iPad Pro Do M4 iPad Pros with 8GB of RAM actually have 12GB?

[pin87a]

If there actually is 12GB installed, do we even know that these iPads aren't using all 12GB already?

 

[Electroni]

If there actually is 12GB installed, do we even know that these iPads aren't using all 12GB already?

There are various activity monitor apps available that show memory usage.

 

[Electroni]

One possible theory could be that Apple intends to use 2x4GB modules but that at the time of manufacturing the first batches of iPads, only 6GB modules were available at the right price or quantity but that they intend at some point to source 4GB modules for subsequent production runs. By limiting the total memory to 8GB it allows them to keep the advertised memory the same for all iPads of the same SKU.

 

[dumastudetto]

Gee, then Apple should have given 500mb of RAM of then instead of 8GB cause 8GB is ever too much according to you…

Apple has struck a sensible balance at 8GB and 16GB that seamlessly overcomes the points I raised. Maybe I'm way off base, but I believe me.

 

[JustAnExpat]

The whole point of this discussion to find out,

Unless someone from Apple is reading this and answers in an official capacity, this discussion will not discover the reason for these memory modules. Here's a question I want to ask: Does finding out that iPads actually come with 12GB change anything? If the answer is no, then drop the subject, it just causes stress. If the answer is yes, then what changes knowing this information?

 

[EugW]

Unless someone from Apple is reading this and answers in an official capacity, this discussion will not discover the reason for these memory modules. Here's a question I want to ask: Does finding out that iPads actually come with 12GB change anything? If the answer is no, then drop the subject, it just causes stress. If the answer is yes, then what changes knowing this information?

Why are you getting stressed over this?

Like the OP, I too find it interesting. We may never know for sure Apple’s reasoning, but it does provide some interesting discussion as to the possible reasons. It could just be cost and availability, but it could also point the possibility that the M4 MacBook Air, M4 MacBook Pro, and M4 Mac mini will finally come with 12 GB RAM base.

FWIW, I had been considering buying a used 8 GB M1 or M2 MacBook Air to replace my wife’s 2017 i5 MBA, but at the point I may just wait for a 12 GB M4 MBA next year instead, unless I can find that M1/M2 uber cheap.

 

[EugW]

One possible theory could be that Apple intends to use 2x4GB modules but that at the time of manufacturing the first batches of iPads, only 6GB modules were available at the right price or quantity but that they intend at some point to source 4GB modules for subsequent production runs. By limiting the total memory to 8GB it allows them to keep the advertised memory the same for all iPads of the same SKU.

let’s look at this the other way are there any LPDDR5X X chips that have 4GB modules?

I haven’t found any.

@Carrotstick, where did you look?

For example, DigiKey only has 3 GB, 6 GB, 12 GB, and 16 GB chips for Micron LPDDR5X. They don't have either 4 GB or 8 GB chips, but we already know that Apple is using 8 GB chips.

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

If it ends up being true, and there’s no real reason to lock the remaining 4GB of RAM, I really hope they get in real trouble for this. A lawsuit and a global recall of this model at the very least. Thats the most scummy practice I’ve seen in a long time.

I hope you're joking, because if not, and this is what the internet has succeeded in created, there really is no hope for humanity. Apple doesn't HAVE to ship anything. They don't HAVE to enable anything. You are not entitled to anything.

 

[prime17569]

There are apps that let you check the system specifications of a device, including how much RAM iOS claims the device has. Would anyone with an 8/12GB M4 iPad be willing to see what it reports?

 

[Wags]

There are apps that let you check the system specifications of a device, including how much RAM iOS claims the device has. Would anyone with an 8/12GB M4 iPad be willing to see what it reports?

All Geekbench results show 7.xx ram

 

[Populus]

For me, the new iPads having 12GB of base RAM would be an incentive to get one.

 

[EugW]

For me, the new iPads having 12GB of base RAM would be an incentive to get one.

