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Kahnforever

macrumors regular
May 20, 2024
218
260
See images. PDF is 256 MB. Would only render the visible part in focus. When scrolling down, it takes several seconds to render the text in focus. Scrolling only slightly. Scrolling back up the text was blurry and had to be rendered again. You can see the free RAM available has dumped by over 300 MB down to just 300 MB and change.

View attachment 2384528

View attachment 2384529
I just tested the M4 13” iPad Pro 1 TB in store using the same 256 MB PDF and the performance was no better. It took roughly the same amount of time to render the blurred text as my non-1TB machine. And when I scrolled, new text was blurred and then scrolling back the other way to reveal the text I previously viewed and what was just rendered in focus was blurred again.
 
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Kahnforever

macrumors regular
May 20, 2024
218
260
Thanks. Would you kindly be able to do the same PDF exercise with my PDF client of choice, which you can get free from the App Store: https://pdfviewer.io/store-ios
This would imply that there is little change between 6GB and 8GB when it comes to rendering heavy PDF files. It would be ideal if someone with a 1TB+ model on 16GB could run a similar test to see what happens then, but it does appear to me that one good justification for a 16GB model is such a use case. It is clear that large PDF files task the RAM far more than video rendering programmes or similar.
Incidentally, my A12Z CPU is little more than idle during the rendering of heavy PDFs, and does not appear to be the bottleneck at all.
Yes I will and check my new response just above #126.
 

TheBigApple2006

macrumors 6502
Feb 20, 2006
336
65
Yes I will and check my new response just above #126.
Thanks - please do try with PDF Viewer, as what you are experiencing could also be due to PDF client issues. The stock one isn't that great. I do not experience that kind of blurriness with it, but do run into severe memory pressure issues regardless, so it will be instructive to see how the 8GB models fare in that regard.
 

Kahnforever

macrumors regular
May 20, 2024
218
260
Thanks. Would you kindly be able to do the same PDF exercise with my PDF client of choice, which you can get free from the App Store: https://pdfviewer.io/store-ios
This would imply that there is little change between 6GB and 8GB when it comes to rendering heavy PDF files. It would be ideal if someone with a 1TB+ model on 16GB could run a similar test to see what happens then, but it does appear to me that one good justification for a 16GB model is such a use case. It is clear that large PDF files task the RAM far more than video rendering programmes or similar.
Incidentally, my A12Z CPU is little more than idle during the rendering of heavy PDFs, and does not appear to be the bottleneck at all.
Tried the PDF viewer with the same PDF file. Text stayed in focus no matter my scrolling. But free RAM dumped to around 82 MB.

IMG_0008.jpeg
 
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TheBigApple2006

macrumors 6502
Feb 20, 2006
336
65
Tried the PDF viewer with the same PDF file. Text stayed in focus no matter my scrolling. But free RAM dumped to around 82 MB.

View attachment 2384583
Thanks - this was very useful. It confirms that PDF Viewer (the app) renders PDFs much better than the stock app, but also that it gobbles up available RAM. Will have a look at the way other PDF viewers deal with large files, to see whether this is an OS-wide issue or app-specific.
You can however imagine the performance when it comes to 1.5-2GB image-heavy PDFs. Such a case use probably warrants passing to 16GB of RAM more than video or image apps.
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,878
12,854
Thanks - this was very useful. It confirms that PDF Viewer (the app) renders PDFs much better than the stock app, but also that it gobbles up available RAM. Will have a look at the way other PDF viewers deal with large files, to see whether this is an OS-wide issue or app-specific.
You can however imagine the performance when it comes to 1.5-2GB image-heavy PDFs. Such a case use probably warrants passing to 16GB of RAM more than video or image apps.
There is no guarantee that the app will perform better on 16 GB models outside of multitasking. We would have to see a real world comparison.
 

