Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads iPad 5th generation vs iPad 8th generation
- Thread starter max2
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Waiting for 9th gen is totally pointless atm, its another year and who knows if they increase the size of the screen to 10.5 nd carry on with a12..
If you are getting a nice tradein value then go ahead for 8th gen its totally a new thing along with the pencil with 8th gen
If you are getting a nice tradein value then go ahead for 8th gen its totally a new thing along with the pencil with 8th gen
I think it depends, in your case since you already noticed it's getting slow, you should upgrade. We upgrade every 3-4 years in our house if its needed, I just upgraded from a 10.5 pro to the 11 pro 2020. My kids have the 6th and 7th gen, so they'll get upgraded next year or something but my wife has a 6th gen and rarely uses it so she'll keep that much longer.
What do you use it for?
If just email and light surfing without a keyboard and watching video, I wouldn't necessarily bother upgrading. That said, the iPad 8 is a huge upgrade over the iPad 5, esp. if you decide you want an external keyboard +/- Pencil.
IMO for general usage (excluding games and heavy content creation):
A9 + 2 GB RAM in iPad 5th gen is showing its age, but is still pretty usable.
A10 + 2 GB RAM in iPad 6th gen is also showing its age, but the SoC speed is better than iPad 5th gen.
A10 + 3 GB RAM in iPad 7th gen is very good. Very occasional short pauses can be noticed but it’s very decent overall. This is my wife’s daily driver and she’s more than satisfied with it.
A10X + 4 GB RAM in iPad Pro 2nd gen is excellent, a step up from iPad 7th generation although as mentioned that is already very good. iPad Pro 2nd gen is my primary machine.
A12X + 4 GB RAM in iPad Pro 3rd gen is excellent, and the speed advantage over A10X + 4 GB RAM is actually often hard to notice for such usage. Side by side, the iPad Pro 3rd gen wins of course, but the difference is surprisingly subtle.
iPad 8th generation is A12 + 3 GB RAM. I haven't used one myself but nonetheless it should be very good, with an SoC that is ballpark in the same league as A10X iPad Pro 2nd gen (sometimes better, sometimes worse), and the same amount of memory as iPad 7. So, I'm guessing the experience would be somewhere in between. Plus all the models from the iPad 7th gen and up are bigger than 10” and have the Smart Connector for keyboards.
If just email and light surfing without a keyboard and watching video, I wouldn't necessarily bother upgrading. That said, the iPad 8 is a huge upgrade over the iPad 5, esp. if you decide you want an external keyboard +/- Pencil.
IMO for general usage (excluding games and heavy content creation):
A9 + 2 GB RAM in iPad 5th gen is showing its age, but is still pretty usable.
A10 + 2 GB RAM in iPad 6th gen is also showing its age, but the SoC speed is better than iPad 5th gen.
A10 + 3 GB RAM in iPad 7th gen is very good. Very occasional short pauses can be noticed but it’s very decent overall. This is my wife’s daily driver and she’s more than satisfied with it.
A10X + 4 GB RAM in iPad Pro 2nd gen is excellent, a step up from iPad 7th generation although as mentioned that is already very good. iPad Pro 2nd gen is my primary machine.
A12X + 4 GB RAM in iPad Pro 3rd gen is excellent, and the speed advantage over A10X + 4 GB RAM is actually often hard to notice for such usage. Side by side, the iPad Pro 3rd gen wins of course, but the difference is surprisingly subtle.
iPad 8th generation is A12 + 3 GB RAM. I haven't used one myself but nonetheless it should be very good, with an SoC that is ballpark in the same league as A10X iPad Pro 2nd gen (sometimes better, sometimes worse), and the same amount of memory as iPad 7. So, I'm guessing the experience would be somewhere in between. Plus all the models from the iPad 7th gen and up are bigger than 10” and have the Smart Connector for keyboards.
Last edited:
I think that you're the only one who knows if it's worthwhile for you. Compared to the 5th gen, the 8th gen iPad has a 3 generation improvement in processor (A9 to A12), 3GB of RAM vs 2GB, and a larger display. I'd say it's a fairly substantial improvement. But of course, the next generation will always be even better.
The 8th gen model won't really do anything that your 5th gen can't, but it will no doubt perform better.
It really depends on your use case. Can you provide us information on what you do with your iPad?
