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iPad 8GB vs 16GB RAM M4 iPad Pro
- Thread starter seasurfer
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Go with 16gb if you’re looking to use it for the next 5-6 years. 8gb is fine for now, but apps and OS will get more demanding in the future, especially with AI features.
I doubt it.
Serious AI will likely be running on Apple's servers with the iPads acting as clients.
8GB should be fine for most consumers - now and for the next 6-7 years.
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The 7-year old iPad Pro I’m upgrading from has 4GB and still doesn’t cause me any issues. If you are a person who needs 16GB I think you will know.
Not worth it really, it's just a nice spec bump that's all. You need to really be pushing it to need 16GB.
Depends on the Apps and how they are optimized for the M4. Right now as it currently is, if a regular A chip and run iPadOS with 4GB of ram, there is no point of 16GB or even 8GB.
Example, I have a iPhone 15PM (8GB ram) and a iPhone 13 (4GB ram), they both runs apps the same, I see no differences besides the obvious 120hz touch on the PM.
Example, I have a iPhone 15PM (8GB ram) and a iPhone 13 (4GB ram), they both runs apps the same, I see no differences besides the obvious 120hz touch on the PM.
Maybe it's just me, but I found 2 GB RAM limiting on iPads earlier than I found 2 GB RAM limiting on iPhones. I suspect it has to do with screen size and my usage patterns. Anyhow, the point is I don't think experience with iPhone RAM amounts is necessarily indicative of what the experience would be with iPads.
That said, 4 GB RAM in 2024 is still fine for light usage on iPads. I think 8 GB will be fine for me for the next half-dozen years, unless I start using LumaFusion more.
That sounds about right. Most of the people asking about 16 GB here probably don't actually need it. It's more the hardcore content creators for example that would need 16 GB, but many would want the 1 TB storage anyway.
If you have to ask, you’re unlikely to benefit. It’s for workflows with particular apps having higher memory demands, such as for professional video editing.
We can’t predict the future, but it’s as likely you will want newer hardware/SoC features in 3-4 years, so it doesn’t make sense to pay a high premium for RAM now just based on conjecture that you may be able to benefit from it in the future. Trade-in plus what you save now may also pay for a higher-RAM iPad Pro in 2-3 years.
I have 3 browsers open with lots of tabs and all the usual other apps for messaging, e-mail, Remote Desktop, Office and so on. I find with the 8GiB on my M1 apps will close quite often. Randomly VLC stops playing, or one of the browsers will reload all its tabs. It‘s relatively heavy multitasking with external mouse and keyboard and an external display with stage manager.
Even worse if I want to play a quick Apple arcade game in between as games are heavy on the memory and will force a couple apps to close meaning unless I want to lose work I cannot ever launch a game.
I would really need the 16GiB but I am not willing to pay that much extra for it when I have no need for the 1TB of storage. It‘s an incredibly steep upgrade pricing just for memory. At least with Macs you can choose separately.
Even worse if I want to play a quick Apple arcade game in between as games are heavy on the memory and will force a couple apps to close meaning unless I want to lose work I cannot ever launch a game.
I would really need the 16GiB but I am not willing to pay that much extra for it when I have no need for the 1TB of storage. It‘s an incredibly steep upgrade pricing just for memory. At least with Macs you can choose separately.
I'm kinda stuck here myself. I'm a photographer editing 60MP+ RAWs and doing light 4K video editing, I imagine I'll be in swap quite a bit. I frequently am on my MacBook Pro. I think the pricing is outrageous for the RAM (since it's combined with storage). I'm going to wait until after WWDC.
I don't know about that. 8GB is still in use today on laptops and runs most things fine, In fact, a guy tested an 8GB MacBook Air M3 and was editing 4K video with it just fine, and showed no less performance than a 16GB MacBook Air.
Agree. I do similar processing and would like the RAM bump without the additional storage - I can use my own external storage at far lower cost and versatility as I can also use it with other devices.
Looked at the couple benchmarks out there. Apple has the ram at 15.05g and and rounds that up to 16.
Apple does such a good job of getting every penny in their favor that can get by with. WTH.
Apple does such a good job of getting every penny in their favor that can get by with. WTH.
Does anyone know if they have removed the cap on apps using RAM? I know atleast a few years back there was a limit per app of I think 4GB in iPadOS, but if that's gone completely then I might be tempted to spring for the 1TB just to get the extra RAM.
I should add - my 2018 12.9" has 6GB and has always run flawlessly - but it seems a shame to upgrade after 6 years and only get 2GB more...
I should add - my 2018 12.9" has 6GB and has always run flawlessly - but it seems a shame to upgrade after 6 years and only get 2GB more...
Well, the base RAM for the 2018 12.9" was only 4 GB RAM. You only got 6 GB if you got the 1 TB model. That's sort of like the situation now with 8 vs 16 GB RAM with the 1 TB model.
There is a cap that depends on total RAM. For 16 GB models its 5 GB by default, and 12 GB with entitlement (meaning the app developer has to convince Apple that they should be able to use more). That’s since iPadOS 15 I believe. For 8 GB iPads, it’s up to 6 GB.
My I opted for the 256GB model with 4gb of memory on my current 2018 pro and in retrospect I regret not spending more at the time to get the version with more memory.
I went with the 1TB model this time not because I need the storage but because I am skeptical 8GB of memory will still meet my needs 5-7 years, and 5-7 system updates, later. If it is a long term investment that you plan to use for half a decade or more and you can afford it, I say go for a model with 16GB.
I went with the 1TB model this time not because I need the storage but because I am skeptical 8GB of memory will still meet my needs 5-7 years, and 5-7 system updates, later. If it is a long term investment that you plan to use for half a decade or more and you can afford it, I say go for a model with 16GB.
That was the situation before they introduced Disk Memory Swap, now apparently up to 16GB can be used, but it's not clear if it's with entitlement, if it's system wide and if it's only for 16GB RAM devices etc. In short, zero transparency on this front.
I have both 2018 versions (512GB and 1TB) and the difference is pretty big. But for the M1 I went with 8, since it should fare much better than 4GB is doing now over the next 5 years, especially now that the is swap (even if we know nothing about how it works on iPad). Having said that when I buy a future iPad (M4 or newer) I might consider 16GB.
It's with entitlement.
com.apple.developer.kernel.increased-memory-limit | Apple Developer Documentation
A Boolean value that indicates whether core features of your app may perform better with a higher memory limit on supported devices.
I wonder how well it works real world, and with which apps.
[EDIT] No, this is for raising the memory limit, but not specifically for swap. [/EDIT]
I'm gonna go with 8 GB, mainly because of the cost, and also because I'm not a heavy iPad user. I really just want the OLED display, lighter weight, and landscape camera, etc. However, if the memory weren't tied to storage, I would have considered 16 GB.
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Should be easy to test though?
In any case, I see no reason why the new iPad Pros specifically should behave differently from the existing M1/M2 Pros.