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iPad Pro 8vs 16gb real performance comparsion
- Thread starter Delarock
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Agreed. Anyone trying to suggest that having literally double the amount of RAM won’t be useful is talking nonsense.
It would make a different in apps like Procreate with respect to max canvas sizes and layer caps
That makes no sense...
Storage isn't included in the M1 SOC. So Apple could have easily paired the M1 w/ 8GB to all storage configurations for the 2021 iPad Pro.
Not necessarily. You can certainly configure and buy a Mac with M1/8C/7C/8GB/1TB ($1399 for MBA) for $250 less than M1/8C/8C/16GB/1TB ($1649).
Agreed. I expect one of the reasons Apple only offers the 16GB/1TB Macs in-store is because that configuration makes better sense overall. Even the 16GB/1TB is still kinda BTO. On major retailers (Best Buy, Costco, Walmart, Amazon, etc), they don't have 16GB/1TB, just 8GB/256GB or 8GB/512GB.
And at least for me, it doesn't really affect me if Apple doesn't increase max app memory limit. I mostly want the extra RAM for smooth multitasking.
The biggest difference I've noticed on my 16GB is that apps seemingly never actually drop out of memory. At least I haven't had it happen yet. I'm coming from a 4GB 2018 12.9".
It's more of an issue for professionals. For gaming, it's more for keeping things like texture and world pop-in from happening (although that's usually more for GPU RAM). It improves the experience in that things perform better (load earlier instead of later) than a device that doesn't have it, but doesn't make it run faster in the sense of a CPU.
It's less of an issue nowadays because of fast SSDs and their interconnects with the CPU. But if an app has to reload then it still has to load off the SSD, which is slower, and the CPU has to process everything again and if it's an internet connected app, it has to refresh everything on top of that.
It doesn't for synthetic benchmarks but it depends on your definition of performance. If you can't even operate in PS because your PSD has a lot of layers, then that's not much in the way of performance. A lot of apps on the iPad put limits on canvas sizes or number of layers based on the RAM a device has.
It's more of an issue for professionals. For gaming, it's more for keeping things like texture and world pop-in from happening (although that's usually more for GPU RAM). It improves the experience in that things perform better (load earlier instead of later) than a device that doesn't have it, but doesn't make it run faster in the sense of a CPU.
It's less of an issue nowadays because of fast SSDs and their interconnects with the CPU. But if an app has to reload then it still has to load off the SSD, which is slower, and the CPU has to process everything again and if it's an internet connected app, it has to refresh everything on top of that.
I personally feel like Apple mostly offered the 16gb variant to drive sales on the higher end models (thus increasing profits for themselves, they are a business afterall). But I'm cautiously optimistic that at some point that RAM will be useful for the consumers who have it available to them.
As for people saying it will never be useful, well, thats a dangerous claim:
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates (although he now claims he never said that) ?
As for people saying it will never be useful, well, thats a dangerous claim:
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates (although he now claims he never said that) ?
I think the point here is that iPadOS isnt built for multi-tasking and so having more RAM may not be that impactful. Keeping apps open longer in system memory is a cool trick but at the end, meaningless to me. I use my ipad as my main computer and the OS multitasking limitations makes it mostly a focus task machine.
One can argue that part of the reason iPadOS sucks at multitasking is because of the low amount of RAM.
I’ve had occasions when I needed to switch between Excel and Safari copying data and both kept reloading. Thankfully, I didn’t experience any data loss. It’s happened to me before that I lost some inputted data when Excel reloaded (dunno why it didn’t auto-save). Losing inputted data on web forms on Safari is sadly a common occurrence.
Yeah - a routine experience with iPad that I’m hoping these new iPads with mucho RAM solve:
In Safari, start to write a post in one tab. Go to do research on an article with supporting info, copy/paste the URL (or info) and go back to the tab - your partially-written post is gone and the page reloads.
Repeat ad infinitum
I think it's necessary to distinguish 2 things to avoid confusion:
- Multitasking RAM
- Apps RAM
So far the multitasking usefulness of RAM is only limited to open apps (which, as Max Tech show, doesn't change much between 8 and 16 even with a ton of apps open, those noting a difference are comparing to older devices, generally not to 8GB devices). At this point the RAM management algorithm doesn't even seem to work better with 16GB devices than with 8GB ones...(see video).
