iPad Pro 8vs 16gb real performance comparsion

[Delarock]

Hi there, did someone compare 8 vs 16 gb ipad pro performance in real usage? I couldnt find any reviews yet.
Personally i had 8gb macbook pro M1 , now i have 16gb version and with my usage i cant see difference ( i dont use xcoxe, photoshop etc)

 

[Digitalguy]

Hi there, did someone compare 8 vs 16 gb ipad pro performance in real usage? I couldnt find any reviews yet.
Personally i had 8gb macbook pro M1 , now i have 16gb version and with my usage i cant see difference ( i dont use xcoxe, photoshop etc)

Max tech is going to make a comparison very soon. Stay tuned to their channel.

 

[chabig]

Generally speaking, RAM doesn't affect performance. RAM holds data like the gas tank in a car holds gas. Whether it's 10, 15, or 18 gallons, the cars performance is a product of the engine and transmission, not the size of the gas tank. And a computer's performance is dependent upon the CPU and GPU. RAM specs have influence, but not so much the RAM quantity.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Max tech is going to make a comparison very soon. Stay tuned to their channel.

Do you know them?

 

[ian87w]

I doubt there’s huge performance gap, at least until apps can take advantage of it. General performance wise, imo it’s probably the point of diminishing return. Just like in PCs, going from 8GB to 16GB RAM won’t improve benchmarks or gaming that much. But you can load up a lot more Chrome tabs

 

[sparksd]

I doubt there’s huge performance gap, at least until apps can take advantage of it. General performance wise, imo it’s probably the point of diminishing return. Just like in PCs, going from 8GB to 16GB RAM won’t improve benchmarks or gaming that much. But you can load up a lot more Chrome tabs

On the PC, going from 8GB to 16 made a huge difference for me in terms of Adobe Lightroom performance - LR can really chew up the RAM and on 8GB I'd regularly get out-of-memory errors on exports when working with large imagery. Runs beautifully on 16GB.

 

[mi7chy]

More RAM can make a difference if it enables multi-channel but it's unknown if anyone has gotten around to benchmarking memory performance between 8GB and 16GB.

 

[JD2015]

Do you know them?

They said about this comparison coming when comparing the IPP 11 (2021) with IPP 11 (2020)

 

[Slartibart]

Generally speaking, RAM doesn't affect performance. RAM holds data like the gas tank in a car holds gas. Whether it's 10, 15, or 18 gallons, the cars performance is a product of the engine and transmission, not the size of the gas tank. And a computer's performance is dependent upon the CPU and GPU. RAM specs have influence, but not so much the RAM quantity.

While this is true for general computing devices, iPadOS has a maximum RAM budget per app - currently roughly 5 GB. So as of iPadOS 14.5.1 and MacOS Big Sur you might find some scenario where your Mac can make more use of its hardware.

 

[Delarock]

hmm interesting

 

[isoft7]

The benchmarks make sense, iPad OS doesn't need 16gb of ram because it's still basically iOS. The extra ram will only matter if a program is written to need it and since 99% of iPad users aren't going to have that much ram nobody is going to program a suite to fully take advantage of it. The real value to 16gb of ram is in Apples profit margins. ?

 

[nicetriangles]

The benchmarks make sense, iPad OS doesn't need 16gb of ram because it's still basically iOS. The extra ram will only matter if a program is written to need it and since 99% of iPad users aren't going to have that much ram nobody is going to program a suite to fully take advantage of it. The real value to 16gb of ram is in Apples profit margins. ?

The apps cannot use more than 5gigs of ram on either device so on a per app basis it's a moot point. The only major performance difference I would expect between that 8 and 16 is that the 16 can hold more apps in memory simultaneously and that's it.

 

[isoft7]

The apps cannot use more than 5gigs of ram on either device so on a per app basis it's a moot point. The only major performance difference I would expect between that 8 and 16 is that the 16 can hold more apps in memory simultaneously and that's it.

I've read other developers saying they've run into stability issues when trying to allocate more than 5gb, so yeah, I believe it. I can't find any official Apple documentation about it, but I'm assuming it comes down to Apples fear of having "low memory" errors reducing customer satisfaction. So they block out a certain percentage to make sure application switching remains stable.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where iPadOS 15 doesn't "open" up higher amount of RAM allocation though, otherwise the 16gb on the iPad Pro 1tb+ models is almost insulting to the consumer.

 

[nicetriangles]

I've read other developers saying they've run into stability issues when trying to allocate more than 5gb, so yeah, I believe it. I can't find any official Apple documentation about it, but I'm assuming it comes down to Apples fear of having "low memory" errors reducing customer satisfaction. So they block out a certain percentage to make sure application switching remains stable.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where iPadOS 15 doesn't "open" up higher amount of RAM allocation though, otherwise the 16gb on the iPad Pro 1tb+ models is almost insulting to the consumer.

