe will never bring Photoshop to the iPad.”
Photoshop is on the iPad (built from the ground up) and it’s not the same as the Mac counterpart, but desktop features are gradually coming slowly. Apple gave a reason to why it’s been omitted whether we like it or not… Virtual Memory Swap.
vbctv
macrumors 65816
If Intel Macs can run the same feature, then there is no reason why the more powerful A12X/Z can't. It's not omitting, it's a sales pitch...
I think most people buying an air
no you can use touch on the iPad to resize
Ludatyk
macrumors 604
Same feature? That being Stage Manager? Well... Intel Macs has always had window management, that doesn't make much sense to bring up.
Window Management is something new for iPads and as of now... the requirements are geared towards the M1 iPads. And back when Apple announced multitasking in iOS 9, some iPads were constrained to how much apps that were active.
bcortens
macrumors 65816
There is simply not enough M1 iPad user request to move many big companies to invest in making a full, touch first, version of their desktop software and take the 30% cut too, especially when they know that most of those users also have a Mac or Windows laptop anyway... And if that struggles to happen with Photoshop, which is an app than can take advantage of the pencil, more traditional business software is even more unlikely to come and some, like MS Office, will never come anyway for the reasons I explained
killaz05
macrumors member
I am trying out stage manager on my M1 12.9 iPad Pro and I am surprised no one is talking about the ability to have an app full screen on a monitor. The ability to use HDR on monitor as well. I am using a Dell Thunderbolt dock and it is charging the iPad, using my LG G560 gaming speakers and Logitech gaming mouse. Writing this on the iPad with Lightroom on full screen on the monitor and music playing. I mean this is pretty awesome!