2026. Apple rations upgrades. This time it got OLED, landscape camera, increased base storage, and new form factor with new Magic Keyboard. In 2026 it will be a more incremental upgrade, and will get more RAM.

 

[Populus]

2026. Apple rations upgrades. This time it got OLED, landscape camera, increased base storage, and new form factor with new Magic Keyboard. In 2026 it will be a more incremental upgrade, and will get more RAM.

Yeah. But if Apple blows my mind during WWDC making a docked iPad more… versatile, they will have me. Also I use a lot the iPad microphones and, from what I’ve listened, the quality of the recordings has increased quite a lot.

But I still don’t know what I’ll do. I shouldn’t sell my M2 iPad Pro until I have the opportunity to test for a long time the new OLED M4 iPad Pro. Because of the PWM, I don’t know how it will affect me, I didn’t notice anything on the store but I should be careful.

 

[EugW]

Yeah. But if Apple blows my mind during WWDC making a docked iPad more… versatile, they will have me. Also I use a lot the iPad microphones and, from what I’ve listened, the quality of the recordings has increased quite a lot.

Prepare to be disappointed.

But I still don’t know what I’ll do. I shouldn’t sell my M2 iPad Pro until I have the opportunity to test for a long time the new OLED M4 iPad Pro. Because of the PWM, I don’t know how it will affect me, I didn’t notice anything on the store but I should be careful.

If I had an M2 iPad Pro, I'd probably keep it for many years longer.

But I'm coming from a 2017 iPad Pro (or actually the 2014 iPad Air 2 at the moment).

 

[StefSSU]

Maybe I'm way off base, but I believe me.

😂

 

[Macintosh101]

This is being reported elsewhere now, based on this forum thread.

M4 iPad Pros with 8GB of RAM may actually have 12GB — teardowns reveal possible Apple hijinks

Eagle-eyed forum posters strike again.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[cbns]

Unless someone from Apple is reading this and answers in an official capacity, this discussion will not discover the reason for these memory modules. Here's a question I want to ask: Does finding out that iPads actually come with 12GB change anything? If the answer is no, then drop the subject, it just causes stress. If the answer is yes, then what changes knowing this information?

It's pad PR for them and we can perhaps pressure them into unlocking it

 

[Wags]

Real trouble for what, exactly? Apple lists 8GB of RAM for that model, and that’s exactly what you get.
Your disappointment by the specs of a piece of hardware alone is not grounds for legal punitive action.

Only argument could be that we paid for it so why limiting it’s capability.

 

[nappes]

Several people have already torn down the new iPad Pro models and photographed their M4 chips and the RAM alongside them. Most teardown I could find were of the 256GB model, but one website (TechInsights) did the 1TB model as well.

The one 1TB teardown I could find showed 2 RAM chips alongside the M4, each labeled D8DNV. The Micron FBGA and component marking decoder shows these are MT62F1G64D4AS-026 XT:C chips, which are listed on both DigiKey and Mouser. These are 64 gigabit (8 gigabyte) chips, as expected, confirming the 16GB of RAM mentioned on Apple's tech specs page.

Looking at the teardowns of lower capacity models, all the pictures I saw (UFD Tech, JerryRigEverything, iFixit) showed 2 chips labeled Z8DMS instead. Some pictures were blurrier than others, but they all seemed to show the same thing in the end.

On the same Micron site, Z8DMS decodes to MT62F768M64D4AS-026 XT:B, also listed on DigiKey and Mouser. But those product listings mentioned a size of 48 gigabits (6 gigabytes), for a total of 12GB of RAM. Not the 8GB mentioned in Apple's specs.

Maybe RAM density per die has increased so much that true 4GB chips wouldn't have enough dies to supply 120 GB/s of bandwidth, kind of like how the 256GB M2 MacBook Air infamously had much slower SSD speeds than the 512GB+ models because it only had 1 NAND chip instead of 2.

Maybe Micron (and Hynix, and Samsung) didn't offer 4GB chips as a standard size for LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X memory, and Apple couldn't justify the cost of commissioning special 4GB chips just for a product line that ultimately sells far fewer units than most other Apple products.

