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Apple really made a mistake with iPad ram.

CrAkD

CrAkD

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 15, 2010
3,180
255
Boston, MA
I love the ipad but After using the iPhone 4 the ram really DOES make difference. The iPad stutters and gets real low on ram easily. Causing scrolling web pages to result in that transparent background glitch. Also making it reload all the pages when you come back to them. This doesn't happen on the iPhone 4 everything is fast and smooth. I know the jokes on us cause come April well all be buying the new one to get the more ram. But they should have started the iPad with 512mb of ram.
 
I don't know why, but It's kinda ridiculous to have a phone with more ram than a tablet, I hope the iPad would get 1GB on the next gen, it should fit
 
I feel the same way. I've jailbroken my ipad and heavily modded it, and it barely just chugs along.
Double the ram would make such a big difference...
Tabbed browsing is borderline ridiculous with all the reloading. Reminds me of my old iphone 3g
 
I agree. When I got my iPad i was happy with how fast it is, but now 1 month and 5 days after using iPhone 4...iPad feels so slow :( they should have included the same amount of ram is the iPhone 4. wouldn't be that hard i'm sure.

but hey it'll be a selling point for the new iPad 2. Which ...as much as I love the iPad, I won't be buying :( It's either iPhone 5 or iPad 2. I love iPhone more :)
 
No mistake at all. Au contraire, this is done very much by design. On one hand, not putting in an extra 256MB of RAM lowers the manufacturing cost per device (not by a whole lot, but multiply it by millions of devices they'll sell), and on the other hand, putting in the camera and the extra RAM in the next gen device will make it much more desirable for us to upgrade. So get your wallet ready, my friend. It's coming....
 
CrAkD said:
I love the ipad but After using the iPhone 4 the ram really DOES make difference. The iPad stutters and gets real low on ram easily. Causing scrolling web pages to result in that transparent background glitch. Also making it reload all the pages when you come back to them. This doesn't happen on the iPhone 4 everything is fast and smooth. I know the jokes on us cause come April well all be buying the new one to get the more ram. But they should have started the iPad with 512mb of ram.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Jailbreaking then using the Virtual Memory Hack? This will solve all the problems you have listed.
 
iPhone is still Apple's flagship product, it will always be ahead of the iPad in most things.

This is why I wonder if Apple will go with a fixed yearly update schedule with the iPad - if it's always released in April, its spec is going to look pretty dated two months later when the next iPhone is released.

I reckon Apple may wait a year and a half before updating the iPad. There's certainly no need to rush out a new version when you look at the sales figures.
 
xraytech said:
Have you tried Jailbreaking then using the Virtual Memory Hack? This will solve all the problems you have listed.
Click to expand...

I'm jaibroken but I read every page of that virtual memory thread and the results never seemed stable from the replys maybe I'll try it.
 
I don't know about you guys, but my iPad is really fast. I find the iPhone 4 to be a little bit slower than my iPad (but still fast). Of course more RAM would be welcome, but I don't see any performance issues at all. This is a really responsive device and everything works very well.
 
Absolutely- it was a big mistake on Apple's part, and I'm annoyed about it. They designed the iPad at the same time they were designing the iPhone 4, and they knew that 256MB was on the low end, especially with iOS 4 on the horizon. It really irks me that they have such huge profit margins on these things, and yet they still saddled us with the same amount of RAM that the outdated 3GS has, and that no other high-end Android phone does. That, coupled with the fact that I spent an additional $130 to get a 3G chip for unlimited access at $30/month, only to see it taken away just over 30 days after my purchase, leaves me a dissatisfied customer.

I'm dumping my iPhone and going to Sprint on Aug 20 as soon as the Epic comes out. I'll be saving around $50/month, and everyone on my family plan will get data, instead of just my wife and me.
 
The virtual memory hack works beautifully for me. Tabbed browsing with atomic is perfect, and I can have multiple apps running with no issues.

It's the only way to fly on the iPad IMHO.
 
colmaclean said:
iPhone is still Apple's flagship product, it will always be ahead of the iPad in most things.

This is why I wonder if Apple will go with a fixed yearly update schedule with the iPad - if it's always released in April, its spec is going to look pretty dated two months later when the next iPhone is released.

I reckon Apple may wait a year and a half before updating the iPad. There's certainly no need to rush out a new version when you look at the sales figures.
Click to expand...
Indeed. It's still to be launched in some countries.
 
The iPhone 4 has more RAM solely because of it's HD video recorder. Caching 30 FPS at 1280x720 takes up a ton of memory. This extra RAM is NOT used by apps, etc. and it is just a myth that somehow gained traction in forums like this one.

