So this begs the question... why Apple? It makes no sense then. :/
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iPad Pro Ipad Pro 2018: Only 4gb of RAM
- Thread starter cibonak
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A Pro device with full photoshop coming should not have 4gb of ram. Less than that when you take into account memory use and the increased memory needed to drive the higher resolution display
How do you know what Photoshop on the iPad Pro is like when you haven't tried it? Photoshop for the iPad will work on most modern iPad models, not just the Pro. Obviously the newer the iPad, the better the performance but the horsepower on any iPad Pro is more than decent.
You are making assumptions based on no facts whatsoever, which quite frankly is ridiculous.
If you want to talk facts, 4gb of ram on a 1000$+ device in 2018, going on 2019 is unacceptable. Especially when the higher ram is exclusive to the 1TB models. The original 12.9” iPad Pro in 2015 had 4gb. If they want to gear this as a pro device for pro workflows then they need to cater to that and part of that means ram. iOS over the next couple years will surely utilize more of it so will leave even less for apps. They likely left it out so that they have a planned upgrade for 2019/2020 models.
It's a tablet running a mobile OS! It's not chewing up 2-4GB when idle like a desktop OS does. Running apps do not reserve chunks of memory leaving a tiny pool left for everything else.
I've hammered my 2017 iPad Pro with intense workloads & it coped with absolute ease. I see no reason why the new 2018 iPad Pro with even more horsepower will struggle. Think about it for a moment. Would Adobe really release full Photoshop on the iPad to much fanfare if it wasn't going to work properly? Obviously tasks you need a high-end workstation for will still need a high-end workstation. You have to set your expectations accordingly. The first thing you need to do is try Photoshop when it's released and see how capable it is.
Im not going to pay close to 2grand for a tablet that may only run photoshop well on the 6gb models. They claim it’s full desktop photoshop. In my use case on both OS X and windows I regularly go above even 6gb on just photoshop.
Point is they’re trying to gear this to the pro market but are skimping on very, very important things like ram. Doesn’t matter that it’s a mobile OS when professional desktop class apps like photoshop and AutoCAD are now coming to it.
The iPad in isolation runs great with 4GB. The issue for me is certain apps have limitations based on available memory. Procreate, Affinity Photo or Designer for example have a limit on the number of layers you can use depending on the resolution and amount of available RAM. If this is being marketed as a Pro device and the performance is being improved significantly ~35% CPU and ~ 95% GPU then why not expand the RAM to really make use of that additional power? It may not affect everyone but a lot of people would see a benefit in the additional RAM.
Exactly my point. Especially when they’re fragmenting the lineup with only the 1tb models having 6gb. If they can do i for those models and eat the cost, they can do it for the others.
The pros that this is geared to..
Problem is many of you are buying this to just use as a tablet and do tablet things like web browsing, email, and video. That’s not what these pros are geared at in terms of use case but people will still buy them for that just to have the best.
Yup, I totally agree. The very reason why I'm unlikely to upgrade this time around - I could use the extra RAM but I'm not willing to pay the premium for a 1TB device when 256GB is sufficient. I would have gone to a 512GB device if it had the extra RAM at a £200 premium but not paying £600 for the privilege of the extra RAM that really should be across the full model range. Apple used to make a big thing of the fragmentation in the Android camp yet it's happening here.
At the new premiums, I would love to have seen them jump to at least 6GB or preferably 8GB RAM and market that fact to the user base that the Pro got more Pro!
Firstly, there's no such thing as a Pro device. Anything can be for professional use.
Secondly, most people are very, very gullible and will believe everything they are told. No one with an ounce of intelligence should have the expectation that Photoshop on iPad will make their PC/Mac redundant. At the same time, people who make their living using Adobe software may find that Photoshop on iPad serves a purpose. For the average Joe, not so much.
Thirdly, there's no point packing the iPad with 16/32GB RAM & charging another $500 for something only a tiny percentage of people may actually use. I'm sure Adobe will optimise Photoshop for mobile use and scale the app so it works across a broad range of iPads, old & new.
I can't quantify the number because I don't have access to the sales figures but anyone who uses the Affinity products, Procreate, Lumafusion or countless other apps that are capped by available RAM could potentially see a benefit.
No one has even suggested 16 or 32gb in an iPad só not sure why you pulled that number out of your ass. And yes there are devices that are geared towards pro workflows. This iPad is one of them. That was extremely evident during the presentation on Monday. Just because you don’t have a use for more ram doesnt mean the people that Apple is so clearly marketing this to dont as well.
The few extra seconds reloading an app is far from the end of the world; very first world problems.
