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iPhone 6 Plus Might Be Limited to 1 GB of RAM
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And is it so hard to keep safari tabs without reloading or what? iOs devices are the only ones I've seen doing this and this makes them deserve a little bit the "toys" tag
Isn't the problem here the fact that the iOS platform uses a unified memory architecture? This means the GPU uses the same RAM as CPU. The problem lies in way iOS will need to build and composite views in memory for presentation to the GPU. Depending on how many frame buffers are required the iPhone 6+ could potentially use a lot more memory for a specific application then the iPhone 5S, resulting in memory issues and frequent app shutdowns.
This issue can be seen quite prominently on the iPad where it has to recycle it's memory regularly most likely due to having to clear space for graphics compositing reasons, this was exacerbated by iOS7 and it's use of various shaders to provide blurs. The WWDC 2014 videos covering advanced UI effects explain how they make use of multiple frame buffers at different resolutions to achieve these effects, each frame buffer will use up a chunk of this memory.
The iPhone 6+ will be rending at 1242x2408 which is 4.11x the number of pixels of the iPhone 5S and hence will use 4.11x as much memory for compositing. In addition the iPhone 6+ then has to then down sample this render for the 1920x1080 screen, ultimately the memory used to display the screen also has to live in memory, resulting in an even higher use.
The iPhone 5S feels much faster then the iPad Air/Retina Mini and it's always been my feelings this was a combination of graphics chip fill rate and memory limitations. Unless the memory and GPU are beefed up in the iPhone 6+ this could be very much like the 3 duds Apple have released before:
The iPhone 4 which suffered lack of memory and poor graphics performance for the resolution (it sold well so will always be remembered for this instead of it being fundamentally a 3GS with a higher resolution)
The iPad 1 which was essentially an iPhone 4 with an even higher resolution screen but half the memory (it was really bad)
The iPad 3 which had woeful GPU performance for the resolution (replaced after 6 months it was that bad)
This issue can be seen quite prominently on the iPad where it has to recycle it's memory regularly most likely due to having to clear space for graphics compositing reasons, this was exacerbated by iOS7 and it's use of various shaders to provide blurs. The WWDC 2014 videos covering advanced UI effects explain how they make use of multiple frame buffers at different resolutions to achieve these effects, each frame buffer will use up a chunk of this memory.
The iPhone 6+ will be rending at 1242x2408 which is 4.11x the number of pixels of the iPhone 5S and hence will use 4.11x as much memory for compositing. In addition the iPhone 6+ then has to then down sample this render for the 1920x1080 screen, ultimately the memory used to display the screen also has to live in memory, resulting in an even higher use.
The iPhone 5S feels much faster then the iPad Air/Retina Mini and it's always been my feelings this was a combination of graphics chip fill rate and memory limitations. Unless the memory and GPU are beefed up in the iPhone 6+ this could be very much like the 3 duds Apple have released before:
The iPhone 4 which suffered lack of memory and poor graphics performance for the resolution (it sold well so will always be remembered for this instead of it being fundamentally a 3GS with a higher resolution)
The iPad 1 which was essentially an iPhone 4 with an even higher resolution screen but half the memory (it was really bad)
The iPad 3 which had woeful GPU performance for the resolution (replaced after 6 months it was that bad)
if you haters are gonna start comparing things on paper, then i guess the 8MP camera and smaller battery mAH must mean the phone is going to suck then too, right? 
So true, the only reason android boasts their specs is because it's a sales point for them - but for Apple they know how to make good phones, specs isn't important.
Pro tip: If one of the 31 tabs has the word "tragic" on the page, highlight the word and select "Define". This is a good opportunity to use the included iOS dictionary, than to open that 32nd tab just for this.
No, they won't. They have never marketed (or even mentioned) how much RAM is in an iDevice.
Your multitasking comment makes me wonder about the split-screen multitasking rumors for the next iPad Air. Might it get the 2gb of ram for this rumor to become reality?
No, Apple has never talked about RAM in an ad or a keynote. Closest you could come to that would be some of the WWDC developer sessions. Definitely not something they would advertise if they increased it just like they didn't mention increasing from 512 in the 4s to 1 GB in the 5.
Considering the engineering going into the SoC in the iPhone 6, I'm not so sure the 1 GB is ONLY a cost issue of saving a couple dollars or not. I think we'll find out when/if Anandtech is able to take a really detailed look at how it's designed. Apple improved the iPhone 6 in all sorts of ways that don't show up on spec sheets. It doesn't seem like they would skimp on RAM just to save money if it hurt performance, and then spend tons on other parts of the device.
