iPhone 6 Plus Might Be Limited to 1 GB of RAM

[iamMacPerson]

Exactly, we've got an OS with a larger base RAM requirement (compared to iOS5 which was the first 1GB device) and considerably larger graphics RAM requirements, both fighting over the same slice of RAM, it was only a matter of time before it started becoming scarce.

Well, actually the first 1GB device was the iPhone 5 and that had iOS 6, but I get your point. Its not that we want more RAM just to look good on a spec sheet, we need more RAM, if for no other reason then the display having to render twice on the Plus. Hell, it could 1.5GB of RAM, as long as it runs smoothly I don't care.

 

[Moto G]

Time for a re-cap:

Thread title: "iPhone 6 Plus Might Be Limited to 1 GB of RAM"

Regain your focus and composure, those of you losing your marbles over this.
Keywords are "might" and "be"; it also MIGHT NOT be limited.

Incredulous...

 

[wovel]

What a freaking joke apple, 1GB of Ram really? On a 64 bit SoC? Ridiculous. Havent they learned anything about the ipad air ram issues? Apple know they can get away with this cause iphone users are not too tech savy.

Yeah that must be it. I hate to break it to you, but people figuring RAM into a cross-platform technology purchasing decision are the ones who are not tech savvy.

 

[aka777]

You can have more resent apps open at the same time, so they don't reload just because you had to check something on a webpage.

It allows safari to keeps more tabs open, so only a few users are affected by it, not almost everyone.

Better more impressive games.

It allows two big apps open at the same time when split screen comes.

It allows apple to stop wasting CPU on compressing RAM and jumping through hoops to compensate for the tight resources.

Not only that, whenever the RAM is used up, it must read and write to the flash storage, which is significantly slower. It’s also why devices begin to slow down significantly as the flash storage fills up.

Whenever I try to load up graphically intensive websites on safari, it will indeed crash.

 

[cmaier]

News item: iPhone 6 Plus also lacks time machine feature rumored by analysts as step-up from iPhone 6.

 

[wovel]

As optimised as iOS is, having only the 1GB is really beginning to show now. Bad move on Apple's part, especially given how little that extra 1GB would cost them.

It costs more than money. It also generates heat, takes up space, and uses power. Why does everyone insist on over-simplifying a complex problem. I am all for more RAM in the iPhone, but it is not just a matter of Apple sticking it in there and eating the cost.

 

[smulji]

Now here's the thing. If it was display zoom, I don't think it would be such a low resolution. Plus someone overlayed the iPhone 6 Plus display over this image and it doesn't even size right. Even if it was display zoom, the screen shot would be the same size as a regular screen shot. It isn't.

I can also say I know someone who played with the phones at the keynote and told me the Plus will have 2GB of RAM and I'm confident in him because I know every thing about him, and he never lies. Doesn't make the rumor true or false.

It seems none of us will know for certain until Friday.



Yes but what iMac and what version of OS X are you running? My PowerBook G4 only has 1.25GB of RAM, however its running an older version of OS X (with an older Darwin kernel) and its a single core 32-bit G4. It still runs great to this day.

I thought RAM was part of the processor. If both, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, are using the A8 processor, how can one have 1GB and the other 2GB? Wouldn't the processors have different names then?

 

[anakin1992]

for dynamic RAM, you have to keep refreshing it, thus more DRAM, more power drain.

“Apple has to work carefully to balance performance with battery life. Competing devices from companies like Samsung do offer more RAM, but at the cost of performance. Samsung's Galaxy S5, for example, offers impressive battery life at up to 10 hours of Internet browsing and 12 hours of HD movie watching, but it appears the iPhone 6 Plus may exceed that, based on battery information unveiled during the keynote.”