Except even modern Android phones with 6-8gb RAM have issues reloading apps by recent speed tests of the Note 9 & OnePlus 6T even. The XS Max with 4gb is doing a better job keeping apps in memory head to head generally. There is simply a limit how many huge apps (and growing in complexity and thus size) that you can keep open, and RAM you can stuff into a device without taking a hit on battery life.
And if Android has taught anything, it is that RAM stuffing and specs are NOT the answer to poor software.
But it sounds like you need to DEMAND the app developers make their apps work longer on older/lower RAM devices then. The true pro users who DEMAND performance for real pro tasks (in resource-hungry apps like Photoshop) are upgrading sooner than 3 years as their productivity time is worth more in income than the few hundred dollar upgrade selling off their old stuff.
But everyone appears too concerned assuming something is true, fingers is ears going lalalalala, when no one even has the device in hand yet.
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Having a SMARTPHONE to begin with is a first world problem. But you know what... I actually happen to LIVE in the first world. And it is HELL annoying to pay €700 for a phone... only to zoom in on a webpage. Oh crashed. reload. Zoom in again... ohh crash.
Or to go shopping and have your shopping list open. Switch to wallet to open card to be scanned. Loading the App and the cards takes around 15secs. Going back to the shopping list. Oh the application has to load from scratch again. Then you pay... want to give them the card to scan... switch back... oh... it's no longer buffered... "could you wait a sec!" And it takes 15-20 secs to load... which is an eternity if you simply try to pay for something.
And this happens with EVERY App. Worst of all... most forget what you did before switching. Or has you authenticate again.
I bought an iPhone for its vertical integration AND user friendliness. If I wanted a horrible user experience I could get this for 10% of the price by buying a cheap-ass Android phone!
I have to agree. The 2GB basic iPad and the 4GB Pro models all have insufficient RAM. I would reluctantly advise everyone to wait until Apple start shipping these things with a proper spec. If all people use the pro model for is light browsing and Netflix then it kinda belies the 'Pro' moniker and the purchase price is overkill for such a light workload. Anyone who wants to do 'pro' work on an iPad and hopes to keep it for a few years needs to look elsewhere because there is zero built-in longevity.
The basic 2GB version is even worse. A lot of non-wealthy people will be buying these and expecting four or five years' use out of them. With 2GB of RAM I don't think so! They are already underspecced and totally unfutureproofed straight out of the box. It's shameful I think. That basic iPad should have 3GB of RAM minimum.
Surprised this is still a thing. The 1TB models are the only ones with 6GB, the extra two are to account for the extra storage/help manage, etc. Essentially, all models have 4GB of RAM which was totally fine for an iPad as of 10/29. It'll be fine people.
Millenials
Oh how did you ever survive before smartphones came alongThat is assuming that people dont just want a big screen modern device for content consumption. And that even 5% of total consumers even know what RAM is or does. People like my mother who is late 60s dont care if the ipad takes another 1 second to reload something, she doesnt know any better and is using a 2013 iPad. She has no clue what 4gb of RAM does differently. It's good enough for casual use and 4-5 years of use. THAT is the average person buying an iPad; most are not trading up every 1-2 years like phones because they have to wait 2 seconds more to reload an app due to RAM.
My guess is the average iPad buyer, even at the top Pro devices, is NOT a "pro" user in fact. I would guess the vast minority of iPad Pro users are "pro" users using it to anywhere near its real potential.
Regarding the buying a "pro" device aspect, buying a 9.7" tablet when owning a 5.8-6.5" phone really doesnt make a ton of sense; you're not gaining a TON of viewing area there. It's not like going from an old 4" screen to a 9.7" iPad difference. And the 9.7 screen being non-laminated is a SIGNIFICANTLY worse experience for content consumption. It's a good budget device to read books and web browse, or watch an episode on Netflix in bed.
So then what else do you buy? Apple doesnt make a "budget"/"content consumption" big screen tablet. The next size(s) up are those "pro" devices. They make nothing between $300 and about $700 (even if you take into account thr 10.5 still selling)
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An iPad that was from 2017 with no desktop class apps. Not one meant to last until 2020 with desktop class apps incoming for it
Must be Nostradamus or a time traveler. Seem to know a lot without even having said "desktop class" apps in hand on a 4gb RAM device.
Word and Excel, desktop class apps, work perfectly fine even going back to 2gb RAM.
And if trends continue with 1.5 years between iPads, so next in 2020, exactly what mythical iPads are these developers writing these "desktop class" apps for?
I still don't see 4GB of RAM being any sort of issue until maybe iOS 15. Affinity apps run totally fine for my fiancee on her 2018 iPad with 2GB of RAM. I just think it's a little silly to get all up in arms about, but this is a MacRumors forum we are talking about.