Whelp, that's cinched it for me. I am going to sit this one out.
Hopefully come next year DDR4 RAM will be affordable and have the power saving features Apple require to maintain consistent battery life while also being able to up the RAM.
My iPad Air has gotten on my tits the way apps close, not to mention being unable to meaningfully browse the 'net.
Hopefully come next year DDR4 RAM will be affordable and have the power saving features Apple require to maintain consistent battery life while also being able to up the RAM.
My iPad Air has gotten on my tits the way apps close, not to mention being unable to meaningfully browse the 'net.
i don't think more RAM or any software fix would be able to "fix" the issue on safari reloading as you mentioned. think about it, RAM can be only given to number, let us say 6G. how many tabs can this 6G RAM hold? it has to have a limit. i am wondering whether you would complain it again after having 6G RAM?
on laptop or desktop, RAM size is more than that on iPhone. but still it has limited RAM size which eventually will hit a limit on how many safari tabs you can open.
to me, i opened many tabs as i can and DONT mind to reload those tabs.
for software fix, it might be ok to squeeze or zip the tabs data and still u have to reload it.
on laptop or desktop, RAM size is more than that on iPhone. but still it has limited RAM size which eventually will hit a limit on how many safari tabs you can open.
to me, i opened many tabs as i can and DONT mind to reload those tabs.
for software fix, it might be ok to squeeze or zip the tabs data and still u have to reload it.
Agreed. They have never done this so I don't see why they would start now. When things jumped from 512MB to 1GB there was no mention by Apple that they had doubled the amount of RAM...
I don't have any definitive answer or evidence as to why Safari exhibits the reloading problem. Some have suggested it may be an implementation fault that Safari has, but I have the same issue with Chrome as well (as do others, according to their anecdotal accounts) - which may be why some point at memory being an issue, since iOS is very aggressive with its memory management, and the reloading may be a side effect of that.
What makes you think that the decision to put 1GB of RAM was made by 1000 engineers, and not by the bean counters trying to maximise profits knowing that people like you will buy whatever Apple makes so it doesn't matter what they put inside? Or by the people who are designing the iPhone 6s for next year and are trying to come up with its selling points (Look! iOS9 can multi-task! But you need to buy the new iPhone/iPad to take advantage of that, because it is *so* powerful...)
Yes but OSX has virtual memory so even if you run out of RAM it can start using the hard drive. iOS sadly doesn't have this so the moment 1GB is exceeded apps start being closed and tabs get discarded.
I honestly think I'd rather they skipped the 128GB model and instead added an extra gig of RAM. It's not just tabs reloading in Safari but just navigating back a single page that often triggers a refresh on my iPad Air.
Web pages these days are so full of JavaScript tracking code and AJAX calls that even a simple page can be using a lot of memory. The worst culprits are sites with Disqus, I often find Safari just crashes out after browsing through comments for a while.
True but the rumors are of about a 50% bigger battery. And since much of the battery use is going to be the same between the phones (same CPU, same touch ID, same NFC, same cell connector pulling in emails, same wifi bringing in data when you surf the web), I'm wondering if battery life is going to be substantially different.
The RAM issue does effect me personally. It's most frustrating when filling out forms on one tab, then switching to another to gather information, and Safari reloads the page - erasing all the fields.
I like my iPhone and iPad. I just wish they were better. And the upsetting fact is that they could be.
Go on drinking the Kool-Aid, man.
Thank you! I have been trying to post this in every thread I find about RAM. People think the 6 Plus will be fine because its driving less pixels then the iPad Air, but they don't realize it down samples. Plus, Retina 3x on the DPI provided renders higher vertically then the iPad Air anyway (horizontal is slightly smaller), so the GPU will be more taxed the the iPad Air's.
People need to also realize that this isn't desktop computing where most GPUs have their own VRAM built in. Because its an SoC it steals the VRAM required from the main system RAM. I have a feeling if Apple didn't put 1GB in the Plus, a lot of people are not going to be happy.
Right, better battery life that's the ticket. Maybe they should reduce the screen size for even better battery life.
I can't wait for Friday so everyone can stop freaking out about RAM on a machine they've never touched, and start losing your minds over real things like microscopic dings in the shell, scratches on the curved part of the glass panel (same as my Lumia 920), minor backlight bleed, the signal bars drop when you hold it the wrong way, and so on.
Or just make it a couple of mm thicker and put a bigger battery, this way the lens doesn't stick out the back. Win-win.