What a load of steaming crap. The Note 3 has 3GB of ram yet gets better battery life than the Galaxy S5 with 2GB per Laptop Mag battery test. The Note 3 got 11 hours and 15 minutes and the S5 got 9 hours and 42 minutes; almost 90 more minutes. It’s all about battery capacity and cpu technology. Never heard of ram being a huge factor in battery life. Some additional drain; sure because you have extra circuits but not enough to see a huge difference.
Even the Note 4 with only 20maH more is expected to get 30% more battery life with the same amount of ram. It’s all about using an efficient cpu. And the Note 4 charges faster than the Note 3 which is pretty quick in its own right.
And I would figure you would compare the battery life of the Note 3 or 4 to the iPhone 6 plus considering the phone is just as big; not to the S5. On top of that we haven’t seen real world battery test yet. Is this some kind of damage control???

 

[wovel]

“Apple has to work carefully to balance performance with battery life. Competing devices from companies like Samsung do offer more RAM, but at the cost of performance. Samsung's Galaxy S5, for example, offers impressive battery life at up to 10 hours of Internet browsing and 12 hours of HD movie watching, but it appears the iPhone 6 Plus may exceed that, based on battery information unveiled during the keynote.”

What a load of steaming crap. The Note 3 has 3GB of ram yet gets better battery life than the Galaxy S5 with 2GB per Laptop Mag battery test. The Note 3 got 11 hours and 15 minutes and the S5 got 9 hours and 42 minutes; almost 90 more minutes. It’s all about battery capacity and cpu technology. Never heard of ram being a huge factor in battery life. Some additional drain; sure because you have extra circuits but not enough to see a huge difference.
Even the Note 4 with only 20maH more is expected to get 30% more battery life with the same amount of ram. It’s all about using an efficient cpu. And the Note 4 charges faster than the Note 3 which is pretty quick in its own right.
And I would figure you would compare the battery life of the Note 3 or 4 to the iPhone 6 plus considering the phone is just as big; not to the S5. On top of that we haven’t seen real world battery test yet. Is this some kind of damage control???

I hope you realize your comparison doesn't make any sense.

 

[barondebxl]

Yeah that must be it. I hate to break it to you, but people figuring RAM into a cross-platform technology purchasing decision are the ones who are not tech savvy.

Is that Right? LEt see in a couple of years when apple still uses 1gb of ram if it wont factor in your decision.

 

[Black Magic]

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.

Not sure why you feel I'm drinking the Kool-Aid because I'm happy with my device and it works fine for me? Just because I'm not whining on every forum possible because a rumor came out stating that their won't be more than 1GB RAM in the next iPhone I'm now considered a Kool-Aid drinker? Wow!

 

[barondebxl]

Thanks for proving my point that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Why not try refuting the point, rather than throwing around irrelevant information.

My Mac has 16 GB of RAM. That's about as relevant a fact as "other phone" having 2 GB of RAM.

What does 2 GB of RAM do for you in an iPhone? Can you tell me? No, you can't. You just imagine it must be better in some way, for some reason.

Please explain to us why the ipad always need to reload webpages.

 

[Padmini]

Look, Apple was never bottle necked with their cpus. They've always had the best performance cpu. Then they introduced 64 bit. Why? Gimmick maybe?

Yea, you know what. Let's forget logic, common sense, and the entire last 12 months of iOS development for the 5s.....and lets just settle with this.

Apple introduced a 64 bit CPU to run iOS...purely because they needed a gimmick.

You heard it here folks. Forum whiners know best, of course. Reality be damned!

 

[recoil80]

I thought RAM was part of the processor. If both, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, are using the A8 processor, how can one have 1GB and the other 2GB? Wouldn't the processors have different names then?

A8 is not a "processor" is a System-On-Chip
In the past they put different configurations in the same SoC name.
iPad1 and iPhone 4 both had an A4, but iPad had only 256MB of RAM while iPhone 4 had 512MB.
iPad Air has an A7, but the RAM is put outside the A7 while is embedded in iPhone 5S and iPad Mini A7.

