iPad Pro iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) - performance on iPadOS 16 in 2022

[1984power]

Hello everyone,


I’ve been looking at a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the 3rd generation model, from 2018.
How is the performance on these iPads as of today?

The Apple A12X in these is a very capable processor, but they have 4GB of memory. This amount definitely seems low in theory, although the 4th generation iPad Air and 8th, 9th and 10th generation iPad models also have 4 or 3GB.

Searching around, most people say they’re very fast and perform like when they were new, but some complain about frequent reloading when multitasking and switching apps.


I’m considering both the 3rd generation (2018) and the 4th generation (2020) models. The 4th gen has 6GB of memory. I’ve wondered if the additional memory means no excessive reloads and, now, no app reloading in Stage Manager also.

I would mainly be viewing three ou four PDF documents (about 60 pages each) with PDF Viewer and working on Swift Playgrounds. Stage Manager will be useful to me sometimes, maybe with Swift Playgrounds, Safari and Music simultaneously, for example. I will probably be using either Affinity Designer or Photoshop in the future, so I’m interested in knowing how they do with some more demanding apps.


Does the 3rd gen reload apps and Safari tabs very frequently? Does it reload apps when using Stage Manager too?
Is the 4th gen’s performance improved in these situations, thanks to the 6GB of memory?
I would appreciate it a lot if someone who has had experience with one of these (or both) could share their thoughts.


Thanks in advance.

 

[rui no onna]

Stage Manager seems pretty heavy on RAM.

On 8GB RAM Air 5, I often see free RAM drop down to hundreds of MB when I have SM enabled when it’s usually 1GB+ with SM disabled.

I expect 6GB wouldn’t reload a lot if you don’t use SM. With SM, reloads would probably be more frequent than normal. No idea about how frequent since I just have M1 + 8/16GB RAM.

 

[Digitalguy]

Concerning 4 vs 6 GB RAM, a couple of weeks ago, I made a test (iPadOS 15.7, I haven't updated to 16 on any device other than the M1). I turned off and on the devices to start from scratch. I started opening tabs in safari and switching between them. I opened 5-6 tabs, some of them contained video playing and then paused. No tab reloaded (which was quite surprising), so I started opening other apps, like gmail, jump desktop, my local tv app, books etc. and periodically going back to safari to see if anything was reloading.... After a given number of apps, the 4GB iPad did start reloading, but not the 6GB one.
What was surprising was the "all or nothing" effect. That is, before it started reloading nothing was reloading, then all of a sudden all the tabs were reloading... (just on the 4GB model). Not only that, reloads didn't happen only once. Once it started reloading, most tabs continued reloading every time I opened them, as if some kind of threashold had been hit and there was no going back, meaning that reloads had not "reset" RAM to the starting point. Meanwhile that threadshold had not been hit on the 6GB device so nothing had reloaded. I stopped the test there.
I expect that if I had continued, once I hit the 6GB RAM threadshold I would see the same behaviour, everything would start reloading, not just one or 2 tabs.

 

[rui no onna]

What was surprising was the "all or nothing" effect. That is, before it started reloading nothing was reloading, then all of a sudden all the tabs were reloading... (just on the 4GB model). Not only that, reloads didn't happen only once. Once it started reloading, most tabs continued reloading every time I opened them, as if some kind of threashold had been hit and there was no going back, meaning that reloads had not "reset" RAM to the starting point. Meanwhile that threadshold had not been hit on the 6GB device so nothing had reloaded. I stopped the test there.

Same experience here on the iPad mini 6. Once it reloads, then everything reloads. All I can do is hard reset.

I expect that if I had continued, once I hit the 6GB RAM threadshold I would see the same behaviour, everything would start reloading, not just one or 2 tabs.

It might be better behaved since it has more headroom. On the 8GB Air 5, I can have one or two reloads (usually Javascript/media heavy tabs like reddit, Amazon, etc) while other tabs like MacRumors would be fine.

 

[1984power]

Concerning 4 vs 6 GB RAM, a couple of weeks ago, I made a test (iPadOS 15.7, I haven't updated to 16 on any device other than the M1). I turned off and on the devices to start from scratch. I started opening tabs in safari and switching between them. I opened 5-6 tabs, some of them contained video playing and then paused. No tab reloaded (which was quite surprising), so I started opening other apps, like gmail, jump desktop, my local tv app, books etc. and periodically going back to safari to see if anything was reloading.... After a given number of apps, the 4GB iPad did start reloading, but not the 6GB one.
What was surprising was the "all or nothing" effect. That is, before it started reloading nothing was reloading, then all of a sudden all the tabs were reloading... (just on the 4GB model). Not only that, reloads didn't happen only once. Once it started reloading, most tabs continued reloading every time I opened them, as if some kind of threashold had been hit and there was no going back, meaning that reloads had not "reset" RAM to the starting point. Meanwhile that threadshold had not been hit on the 6GB device so nothing had reloaded. I stopped the test there.
I expect that if I had continued, once I hit the 6GB RAM threadshold I would see the same behaviour, everything would start reloading, not just one or 2 tabs.

The 4GB memory iPad you tested was a 3rd generation iPad Pro (2018)? And the 6GB, was it a 4th generation Pro (2020) or one of the higher storage 3rd gen models, with 1TB?

 

[Digitalguy]

The 4GB memory iPad you tested was a 3rd generation iPad Pro (2018)? And the 6GB, was it a 4th generation Pro (2020) or one of the higher storage 3rd gen models, with 1TB?

both 2018, 256GB and 1TB

 

[1984power]

both 2018, 256GB and 1TB

Thanks. What sizes? I forgot to ask, sorry.

––

If someone has had experience with both the 3rd and 4th generation iPad Pro and can share their thoughts on these topics, please do. It would help me decide which one to get.

 

[Mackilroy]

I had a 2017 iPad updated to iOS 16, and it was a good experience. While it wasn’t as snappy as my M1 iPad, I’d have been just fine using it as my sole device.

 

[Digitalguy]

Thanks. What sizes? I forgot to ask, sorry.

––

If someone has had experience with both the 3rd and 4th generation iPad Pro and can share their thoughts on these topics, please do. It would help me decide which one to get.

1TB 11" and 256GB 12.9 (I expect the 6GB RAM 2018 to behave exactly just the 2020 pro, just like an iPad air 4 would behave like a iPad 10 in terms of RAM)
I have since updated the 1TB to iPadOS 16.2 and might do a comparison at some point between the 4GB 2018 with 15.7.2, the 4GB 10.5 with 16.2 and the 6GB 2018 with 16.2 (and maybe add the M1 16.2 to the mix)

 

[1984power]

1TB 11" and 256GB 12.9 (I expect the 6GB RAM 2018 to behave exactly just the 2020 pro, just like an iPad air 4 would behave like a iPad 10 in terms of RAM)
I have since updated the 1TB to iPadOS 16.2 and might do a comparison at some point between the 4GB 2018 with 15.7.2, the 4GB 10.5 with 16.2 and the 6GB 2018 with 16.2 (and maybe add the M1 16.2 to the mix)

Thanks, that comparison would be very helpful. Not much information is available on this, which is probably a sign these iPads' performance (3rd generation and 4th generation Pro) is still generally good, even with iPadOS 16 and Stage Manager. Please test Stage Manager performance and memory management too if you have a chance.