TheBigApple2006

macrumors 6502
Feb 20, 2006
336
65
There is no guarantee that the app will perform better on 16 GB models outside of multitasking. We would have to see a real world comparison.
True. I have checked other apps with the same PDF. PDF Expert renders fine but eats up the RAM in the same manner, Xodo at some point loses it and freezes when scrolling. It is clear that all of these are eager to take up as much RAM as possible. The combination of 16GB plus swapping (mine is an Ipad Pro 2020, which does not swap) should alleviate things, but is no guarantee. I am trying to get more information on RAM entitlement from the developer before springing for the 16GB model.
 
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DaniTheFox

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2023
198
145
Switzerland
Hrmm, pay top dollar for a premium iPad with extra RAM, and then pay subscription pricing for incomplete software...

Editing on iPad is Hell - YouTube

...when my full version of FCP cost a flat $299, and which runs circles around the iPadOS version (yes, one actually needs to take the 12:38 of time watching that video to "get it") on my 2TB 32GB M1 Max MBP which cost $1K more than the IPP, I'm not seeing the cost-benefit here for IPP for FCP. :)
I am only a photographer. iPads can handle this since a very long time. During the lockdown I started with video an audio. But audio don’t need the same power than video. Logic Pro for IPad is not so demanding.
Funny Davinci Resolve for iPad runs on more iPad models than FCP.
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,641
4,468
Funny Davinci Resolve for iPad runs on more iPad models than FCP.
It does but very poorly... In every iPad with 4GB RAM or less it crashes as soon as you open any advanced function (with 3GB it crashes even with basic use).
I doubt FCP take more RAM than Davinci, but I can see why Apple decided to limit it to M series only devices (since 6GB RAM iPads are pretty limited, A12Z and some A12X...)
 
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Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,641
4,468
davinci's minimum requirements for ipad is 16gb i believe so yeah anything less and its not worth it.
im using a 16gig m4 13 incher and scrolling , editing, using the color wheel unit and speed editor work flawlessly.
No, Davinci can work on anything A12 or higher (so 3GB RAM), but works best with 8GB and mostly fine with 6GB
 

DaniTheFox

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2023
198
145
Switzerland
Tell me. For which app more then 8 GB on the iPad would be fantastic. And has also an equivalent on MacOS (or Windows).
My list so far: FCP, Logic Pro, Stage Manager, Davinci Resolve.
I know, I know. They are not 100% equivalent.
 

vigilant

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2007
715
288
Nashville, TN
Waiting on my 1TB M4 13, and 11 iPad Pros to arrive. Been using the M2 variants of the same configuration which also have 16GB of memory.

8GB will probably be fine for most users.

I do expect that if you are a heavy Stage Manager user (I am), or if you hook it up to a Studio Display the memory will make a difference.

If you are in those groups though, I’d think that you know that prior to buying and take that into account for most situations.
 

lsquare

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2010
680
64
Waiting on my 1TB M4 13, and 11 iPad Pros to arrive. Been using the M2 variants of the same configuration which also have 16GB of memory.

8GB will probably be fine for most users.

I do expect that if you are a heavy Stage Manager user (I am), or if you hook it up to a Studio Display the memory will make a difference.

If you are in those groups though, I’d think that you know that prior to buying and take that into account for most situations.
I would love to see some benchmarks. It would be nice to know definitively rather than see more opinions.
 
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Originalblez

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2021
94
147
I think you’re just gonna have to try it yourself. We all have our own workflows and you’ll need to see for yourself how the 8GB vs 16GB iPads compare.
The hardware is years ahead of the software so I reckon any decision is fine.
 

bluegt

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2015
462
487
I would love to see some benchmarks. It would be nice to know definitively rather than see more opinions.
There was a reviewer that did the comparison, link is in my SSD post.

Bottom line, 16GB has no advantage.
 

bluegt

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2015
462
487
Not sure if I get you. Your thread is about SSD speed. I know the 512GB has only 8GB of RAM, but how does that prove 16GB of RAM has no advantage?


Repeating… refer to the link in the first post in the thread, it’s a video review comparing 8GB to 16GB.
 
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lsquare

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2010
680
64
also, apparently 1TB+ ipad airs still have 8GB ram. so the argument that 16GB of ram was required to support 1TB+ storage is a complete fabrication
Apple is sure doing a poor job explaining to people why they should splurge to get a 1TB+ iPad Pro.
 
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