Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
wouldn’t be surprised if the upcoming iPhone 16 has 12gb of ram but limited/locked to 8gb just like Apple did with the 2024 M4 iPads.
 
Huh. I never knew how much any of my phones (iPhone or Pixel) had for RAM. They've always just worked well for me. So now I know my iPhone 15 has 6GB of RAM. Great.

As long as the device works well for me, I don't really care about how much RAM it has or doesn't have. Just keep them running smooth and I'll be happy.
 
Even 12 GB is ridiculous. Given the fact that RAM isn't that expensive, the iP17 should ship with 16GB and btw all Macs should finally ship with 16GB minimum.

Current top of the range consumer graphics cards like the 4090 ship with 24GB, the 5090 will incorporate 48GB an AI is the reason why. When looking at reasonable LLMs like llama 3.1:70b we're talking about roughly 140GB RAM. Remember that most entry level Macs ship with 128GB SSD.
https://abhinand05.medium.com/self-hosting-llama-3-1-70b-or-any-70b-llm-affordably-2bd323d72f8d

Those kind of models won't run on a smartphone in the foreseeable future, correct. But it is a good example why we are talking about RAM when we talk about AI.


I said this often enough during the last weeks/months but the iP17 will be Apples first reasonable AI phone.
That's why Apple has Private Cloud Compute for more complex AI stuff. So RAM still isn't extremely important.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lequon Robinson
12GB does sound reasonable if Macs will now start at 16GB base. But it should happen this year, not next. Depending on the LLM tools they choose to use, it's up in the air how much will be a 'base' spec in 5 years... perhaps 64GB on computers and 32GB on phones? It's anyone's guess...

Yeah I'm hoping the mechanics of this will work out as follows:

1. Current base mac mini M2 is 8Gb/256Gb.
2. New base mac mini M4 will be 16Gb/512Gb.
3. Now I don't have to buy an M4 Pro mac mini.
4. Thanks to academic status I have student discount available so I can bag a 16/512 Mac Mini for around £539 which is better than spending £1218 on a Pro variant 🤣
 
Not a huge surprise to me. I don't think Apple Intelligence was the plan for the 16s to begin with. Sure seems like it was pressure that got Apple pushing AI out. They had support as many devices as they could, so 8gb was the lowest RAM they could run AI on. I truly believe they thought they had until iOS 19 and the iPhone 17 to get AI out.
 
Not a huge surprise to me. I don't think Apple Intelligence was the plan for the 16s to begin with. Sure seems like it was pressure that got Apple pushing AI out. They had support as many devices as they could, so 8gb was the lowest RAM they could run AI on. I truly believe they thought they had until iOS 19 and the iPhone 17 to get AI out.
That's why Private Cloud Compute exists, technically even 8 GB RAM isn't 100% enough. But with that we can all still use it. Hope it stays free though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lequon Robinson
That's why Apple has Private Cloud Compute for more complex AI stuff. So RAM still isn't extremely important.
Oh, really? I don't know what you're trying to tell me - of course you need cloud computing if you wanna have something like ChatGPT. But this changes nothing regarding the fact that you need RAM for local AI functionality.
 
Oh, really? I don't know what you're trying to tell me - of course you need cloud computing if you wanna have something like ChatGPT. But this changes nothing regarding the fact that you need RAM for local AI functionality.
I just googled how much RAM you should need to use AI: minimum 16GB for very small ones and minimum 32 GB for medium ones and large ones... yeah... double that or triple that.

Guess we'll have 64GB RAM on the iPhone by 2030 if AI keeps evolving like this. Private Cloud Compute will be needed for a very long time until we get 64 GB RAM.

May god save our wallets cause I don't want to pay 2.5K for a brand new iphone with 64GB RAM.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lequon Robinson
That's why Private Cloud Compute exists, technically even 8 GB RAM isn't 100% enough. But with that we can all still use it. Hope it stays free though.
Yes but Apple doesn't want to rely on that for AI. They said all along they want to keep it on the device as much as possible. The Private Cloud Compute is only for backup when the on device AI can't handle the task. If relied on the Private Cloud Compute for AI, earlier iPhones would have gotten AI.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NoGood@Usernames
Yes but Apple doesn't want to rely on that for AI. They said all along they want to keep it on the device as much as possible. The Private Cloud Compute is only for backup when the on device AI can't handle the task. If relied on the Private Cloud Compute for AI, earlier iPhones would have gotten AI.
We need minimum 16GB to run AI 100% locally but AI will probably take like 8GB permenantly and so you'll be left with 8GB RAM. This would probably make the 8GB haters pretty mad lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lequon Robinson
I don't think ram will be an advertised differentiator. Apple has never talked about iPhone ram, and even having used iPhones once the 3g, I couldn't tell you how much ram any particular model has.
Looks like the iPhone to buy is the iPhone 17 which is turning to be a way better option than the iPhone 16.
Here waiting for 16GB in the PRO, if I have to wait for 17 or even 18, I will, not going to buy an 8 or 12 GB, I vote with my money
 
We need minimum 16GB to run AI 100% locally but AI will probably take like 8GB permenantly and so you'll be left with 8GB RAM. This would probably make the 8GB haters pretty mad lol.
will wait until I see 16 GB before I buy another PRO, be it 17 or 18, voting with my money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ramchi
With 16GB now being the new 8GB I will wait till the iPhone comes with 16GB. Coming from "3GB" iPhone 14PM.
 
the iphone 16 pro will have 12 gb ram so ..this is more of a news for the normal iphone 17 that will also come with 12gb ram, probably from 8gb ram of upcoming iphone 16
 
Fair sick of these leakers. I used to love the events and the surprise of what was coming. Granted I could not read the articles. But that would mean avoiding tech sites. And why no 12GB of ram this year? The iPhone 16 has not come out yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: russell_314
Fair sick of these leakers. I used to love the events and the surprise of what was coming. Granted I could not read the articles. But that would mean avoiding tech sites. And why no 12GB of ram this year? The iPhone 16 has not come out yet.
Probably because they planned all the specs a year ago before everyone started putting AI everywhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lequon Robinson
so
iphone 16 pro - 12 gb ram
iphone 16 - 8gb ram

iphone 17 pro - 12 gb ram
iphone 17 - 12 gb ram
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.