Yes, the M1 and M2 iPads have RAM specs published by Apple.
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.
iPad Pro 24GB RAM on M2 iPad Pro?
- Thread starter exoticSpice
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
iPadOS, iPads for that matter were designed to be singularly focused. It wasn’t designed for a multi-focused workflow. So all that additional ram would only be good in a high-end game or pro apps ported to this platform.
But it’s pretty clear Apple wants to Frankenstein iPad into a pseudo laptop replacement for as many people as possible, while maintaining iOS single app paradigm As much as possible.
If Apple offered a 24GB RAM iPad, then they would likely increase iPadOS's memory limits as well.
Mind, I've seen my free RAM drop down to 200MB on the 16GB just browsing on Safari.
That said, I think there's a very small market for 24GB RAM iPads. As it is, there's probably not many who buy the 16GB 1-2TB models to begin with.
The answer to the OP is, imho , simple but quite unexpected from Apple. It all has to do with the current limitations of iPadOS, its planned near-future features and sort of people that would buy the 1TB or 2TB iPad Pro (and thus the 16GB ram option). TL;DR version: Future Proofing it for upcoming Pro Apps!
So, currently, iPadOS 16 cannot even benefit from having 8GB. In fact, as of now the max RAM that iPad Apps can leverage is 6GB. The only "benefit" (if you can call it that) of having 8GB on it is being able to have a gazillion more safari tabs and apps open concurrently ... for whatever that's useful for.
So, because of this it is well known that 16GB is already overkill for the current iPad OS. This means that 24GB would be an even more ridiculous proposition. As it has been mentioned already on this thread, having a 2TB IPP with 24GB ram SKU would literally be a huge loss-generating move from Apple. It would be priced so ridiculously high (even more so than the ludicrous pricing of the current 2TB model) that pretty much NOBODY will buy it, but you they would still need to stock it anyway, hence losing money.
But then you say, " Fine, 24GB would be ludicrously overkill, but 16GB is also overkill and they are still making them anyway right? Why didn't they just keep the 1TB and 2TB versions at 8GB ram??...If they would have done so they would be a bit cheaper and perhaps more people would buy them, right?
Well, the answer to this question has everything to do, IMHO, with future-proofing. Ask yourself, who are the likely buyers of the 1TB and 2TB SKUs? Likely, actual PRO users, people who would actually use the IPP for a living, running DaVinci Resolve or Logic Pro (insert whatever upcoming X "pro" app here). Sure, 16GB doesn't benefit them NOW, but I think it's highly likely it might benefit them in the near future. For example, what if iPad OS 17 allows for apps to leverage 8 or 12GB of RAM? or maybe iPadOS 18? If so, these apps can be patched to make use of this. This, plus perhaps future iPadOS improvements to the stage manager and other general multitasking features might bring iPPs to a point when you could be viably running both DaVinci and Logic Pro smoothly, even more so that you could do that now.
But then the OP would say: " Sure, but if they make a 16GB version as a future-proofing, the same applies if they made a 24GB one, right?". Technically yes, but the problem is that we are so far away in time to the point when iPadOS can leverage 24GB ram (and the IPP use case scenarios that could warrant this) that when we reach this point, M1-M2 IPP would be so outdated that there wouldn't be any reason to still be using them. The same does not apply to the 16GBram ones ... I truly believe we are a mere 1 to 2 years away from reaching the point when both the iPadOS and the Pro Apps could actually benefit from it on certain IPP use-case scenarios.
Just my 0.002.
So, currently, iPadOS 16 cannot even benefit from having 8GB. In fact, as of now the max RAM that iPad Apps can leverage is 6GB. The only "benefit" (if you can call it that) of having 8GB on it is being able to have a gazillion more safari tabs and apps open concurrently ... for whatever that's useful for.
So, because of this it is well known that 16GB is already overkill for the current iPad OS. This means that 24GB would be an even more ridiculous proposition. As it has been mentioned already on this thread, having a 2TB IPP with 24GB ram SKU would literally be a huge loss-generating move from Apple. It would be priced so ridiculously high (even more so than the ludicrous pricing of the current 2TB model) that pretty much NOBODY will buy it, but you they would still need to stock it anyway, hence losing money.
But then you say, " Fine, 24GB would be ludicrously overkill, but 16GB is also overkill and they are still making them anyway right? Why didn't they just keep the 1TB and 2TB versions at 8GB ram??...If they would have done so they would be a bit cheaper and perhaps more people would buy them, right?
Well, the answer to this question has everything to do, IMHO, with future-proofing. Ask yourself, who are the likely buyers of the 1TB and 2TB SKUs? Likely, actual PRO users, people who would actually use the IPP for a living, running DaVinci Resolve or Logic Pro (insert whatever upcoming X "pro" app here). Sure, 16GB doesn't benefit them NOW, but I think it's highly likely it might benefit them in the near future. For example, what if iPad OS 17 allows for apps to leverage 8 or 12GB of RAM? or maybe iPadOS 18? If so, these apps can be patched to make use of this. This, plus perhaps future iPadOS improvements to the stage manager and other general multitasking features might bring iPPs to a point when you could be viably running both DaVinci and Logic Pro smoothly, even more so that you could do that now.