Thing is in the past iPad pros have allowed devs access to somewhere around 70% of available ram and now with the 16gig model it's 31% and also this is the first time they've publicly advertised the memory options to consumers.

In terms of it being hard to imagine them not opening this ram up in iOS 15. I mentioned this in another thread, but I can totally picture a scenario where Apple in their infinite wisdom decides that rather than let heavy apps really make use of that memory they instead prioritize allowing people to keep 100 things open and running in memory so that app switching feels instantaneous. Which is a cute trick and a lot easier to show off to general consumers (WOW LOOK HOW FAST EVERYTHING LOADS!), but is not exactly Pro-friendly.

 

[Gandek]

I had a Air 4 which had 4GB of RAM and now have a 12.9 3rd gen which also has 4GB have not found RAM to be a issue yet everything stays in memory I never feel the need to have a insane amount of apps open though at most its like 12. On my iPhone 11 Pro though which also has 4GB stuff tends to reload a lot...

 

[Digitalguy]

There is no way Apple is going to allow more that 7GB to apps, or even 6... The 8GB M1 will be the one based on which the allocation will be definef, just as the 4GB A12X was the one (with 3GB max allowed) until the 2020 pro came out, despite the 1TB having 6GB...
By the way, apps can only access 5GB on the 2020 pro even to this day, not on the 2018 6GB RAM one...

 

[nicetriangles]

I had a Air 4 which had 4GB of RAM and now have a 12.9 3rd gen which also has 4GB have not found RAM to be a issue yet everything stays in memory I never feel the need to have a insane amount of apps open though at most its like 12. On my iPhone 11 Pro though which also has 4GB stuff tends to reload a lot...

The memory won't be a real issue for most. It's when you get into stuff like illustration and 3d modeling on the iPad where the ram limitations become a big bottleneck. It's the number one thing holding Procreate back right now.

 

[Gandek]

The memory won't be a real issue for most. It's when you get into stuff like illustration and 3d modeling on the iPad where the ram limitations become a big bottleneck. It's the number one thing holding Procreate back right now.

Luckily I'm terrible at drawing

 

[PBG4 Dude]

The memory won't be a real issue for most. It's when you get into stuff like illustration and 3d modeling on the iPad where the ram limitations become a big bottleneck. It's the number one thing holding Procreate back right now.

Procreate thinks the new iPad Pro models only have 2GB RAM, which is causing issues. A patch has been submitted to Apple so now we wait for Apple to certify and release the update, which should eliminate issues on the new devices.

 

[nicetriangles]

Procreate thinks the new iPad Pro models only have 2GB RAM, which is causing issues. A patch has been submitted to Apple so now we wait for Apple to certify and release the update.

Yes and they're pushing a patch for it which should be out soon. Other devs however have confirmed that the new iPads are capping all apps at 5gigs each so even after Procreate's patch, the 5gig limitation is still a thing.

 

[maflynn]

I think it was MKB's review where he mentioned the higher ram provided near instant app switching, or re-opening. Not that it was slow before but it was pretty evident that opening up a pro level app that was previously opened was noticeably faster because it wasn't swapped out.

I don't think you'll see much more in terms of "performance" between the two since ram doesn't directly affect raw processing power. Yes keeping more data in memory and not swapping it out, improves the over snappiness but I don't think we'll see a huge difference

Where you can see the difference is the ability to load more complex layers and do more within a given app, i.e., apps taking advantage of the increased ream

 

[DaveOZ]

Until iPasOS 15 maybe.

 

[MrGimper]

16GB RAM will make a difference at some point, or why do it? We aren’t talking a couple of gigs extra this time round between devices.

 

[isoft7]

16GB RAM will make a difference at some point, or why do it? We aren’t talking a couple of gigs extra this time round between devices.

Well, its important for me to say I did buy and currently have in my hand an 256gb iPad Pro M1 (so 8gb) and I'm extremely happy with it... so I'm not an Apple hater or something, but it's entirely possible Apple put the extra RAM in the higher tier models simply to sell more of them and increase profit margins.

There really may be nothing more to it than that, a money making strategy, which to be honest is the reason any company makes any products.

 

[maflynn]

16GB RAM will make a difference at some point, or why do it? We aren’t talking a couple of gigs extra this time round between devices.

They're already making these SOCs for the Macs, so that's why and it could be as simply for marketing purposes. Its not really costing them anything more, that is they're not creating a different manufacturing workflow for this - AFAIK, and why not? Gives them more reason to promote and market the top tier iPad to entice more people to buy it.

Just look at all of the people opting for MBPs with the max ram selection, most are doing it just for future proofing even if they know they won't need it. Same mentality imo.