RAM management is terrible on my 11' 2018 iPad Pro with 6GB of RAM

[SoYoung]

When I installed the beta back in july, I noticed the ram management was way worse than 14, so I reverted by to 14 thinking it was a beta and it will be fixed in 15, but now since I installed the public version of iPadOS 15 on my 2018 11' iPad pro, I found the ram management to be terrible. Apps reloads and Safari tabs reload almost automatically if I switch between 2-3 apps and go back after 30 minutes. It literally feels like the days with my old iPad Air 2 when everything reload all the time.

Anyone else experienced this issue? I thought 6GB of Ram is still enough considering even the latest iPhone 13 Pro models have also 6GB, or maybe its an iPad pro specific issue? But one thing is sure, before iPadOS 15, apps definitively stay way longer in the background and it was great and now I'm starting to be frustrated with my device again.

 

[eelpout]

i was interested in picking up one of these 1TB/6GB models as the price is good (I assume that's what you have as you mentioned 6GB). there is some talk on other threads that even though there is extra 2GB of RAM on this guy, it isn't treated any differently than other 4GB models for app RAM allotment. Maybe due to the A12x, maybe they've overlooked it, who knows.

 

[rui no onna]

i was interested in picking up one of these 1TB/6GB models as the price is good (I assume that's what you have as you mentioned 6GB). there is some talk on other threads that even though there is extra 2GB of RAM on this guy, it isn't treated any differently than other 4GB models for app RAM allotment. Maybe due to the A12x, maybe they've overlooked it, who knows.

A single app couldn't take advantage of the extra RAM but it's usable for multitasking. Alas, I think iOS 15 is simply worse than iOS 14 on the memory management front similar to the situation with iOS 12 -> iOS 13.

I'm getting the same amount or more reloads on iOS 15+3GB RAM iPad compared to iOS 14+2GB RAM. Paired with the less efficient Home screen, I decided to keep my other devices on iOS 14.8.

 

[SoYoung]

Yeah there's a difference between 6GB and 4GB in term of multi-tasking. I have 2 iPad Pros. One is the 2018 12,9 pro 256GB with 4GB of RAM and one 2018 11' 1TB cellular version with 6GB of RAM that I bought last year in a clearance deal (it was an offer I couldn't resist, and the fact that I found the 12,9 one too heavy to use as a normal tablet).

The 11' pro definitively have way less app reloads, especially in iPadOS 13 and 14. Even some games could stay open for days in the backgrounds without reloading, but since iPadOS 15, the same games reloads almost every time I just do some light tasks for more than 30 minutes like open many Safari tabs or downloading stuff. 15.0.1 seems a little bit better but its far from being as good as 14 was.

Apple should really focus on optimizing iOS for RAM management. My iMac have only 8GB of RAM, and my 10+ Safari tabs, with music, Telegram, iMessage and openmu opened and it never reloads anything, but iOS with 6GB of RAM just can't handle some Safari tabs and 3-4 apps opens without reloading one after an hour is simply unbelievable.

 

[rui no onna]

Yeah there's a difference between 6GB and 4GB in term of multi-tasking. I have 2 iPad Pros. One is the 2018 12,9 pro 256GB with 4GB of RAM and one 2018 11' 1TB cellular version with 6GB of RAM that I bought last year in a clearance deal (it was an offer I couldn't resist, and the fact that I found the 12,9 one too heavy to use as a normal tablet).

The 11' pro definitively have way less app reloads, especially in iPadOS 13 and 14. Even some games could stay open for days in the backgrounds without reloading, but since iPadOS 15, the same games reloads almost every time I just do some light tasks for more than 30 minutes like open many Safari tabs or downloading stuff. 15.0.1 seems a little bit better but its far from being as good as 14 was.

Apple should really focus on optimizing iOS for RAM management. My iMac have only 8GB of RAM, and my 10+ Safari tabs, with music, Telegram, iMessage and openmu opened and it never reloads anything, but iOS with 6GB of RAM just can't handle some Safari tabs and 3-4 apps opens without reloading one after an hour is simply unbelievable.

That's because MacOS supports swap (to SSD). My memory usage on the M1 MacBook Air was typically 8GB RAM + 2-4GB swap = 10-12GB total.

Caveat, iPadOS still supports devices like the Air 2 and mini 4. Swapping to storage would not only be slow, it would also kill 16GB eMMC models in short time.

 

[eelpout]

Caveat, iPadOS still supports devices like the Air 2 and mini 4. Swapping to storage would not only be slow, it would also kill 16GB eMMC models in short time.

I have a 4th gen Mini and it's become borderline unusable on iPad OS 15 as well. I think that one has only 3GB of RAM. 15 doesn't appear to be doing older devices any favors.

Maybe it's better an old 8" Huawei tablet of mine I use constantly stopped receiving Android OS updates years ago yet still runs great.

 

[rui no onna]

I have a 4th gen Mini and it's become borderline unusable on iPad OS 15 as well. I think that one has only 3GB of RAM. 15 doesn't appear to be doing older devices any favors.

That's 2GB only. Personally, I've found the reloads have been annoying on those since iPadOS 13.

 

[eelpout]

That's 2GB only. Personally, I've found the reloads have been annoying on those since iPadOS 13.

oops, yep. forgot to double check that.