Other than that multitasking itself is very limited in iPadOS 14 compared to a desktop OS or even to some mobile OS, but this could change in the future (and I am confident it will in iPadOS 15, especially if full monitor support is introduced). So 16GB could become useful for multitasking, but I don't expect Apple to give any exclusive multitasking feature to 16GB devices, whatever is possible with 16 will be possible with 8 (eg. split screen on both iPad and external monitor at the same time).
RAM available to individual apps will certainly be upgraded to 6-7GB but it might never be upgraded to 14-15 GB for M1 iPads for the reasons I explained in a post above. It will probably be increased to 14-15 only when 16GB becomes the base configuration in whatever M2, M3 etc. iPad pro (same as when 6GB became the base in 2020, after existing but not being accessible to apps in the 2018 model, even now). Which means that on M1 iPads, apps will probably not be allowed to have higher setting (e.g. more layers) for 16GB devices.
Some people consider that if apps can only access less than 8GB RAM, 16GB models are useless. They are not, since that RAM could still be used for future multitasking features
- Multitasking RAM
- Apps RAM
So far the multitasking usefulness of RAM is only limited to open apps (which, as Max Tech show, doesn't change much between 8 and 16 even with a ton of apps open, those noting a difference are comparing to older devices, generally not to 8GB devices). At this point the RAM management algorithm doesn't even seem to work better with 16GB devices than with 8GB ones...(see video).
Other than that multitasking itself is very limited in iPadOS 14 compared to a desktop OS or even to some mobile OS, but this could change in the future (and I am confident it will in iPadOS 15, especially if full monitor support is introduced). So 16GB could become useful for multitasking, but I don't expect Apple to give any exclusive multitasking feature to 16GB devices, whatever is possible with 16 will be possible with 8 (eg. split screen on both iPad and external monitor at the same time).
RAM available to individual apps will certainly be upgraded to 6-7GB but it might never be upgraded to 14-15 GB for M1 iPads for the reasons I explained in a post above. It will probably be increased to 14-15 only when 16GB becomes the base configuration in whatever M2, M3 etc. iPad pro (same as when 6GB became the base in 2020, after existing but not being accessible to apps in the 2018 model, even now). Which means that on M1 iPads, apps will probably not be allowed to have higher setting (e.g. more layers) for 16GB devices.
Some people consider that if apps can only access less than 8GB RAM, 16GB models are useless. They are not, since that RAM could still be used for future multitasking features
Hm… I have an 11” iPP 2020, iPadOS 14.5.1and I can’t reproduce what you are writing. Au contraire if I start a comment here - assuming that you refer to MR -its kept in the comment field even if I leave the thread, go to some other page and return to the tread where I started commenting.
It’s actually annoyinglyconvenient sometimes? - because there is no one-click-delete for comments (or is there?) - when I find myself contemplating wether I should send a comment, changing to another page because I decided against it, and on return my old stuff is still there waiting to get “published”.
the scenario you described is actually one I use often to copy e.g. links from articles search in a different tab into comments. Absolutely no problems. What iPad and iPads do you use?
MacRumors automatically saves drafts. However, there are plenty of other forums and web forms that don't.
The issue seems to be more related to how a specific website implements comments then.
It’s not just comments that’s the issue though but web forms in general.
You can’t control others’ websites. Best one can do is leave feedback.
However, you have control over the device(s) you’re using. I would often switch to a PC or use two iPads (one for form filling, the other for research) when I can’t afford to have a web page reload.
I see huge difference between 2018 and 2021 in terms of switching between apps and games. With 2018 jumping from Civilizatin VI to do something more productive would often lead to Civ 6 reloading.
Now with 16GB I don’t get anything productive done as I jump between PUBG, Civ6, Xcom2 and Original Sin 2 and just wonder how this is even possible.
Now with 16GB I don’t get anything productive done as I jump between PUBG, Civ6, Xcom2 and Original Sin 2 and just wonder how this is even possible.
Can’t go by how much RAM is being used. If you had 32GB, i‘m sure most of that would be getting used.
For sure there are purchasers like that and configuring with only 1 or 2 TB makes it even more expensive. Somewhat makes sense that a high ram user would probably need high storage too. Purchasing now and having to wait until September to fully use the performance sticks too.
The 8 vs 16 GB debate could change substantially in the dev conference. If iPadOS is updated to allow apps to access more than the 5 GB or so they can do now, it will make a difference for ram hungry apps. If multitasking is substantially improved, that may also matter. If not, as other pointed out already, the only real benefit is more apps can stay in memory.