So they can both have A8 in their specs with different amounts of RAM.
We'll found out soon

 

[MacrumoursUser]

Scroll down to what? I can show you the entire log. It's in alphabetical order, there is no LowMemory log. Just because you have one does NOT mean everyone has one. In fact, I just checked my iPad Mini, there is no low memory either and it only has 512MB ram.

It will be there relax. The only way it's not there is when you aren't really using your phone.

 

[Padmini]

Please explain to us why the ipad always need to reload webpages.

Please explain ANY other scenario you are aware of, particularly on iPhone, that indicates that RAM is lacking.


Because SEVERAL hefty web pages in Safari on iPad is the only instance I am aware that could (presumably*) be aided with more RAM.


*I say presumably, because I am not so arrogant as to believe that this is correct, just because an amateur observation of specs vs. user experience lends itself to that idea.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Game over. See you with the 6s. Have fun with Safari reloads and apps being killed on background.
1GB is NOT enough, and iPhone 5s / iPad Air clearly proved it.

ipad isnt iphone, and ive never had a problem on my iphone.

 

[~~Hello~~]

What a freaking joke apple, 1GB of Ram really? On a 64 bit SoC? Ridiculous. Havent they learned anything about the ipad air ram issues? Apple know they can get away with this cause iphone users are not too tech savy.

Well thats balls, just look at the amount of people complaining about RAM, and you say most iphone users aren't tech savvy, thats certainly not the case on here.

 

[mdelvecchio]

The amount of RAM has little to no impact on battery life.

nope -- not according to experts who actually make these things, like microsoft's Steven Sinofsky:

Something that might not be obvious is that minimizing memory usage on low-power platforms can prolong battery life. Huh? In any PC, RAM is constantly consuming power. If an OS uses a lot of memory, it can force device manufacturers to include more physical RAM. The more RAM you have on board, the more power it uses, the less battery life you get. Having additional RAM on a tablet device can, in some instances, shave days off the amount of time the tablet can sit on your coffee table looking off but staying fresh and up to date.​

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/12/ram-energy

 

[Crossmax]

Enough with all the "still outperforms Android" comments. More RAM is little about raw performance running benchmark tests, and much more about not having to reload apps or browser tabs.

My 4S (granted it only has 512 MB) has to reload all apps as soon as I attempt to take a panorama pic, and it often crashes Runkeeper during my MTB rides when I stop to take a picture or whatever. Very annoying to notice that my activity hasn't been logged once I'm done.

Sure, 1 GB is twice as much, but then again, the 4S was working fine with iOS5. My issue is that come iOS 9 or 10, the 1 GB in the iPhone 6 will be insufficient, and that shouldn't be the case for such an expensive phone.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Since when does RAM impact battery life that much?

since electrical engineering? more memory space to address, search, write to, read from, and delivery electrons to. yeah.

 

[barondebxl]

Well thats balls, just look at the amount of people complaining about RAM, and you say most iphone users aren't tech savvy, thats certainly not the case on here.

The iphone users here are a minority compared to the soccer moms and the business men and teenagers that account for most of iphone users.

 

[Futurix]

I thought this app cannot get actual system information (because of sandboxing) and instead just shows pre-recorded values?

 

[barondebxl]

Please explain ANY other scenario you are aware of, particularly on iPhone, that indicates that RAM is lacking.


Because SEVERAL hefty web pages in Safari on iPad is the only instance I am aware that could (presumably*) be aided with more RAM.


*I say presumably, because I am not so arrogant as to believe that this is correct, just because an amateur observation of specs vs. user experience lends itself to that idea.

"Any OTHER scenario" you say...as if that wasnt annoying already? It is very annoying to do something then come back to the web page just to have it reload on you. Is 1 more GB of ram too much to ask? Are you gonna wait until the iphone crawls to finally demand more?

 

[ziggie216]

Why don't you click the link in my post?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/system-status-activity-monitor/id401457165?mt=8

I did... thats when I got me to think if this app actually works or its another one of those battery saver app w/ bunch of fake reviews.