But then the OP would say: " Sure, but if they make a 16GB version as a future-proofing, the same applies if they made a 24GB one, right?". Technically yes, but the problem is that we are so far away in time to the point when iPadOS can leverage 24GB ram (and the IPP use case scenarios that could warrant this) that when we reach this point, M1-M2 IPP would be so outdated that there wouldn't be any reason to still be using them. The same does not apply to the 16GBram ones ... I truly believe we are a mere 1 to 2 years away from reaching the point when both the iPadOS and the Pro Apps could actually benefit from it on certain IPP use-case scenarios.
Just my 0.002.
completely off topic: this is one of the worst designed things I’ve seen in quite some time. 😂🤣
But now there is multitasking and swap memory on the M# iPads, beneficial if you are using Lightroom, Photoshop, Procreate, etc.
Totally agree. Reminds me of the worst days of the Macromedia Flash days.
???
RAM, like storage chips, might be more than one chip. For example, the 5th Gen iPad Pro 12.9's 8GB RAM was comprised of two 4GB chips. based on teardowns. The 16GB RAM versions might have two 8GBs. As far as I know, there is no 12GB chip size, 16GB would be the next size up.
Last edited:
I am just speaking on a hunch and not absolute facts - seems that Apple sets the bar where they can get a high profit and leave something off the table (for now) and use it later as an option for an update/refresh. If Apple decided one day to up the RAM on the base model, then that is what people would buy and respectively higher end models. We have seen that happen over the years with Macs.
Tablets are used for all sorts of things and I have seen repair service people sporting tablets for in-the-field work and now some artists and photographers take the iPad more seriously in the last couple of years as an option for again, in-the-field work as opposed to a laptop. The latter brings up another point of not wanting too much overlap in function and tech between market items. Some art apps are really become mature produce for the iPad (Procreate and Affinity apps come to mind).
iPadOS RAM management is not the same as in MacOS. More RAM=less reloads of Apps on iPads. This does not happen on the Mac as far as I know. Is Apple introducing RAM-SSD swaps in iPadOS17 for better management? Apps are no longer limited to 6Gb RAM in iPadOS. Since iPadOS 15 it is 12 Gb. 24 Gb does not sound so much in that context.
What do you mean here? A system feature to assign a RAM-disk?
Quoting from the Apple iPadOS 16 feature description page, they say, "iPad storage can be used to expand the available memory for all apps and delivers up to 16 gigabytes of memory for the most demanding apps."
While one could discuss the semantics of this, it seems that Developers can/have to implement this - here;here.
In that context, 24 GB RAM does seem helpful, doesn’t it? 😎
Last edited:
Part of Stage Manager was that iPadOS got VM Swap, similar to MacOS, in v16. It‘s enabled if you have 128GB or more storage.
RAM in the M-series is part of the SoC. There’s no physical “size” difference.
Technically iOS and iPadOS support and use virtual memory paging for a while (VM page size differs between pre-A7 and onward); it might that since iPadOS 16 the virtual memory system offers support for writing out pages to a backing store (?). Sadly Apple’s documentation on the virtual memory system isn’t up to date - and the references to “virtual memory swap” are Apple’s iPadOS 16 feature description page and this Digital Trends article everyone’s otherwise referencing.
In any case each app seems to have the support for extended RAM use, etc. implemented.
I mean even Apple’s own Files app seems not support this on iPadOS 16.x or 17b2 - e.g. I can created a larger 24bit JPEG image on iPadOS (stitch a panorama from a few full frame photos and crop it to say something like ~20000x4000 pixel) which is easily handled by some apps on the same iPad, while Apple’s Files throws an »Unable to Open Image - This image is too large to be opened on this device.«-error.
Even when Apple’s Files is the solely running app (with or without running it in Stagemanager), even on 6, 8 or 16 GB RAM iPPs.
(For the protocol: same error comes up in Photomator; does not come up in RAW Power, Affinity Photo, or even Google’s free Snapseed.)
note bene: my personal beef with the PR term “virtual memory swap” is that technically iOS and iPadOS are “swapping” virtual memory pages for quite some time… for the extended “VM swap” as of >= iPadOS 16 there are other threads here and elsewhere where people speculate about the semantics of the Apples PR phrase - but factual info, even in the Developer documentation, seems sparse. I might be ignorant and out of the loop, so if somebody has additional facts, please share links. 🤓
RAM is not part of the SoC, TSMC is not fabbing RAM on the wafers with the SoC, RAM is a component added to the same package as the SoC...
Looks like I am not updated regarding allocated RAM sizes. No, not a RAM disk but the RAM content can be moved to the SSD and then quickly reloaded without actually starting the App again. I see later in the thread that Stage manager iPadOS 16 includes these features to some extent.
Having a 2020 iPP with 6Gb RAM makes it less interesting to follow the details of RAM management mainly targeted to M1/M2 iPP
yes, but if the SOC can support up to 24GB there is not real space constraint in terms of RAM chips, if 16 GB fit 24 will fit too