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All iPads You think more RAM next generation is promised?

J

justind.clark

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2008
49
0
I understand the reasoning behind some users' dissatisfaction with 1GB RAM in the new iPads, but I don't think you can take it as read that the next generation will have any more. It's possible that Apple could have had 1.5-2GB of RAM in this years devices but chose not to for practical rather that greedy/nefarious reasons. Mobile devices are all about trade-offs and I wouldn't be surprised if it's one instead of two simply because it uses more battery to power more RAM and 10+ hour battery life is a pillar feature of the iPad platform. And/Or several other potential pros and cons that I don't see or understand. But it's not my job to, it's Apple's.

My Air is great and the reviews I read seem to concur. Not saying 2GB iPads aren't coming, just wondering if the stars will align next year either.
 
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
 
cababah said:
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
Click to expand...

I take your point, but I also don't think Apple is too worried about Google or Microsoft having a better number to tout. Hell, they even released a low dpi display on the mini despite competing slates having Retina-caliber screens AND being substantially cheaper.
 
justind.clark said:
I take your point, but I also don't think Apple is too worried about Google or Microsoft having a better number to tout. Hell, they even released a low dpi display on the mini despite competing slates having Retina-caliber screens AND being substantially cheaper.
Click to expand...

As applications grow larger and more resource-intensive with 64-bit architecture, Apple will be forced to upgrade the RAM to continue to provide that smooth user experience. iOS can only be so efficient you know...
 
cababah said:
As applications grow larger and more resource-intensive with 64-bit architecture, Apple will be forced to upgrade the RAM to continue to provide that smooth user experience. iOS can only be so efficient you know...
Click to expand...

Some truth here but keeping the RAM lower also requires developers to be on top of their game and not waste resources. If it was just a RAM thing, how would someone explain how certain apps and games that are very graphic intensive run perfectly smooth on the Air?
 
The fact that iOS is so efficient helps. I tried a Galaxy tablet the other day, had 2GB RAM yet stuttered and lagged even when just swiping from one page to another and closing apps.

Yet, the 512MB iPad 2 runs very smoothly still. And from what I've seen of the Air, the same can be said. Personally, I'd rather have lower specs with a better experience.
 
With the first mini and ipad 2 still currently on sale and only having 512mb of RAM, I wouldn't be surprised if it's something like this next year;

Mini 3 - 1gb RAM
Air 2 - 1gb RAM
Pro - 2gb RAM

That way you still keep developers having to keep RAM low to support all devices, but are able to introduce 'pro' only apps which will have more RAM available to them if they want to produce such an app.
 
Its all conjecture, but I'd say the odds are good we'll see an improvement.
 
cambookpro said:
The fact that iOS is so efficient helps. I tried a Galaxy tablet the other day, had 2GB RAM yet stuttered and lagged even when just swiping from one page to another and closing apps.

Yet, the 512MB iPad 2 runs very smoothly still. And from what I've seen of the Air, the same can be said. Personally, I'd rather have lower specs with a better experience.
Click to expand...

That has nothing to do with ram or being efficient, being efficient with ram, usually means worse performance, you speed up things by using more RAM, .i.e lookup tables, caches and so on.
 
Ries said:
That has nothing to do with ram or being efficient, being efficient with ram, usually means worse performance, you speed up things by using more RAM, .i.e lookup tables, caches and so on.
Click to expand...

My point is it's not all about specs. Obviously more RAM will help - I was mainly referring to the person who said that by the time Apple have 2GB, the competition will have 3-4GB; why does it matter if the iPad is much better to use?
 
cambookpro said:
My point is it's not all about specs. Obviously more RAM will help - I was mainly referring to the person who said that by the time Apple have 2GB, the competition will have 3-4GB; why does it matter if the iPad is much better to use?
Click to expand...

It's all about user experience. Whether it's ios7 or 1Gig of RAM, the air is blowing up way more than an iPad2 with ios5/6 ever did.

You may seem to willingly accept inferiority, but others are not. Most are convinced more RAM would help with the errors, and for futures proofing their hardware. Another 1gig of RAM release would be like releasing the mini2 without retina. It would garner a lot of negative pub.
 
