Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What's the point of 3GB of RAM?
- Thread starter mobilehavoc
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm coming from a 6 and the app reloading was really frustrating. I didn't realize how bad it was until I wen't pack to it after using my 7 for a couple days.
[doublepost=1474193301][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1474193301][/doublepost]
Doesn't it do this already? Perhaps it was a JB feature I had on my iPhone 6 running 8.3. Split screen multi-tasking on a phone is dumb. Not enough real estate to do either task well. Especially with recent iOS changes ballooning UI elements up in size.
I think iPhones didn't need more ram until the iPhone 6 (needed more ram and didn't get it) so it has been added after that to account for new features and to keep things smooth.
So maybe it's just the apps I'm using that are memory hogs or my phone is just running other stuff in the background that's forcing apps to be closed. I have no clue all I'm saying is sometimes I'll switch between Hangouts, Twitter, Facebook and Inbox. I'll go to the home screen and let's say pause to watch TV or get distracted by family then boom all of those reload. Makes no sense whatsoever. Then sometimes same actions and they stay in memory.
It's incredibly unreliable and inconsistent. iPhone 6S was pretty bad too so must be something with my apps or background apps is what I'm thinking. Is there any iOS utility that would show process memory usage without jailbreaking? If I can find out what's sucking things up I can fix it but not sure I can.
It's incredibly unreliable and inconsistent. iPhone 6S was pretty bad too so must be something with my apps or background apps is what I'm thinking. Is there any iOS utility that would show process memory usage without jailbreaking? If I can find out what's sucking things up I can fix it but not sure I can.
Note 7 and the S7 has had it for a few years. Android N has it baked in now. While I don't believe it would work on the 4.7" due to screen size but I see it working on a 5.5" display. I really like how split screen works on my iPad Air 2 so I prefer Apple approach vs Android/Samsung.
It's one reason I held on to my 6S Plus until I confirmed the 7 had enough uuumph but sadly it doesn't. Sold two 7 Plus's today quickly for couple hundred profit, will hold out for next year's model.
The amount of RAM will make a difference on app reload ... to a point. Remember that apps are automatically culled when they've been unused for more than a couple of minutes. Doesn't matter how much RAM the device has. The extra RAM will have the side-effect of letting you have more heavy-hitting apps that you're constantly switching between open at the same time, but it won't help a ton if you leave the apps sit for several minutes before going back to them.
Where it really helps is for apps that demand large amounts of RAM to do their job: think camera and burst mode, etc.
And all of this is exactly why Apple doesn't give publicly announce specs on RAM, because it gives people a skewed perspective on how things might work.
Where it really helps is for apps that demand large amounts of RAM to do their job: think camera and burst mode, etc.
And all of this is exactly why Apple doesn't give publicly announce specs on RAM, because it gives people a skewed perspective on how things might work.
You're hitting the limitation of iOS as it's implemented to optimize more to extend battery life at the expense of usability. With very few exceptions apps get suspended when switched to the background then killed from memory after being idle for 3 minutes so when you switch back it has to reload. To avoid reloading you have to switch back before 3 minutes background idle. Older iOS versions had longer background idle time before being killed with iOS 5 and 6 at 10 minutes vs 3 minutes for iOS 7+. Where more DRAM helps is being able to switch between more apps without reloading under 3 minute background idle.
Last edited:
Only on an iPhone forum will you find people complaining about and extra gig of RAM in their new phone...Lol
What's next, "why is there a faster, Quad-Core processor in my phone?!!!!!"
What's next, "why is there a faster, Quad-Core processor in my phone?!!!!!"
I believe iOS 10 is more aggressive with ram management as a whole. I've noticed it since Developer Beta 1 in June. I was hoping it would go back to how it was with iOS 9 but it hasn't.
On iOS 9, browser tabs stayed without refreshing longer and so did some other apps.
On iOS 9, browser tabs stayed without refreshing longer and so did some other apps.
Why would you prefer the limited iOS approach with only one active app in split view and no background multitasking? With Touchwiz Android from 2012 you can have two split screen apps, twitch.tv PiP video, movie PiP video and background media and file servers all actively running. With 2016 Touchwiz you can add two more split screen apps to that list.
2012 Touchwiz Android
Last edited:
Why would you prefer the limited iOS approach with only one active app in split view and no background multitasking? With Touchwiz Android from 2012 you can have two split screen apps, twitch.tv PiP video, movie PiP video and background media and file servers all actively running. With 2016 Touchwiz you can add two more split screen apps to that list.
2012 Touchwiz Android
Split view (Split screen or 2 apps at once) is like Samsung version. I watch YouTube and surf the net at the same time on my iPad Air 2. Or use Safari and Chrome said by side
Well this sort of supports my point. The 3GB seems pointless
https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/19/iphone-7-vs-7-plus-3-gb-ram-safari-tabs/amp/
https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/19/iphone-7-vs-7-plus-3-gb-ram-safari-tabs/amp/
The next iPhone will most likely utilize it much more than this years iteration. It seems the phones hardware is a little ahead of the software available at the moment for it
Not as if there's been a major OS revision or anything since then. Oh wait, yes there has and 2GB is still perfectly adequate for it to run on. Do you honestly believe Apple would be so stupid to release both a brand new device with 2GB of RAM and a brand new iOS version at the exact same time, if that device couldn't handle it?
People are whingy knee-jerk reactionists as it is, they don't want to invite trouble in by laying down a red carpet and offering a free bar. Of course 2GB is still enough. Hell im still on my 6+ at the moment and I don't find the 1GB to be a drastic issue. Oh no, sometimes I need to wait a couple of seconds on a reload, I'm not quite yet so close to death that a couple of seconds here and there is going to be cause for concern
.... Next year though, well it'll be a lot slower and I'll be a year closer to death. Might be an issue by then if I were keeping it
I dont have my 7+ yet but the 4GB on my 12.9 is awesome. 1: apps i use that layers like procreate take advantage of the extra ram in a big way, 2: app reload is rarely an issue. I was playing xcom and hadnt played it in several days while also using several apps in the interim, and when i went back to it it was right where i left off, no reloading to title screen.
Maybe with the iPad Pro they have less aggressive memory management and allow it to keep stuff in memory. I understand why they are aggressive on phones - for the battery life and all but it's frustrating none the less
The one thing that I haven't seen addressed is if iOS even allows all the ram to be utilized. So it has 3gb of ram. Neat. But, does iOS allow you to fill all that ram with suspended apps or tabs or whatever? Seems unlikely to me.
You could have 32gb of ram but if Safari isn't allowed to utilize all of it, whats the point? It may be likely that the extra ram is specifically for the camera modules and nothing more. If thats the case, the difference between the two devices is likely very minimal.
I'd like to talk to a developer about it and see if it is indeed possible to use all the ram. What happens if there are several gigabytes worth of data suspended in ram and then the camera needs it? How does iOS decide what gets terminated? First come first served?
You could have 32gb of ram but if Safari isn't allowed to utilize all of it, whats the point? It may be likely that the extra ram is specifically for the camera modules and nothing more. If thats the case, the difference between the two devices is likely very minimal.
I'd like to talk to a developer about it and see if it is indeed possible to use all the ram. What happens if there are several gigabytes worth of data suspended in ram and then the camera needs it? How does iOS decide what gets terminated? First come first served?