Whatever the answer turns out to be, it's still a shame to see a third of each iPad's memory go unused for the sake of product segmentation. Hopefully this is a sign that M4 Macs will finally start with 12GB of RAM.

Did the techinsights have any insight into the nand chips on the 1TB model?

in benchmarks the 1TB has worse write performance than the 512GB and there was speculation that the 1TB iPhone 16s would move to QLC nand which is inferior so maybe the change was also made to the large capacity iPads

 

[Populus]

Did the techinsights have any insight into the nand chips on the 1TB model?

in benchmarks the 1TB has worse write performance than the 512GB and there was speculation that the 1TB iPhone 16s would move to QLC nand which is inferior so maybe the change was also made to the large capacity iPads

This is a very pertinent question.

Im not getting a QLC storage Apple device.

 

[heldheovhco]

Several people have already torn down the new iPad Pro models and photographed their M4 chips and the RAM alongside them. Most teardown I could find were of the 256GB model, but one website (TechInsights) did the 1TB model as well.

The one 1TB teardown I could find showed 2 RAM chips alongside the M4, each labeled D8DNV. The Micron FBGA and component marking decoder shows these are MT62F1G64D4AS-026 XT:C chips, which are listed on both DigiKey and Mouser. These are 64 gigabit (8 gigabyte) chips, as expected, confirming the 16GB of RAM mentioned on Apple's tech specs page.

Looking at the teardowns of lower capacity models, all the pictures I saw (UFD Tech, JerryRigEverything, iFixit) showed 2 chips labeled Z8DMS instead. Some pictures were blurrier than others, but they all seemed to show the same thing in the end.

On the same Micron site, Z8DMS decodes to MT62F768M64D4AS-026 XT:B, also listed on DigiKey and Mouser. But those product listings mentioned a size of 48 gigabits (6 gigabytes), for a total of 12GB of RAM. Not the 8GB mentioned in Apple's specs.

Maybe RAM density per die has increased so much that true 4GB chips wouldn't have enough dies to supply 120 GB/s of bandwidth, kind of like how the 256GB M2 MacBook Air infamously had much slower SSD speeds than the 512GB+ models because it only had 1 NAND chip instead of 2.

Maybe Micron (and Hynix, and Samsung) didn't offer 4GB chips as a standard size for LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X memory, and Apple couldn't justify the cost of commissioning special 4GB chips just for a product line that ultimately sells far fewer units than most other Apple products.

Whatever the answer turns out to be, it's still a shame to see a third of each iPad's memory go unused for the sake of product segmentation. Hopefully this is a sign that M4 Macs will finally start with 12GB of RAM.

Thank you very much for sharing. But I am very curious, how did you know that Z8DMS stands for MT62F768M64D4AS-026 XT:B? Unfortunately I did not find any information about Z8DMS on Micron's official website.

FBGA & part decoder

www.micron.com

 

[layerstack]

Thank you very much for sharing. But I am very curious, how did you know that Z8DMS stands for MT62F768M64D4AS-026 XT:B? Unfortunately I did not find any information about Z8DMS on Micron's official website.

FBGA & part decoder

www.micron.com

You need to enter it in the field that says 'FBGA Code'. Apple's Micron RAM chips often don't have the Micron logo and two lines of text as Micron chips made for other customers, so it might not be obvious at first.

 

[EugW]

According to Geekerwan, this is not LPDDR5X, but LPDDR5 running at a custom speed.

 

[Confused-User]

According to Geekerwan, this is not LPDDR5X, but LPDDR5 running at a custom speed.

That's very odd, if true. Apple didn't want to go the the trouble of making an LPDDR5X controller?

I hate to say it, but this could make the idea of early LPDDR6 a little more plausible (though I still doubt it). Early M5 too.

 

[Sun Baked]

But does the payment of the ransomware fee, to unlock the extra RAM, come with a free 1 year subscription to heated seats for the car.