Last edited:
cababah said:
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
Click to expand...

And THIS will be the source of all disappointment and criticism next year when they don't.
 
Count Blah said:
It's all about user experience. Whether it's ios7 or 1Gig of RAM, the air is blowing up way more than an iPad2 with ios5/6 ever did.

You may seem to willingly accept inferiority, but others are not. Most are convinced more RAM would help with the errors, and for futures proofing their hardware. Another 1gig of RAM release would be like releasing the mini2 without retina. It would garner a lot of negative pub.
Click to expand...

Of course I want the products to work as well as possible, but not always sticking another GB of RAM in is the solution - it may help, but I think the core of it here is down to iOS 7.

It doesn't seem at all well optimised for iPad, and I think once this is sorted out in either 7.1 or iOS 8 we may see things running much better.

I also don't think that it would garner much negative publicity, since Apple doesn't actually publish RAM specs and many users are not aware of where the bottleneck takes place. (E.g. 'Antennagate' was much more widely reported than, say, the colour gamut of the rMini display, as your average punter knows what a dropped call is, but doesn't know what sRGB means).

Don't think I'm not wanting 2GB RAM - sure, it'd be nice to have. But I don't think the perceived shortcomings of the iPad is solely down to the RAM.
 
s2mikey said:
Some truth here but keeping the RAM lower also requires developers to be on top of their game and not waste resources. If it was just a RAM thing, how would someone explain how certain apps and games that are very graphic intensive run perfectly smooth on the Air?
Click to expand...

There is some truth there but providing more RAM also enables developers to create larger and more complex applications that would truly take advantage of the upgraded hardware.

Remember, when Apple does finally put 2GB RAM in iOS devices, the competition will likely be using close to double that amount so there will still be that pressure for efficient application design.

The A7 officially let's the iPads compete with desktop-class computers so why choke it in the RAM department?

To answer your other question, a game running smooth is a result of a fast CPU/GPU more than RAM. The iPad Air has reasonably fast DDR3 RAM which helps but not that much of it. It will limit the size of the game more than the performance. 2GB RAM would allow for much larger worlds and such.
 
cababah said:
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
Click to expand...

Then 2GB won't be enough and "The Great Memory Ripoff Part 2" will be born in this very forum.
 
cababah said:
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
Click to expand...

I doubt it unless the other IOS devices are also upgraded to 2 Gig.

----------
Count Blah said:
It's all about user experience. Whether it's ios7 or 1Gig of RAM, the air is blowing up way more than an iPad2 with ios5/6 ever did.

You may seem to willingly accept inferiority, but others are not. Most are convinced more RAM would help with the errors, and for futures proofing their hardware. Another 1gig of RAM release would be like releasing the mini2 without retina. It would garner a lot of negative pub.
Click to expand...

Maybe fix IOS 7 on the iPad first.
 
justind.clark said:
I understand the reasoning behind some users' dissatisfaction with 1GB RAM in the new iPads, but I don't think you can take it as read that the next generation will have any more. It's possible that Apple could have had 1.5-2GB of RAM in this years devices but chose not to for practical rather that greedy/nefarious reasons. Mobile devices are all about trade-offs and I wouldn't be surprised if it's one instead of two simply because it uses more battery to power more RAM and 10+ hour battery life is a pillar feature of the iPad platform.
Click to expand...

I'm just guessing of course, but I think it's likely next year's Ipads will have more Ram. There are trade offs, as you say, but as time goes by the technology becomes better and the tradeoffs become less necessary. When the original Ipad mini came out, Anand said he didn't expect a retina version to come out within the next year. In his review of the retina mini, he said he'd been wrong because the technology changed faster than he'd anticipated.
 
cababah said:
Oh I'd absolutely bet on the next iPad having 2GB RAM. Apple can't afford to fall that far behind. Also, when Apple does finally put 2GB, the competition will be using 3-4GB.
Click to expand...

How is apple falling behind? They are the first with a 64 bit chip. Apple will the first with 6GB of ram.
 
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