Apps are limited to 32mb, fwiw, and they don't touch anymore RAM beyond this. Ever wonder why the same apps can run across all platforms, even early gen iPod Touches, etc.? Only limit is the OS...

The iPhone 4 IS slower than the iPad no matter what anyone says here. They clocked the A4 slower than the iPad, check out the bench test scores posted in these forums about a month ago.

http://pastie.org/1016127

The page caching on Safari should be identical in both devices once iOS4 is released on the iPad in the fall.
 
gatearray said:
The iPhone 4 has more RAM solely because of it's HD video recorder. Caching 30 FPS at 1280x720 takes up a ton of memory. This extra RAM is NOT used by apps, etc. and it is just a myth that somehow gained traction in forums like this one.

Apps are limited to 32mb, fwiw, and they don't touch anymore RAM beyond this. Ever wonder why the same apps can run across all platforms, even early gen iPod Touches, etc.? Only limit is the OS...

The iPhone 4 IS slower than the iPad no matter what anyone says here. They clocked the A4 slower than the iPad, check out the bench test scores posted in these forums about a month ago.

http://pastie.org/1016127

The page caching on Safari should be identical in both devices once iOS4 is released on the iPad in the fall.
Click to expand...

I wont believe it til I see it. Safari def is utilizing more memory.
 
CrAkD said:
I wont believe it til I see it. Safari def is utilizing more memory.
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't have to follow their rules when they develop apps. They use APIs that they don't allow devs to use and they can use more RAM if they want to.
 
I think this is why iOS4 for the iPad is slow in the coming. They have major ram allocation problems with multitasking. Though the larger screen has implications for upscaling etc. Else why the really big delay and what are the difference to be from the iPhone version?
 
gatearray said:
The iPhone 4 has more RAM solely because of it's HD video recorder. Caching 30 FPS at 1280x720 takes up a ton of memory. This extra RAM is NOT used by apps, etc. and it is just a myth that somehow gained traction in forums like this one.

Apps are limited to 32mb, fwiw, and they don't touch anymore RAM beyond this. Ever wonder why the same apps can run across all platforms, even early gen iPod Touches, etc.? Only limit is the OS...
Click to expand...

The extra RAM can be used to keep more recently used apps in a suspended state (assuming the app has been recompiled for iOS 4) rather than having to kill them off to free RAM for the foreground app.
 
colmaclean said:
iPhone is still Apple's flagship product, it will always be ahead of the iPad in most things.

This is why I wonder if Apple will go with a fixed yearly update schedule with the iPad - if it's always released in April, its spec is going to look pretty dated two months later when the next iPhone is released.

I reckon Apple may wait a year and a half before updating the iPad. There's certainly no need to rush out a new version when you look at the sales figures.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Sure the iPhone has been a huge hit, but I think the iPad will be just as big, if not bigger. It's only been out 3/4 months!

Also, I think they should keep the release dates spread out. you remember what the ipad was like on launch day... i mean launch week... I mean launch month.... and now same for the iphone 4. Now imagine joining the two together in the same month.... disaster.

I think that the 3 iOS products should/will stay spread out with iPad in March, iPhone in June, and iPod touch in September. Every 3 months. But I think in the future the iPad should lead the way with the hardware upgrades. of course the products won't have identical capabilities, but instead of the cycle where the iphone gets amazing stuff that the ipad doesn't get till 9 months later... that won't cut it.
 
hsotnicam8002 said:
I think this is why iOS4 for the iPad is slow in the coming. They have major ram allocation problems with multitasking. Though the larger screen has implications for upscaling etc. Else why the really big delay and what are the difference to be from the iPhone version?
Click to expand...

Why would the RAM be the cause of the delay for iOS 4 on the iPad? The iPhone 3GS has the same amount of RAM and a slower processor to boot, yet it has no problem with iOS 4.

I think the iPad version of iOS 4 will have a few surprises for us.
 
CrAkD said:
I love the ipad but After using the iPhone 4 the ram really DOES make difference. The iPad stutters and gets real low on ram easily. Causing scrolling web pages to result in that transparent background glitch. Also making it reload all the pages when you come back to them. This doesn't happen on the iPhone 4 everything is fast and smooth.
Click to expand...

Are you sure the page has completely loaded? Caching directives, and Javascript ad refreshing generally is what causes reloads. Are you sure it doesn't happen on iPhone 4?

CrAkD said:
I know the jokes on us cause come April well all be buying the new one to get the more ram. But they should have started the iPad with 512mb of ram.
Click to expand...

Really, 256mb is a huge amount of RAM. It's possible the iPad 2.0 won't have 512mb, especially if it doesn't have a real-time HD video camera.
 
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