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iPad Is 3gb ram on the 8th gen enough for note taking, youtube, reading, netflix for the next 5 years?
- Thread starter FoX1112
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I have performed most of these tasks for years with 4 GB rather than 3 and would encourage you to try your own use case. If it works fine, if it doesn’t get another device.
The iPad is really just a landscape for your computer tasks, give it a try first.
The iPad is really just a landscape for your computer tasks, give it a try first.
You should be completely fine. The iPhone XR still has 3GB of RAM, the iPhone 8 has 3GB of RAM and the iPhone SE still has 3GB of RAM. All of these devices are designed to last around 5 years or so and Apple still sells two of them on their website. With your use case you will fine.
Try it out! The only potential "problem" (not sure if we can even call it a problem ...) that you could have is some apps and tabs reloading.
My first iPad (and first iOS device ever) was iPad 6th generation with 2 GB RAM. I used it for an year and half before honestly wanting the new iPP with the second generation pencil. I honestly did the change because of the bezels, the improved pencil design and well the increased screen size.
So I am saying do like me - use the device. It is your first one and see if it answers your needs or there some slight drawbacks that you want to address with another device.
Yeah, multitasking is a potential issue (probably more of an annoyance). Otherwise, even my OG iPad Air with 1GB RAM handles Netflix, YouTube and reading just fine. Bit slow when browsing but video playback is not an issue.
The 2GB RAM devices? They're all pretty responsive apart from the Air 2.
Wow! I forgot they were different lol. iOS is amazing for RAM usage.
That’s good to know the 8th generation iPad has 3gb ram, just bought one to use in my truck when I’m on the road instead of my new m1 MacBook Air all the time, and use it for the electronic log book. Hopefully neither get damaged, but I’d rather a $400 device get damaged rather than a $1,000 device.
My 3 iPads max out at 2gb. The only place I used to run into memory issues was gaming and browsing with a ton of open tabs. Flush ram daily (desktop>to “slide to power off” screen>press home until it returns to desktop) and you’re fine. I shoot raw and use Lightroom just fine with 2 gig.
While Apple supposedly manages ram very well, it doesn’t seem to manage it quite as well as manually managing it.
While Apple supposedly manages ram very well, it doesn’t seem to manage it quite as well as manually managing it.
For the functions you mentioned you should be good, but if you end up wanting to do more then you may want to step up to at least 4GB RAM. I am talking from the point of view of having owned a iPad Air 2 from 2014 to 2020 and that was 2GB RAM, between 2014 to 2016 the 2GB RAM was great, but after 2017 it began to show its age and by 2020 it could barely multitask, it still can but the experience is not great anymore, far cry from what it was n 2014.
Poor multitasking is definitely RAM-related.
That said, part of the Air 2's issues are also chipset related. We have the Air 2 (A8X), Pro 9.7 (A9X), 5th gen (A9), 6th gen (A9) in our household all of which have 2GB RAM. All of them reload frequently but the Air 2 is noticeably laggy compared to the others.
In this case, the OP might be better off holding on to the 8th gen. Hopefully, by the time he needs to replace it, even the $300 iPads would have more than 4GB RAM in the future.
I've found that upgrading at some point, by selling and adding a bit of cash is not only a better experience, but can also be better financially compared to using something until it's dead. Maybe plan to upgrade it 2-3 years down the road?
Where I live, the 8th gen iPad can be had brand new for $360 cad, and maybe 2 years later, you might still get 200 by selling it.
Where I live, the 8th gen iPad can be had brand new for $360 cad, and maybe 2 years later, you might still get 200 by selling it.
Agreed. The iPad Air 2 is an awkward one, they gave it a lot of RAM for the time but the chip is based on 20nm which by the following year, 2015, it became significantly outdated as 16nm and 14nm chips came in.
Lol, I wouldn't say Apple gave it a lot of RAM. More like they finally gave it enough.
I've probably mentioned this a thousand times but the OG Air should have had 2GB RAM and 32GB base storage already.
5 years is a long time. The reason devices "slow down" is that they're given harder workloads by OS and app updates. I think if you want to stretch out the lifespan of a given device, you have to be careful about what you update.
For a long time, I ran an old iPod Touch as a media player in my kitchen. I forget which iOS update(s) were the culprit, but gradually the thing just became unusable because it couldn't keep up with more demanding software.
For a long time, I ran an old iPod Touch as a media player in my kitchen. I forget which iOS update(s) were the culprit, but gradually the thing just became unusable because it couldn't keep up with more demanding software.
Lol, I wouldn't say Apple gave it a lot of RAM. More like they finally gave it enough.
I've probably mentioned this a thousand times but the OG Air should have had 2GB RAM and 32GB base storage already.
Haha, indeed! I remember how much people were complaining, I had the iPad 4 from launch until 2014 and by that point 1GB RAM was just ridiculous! I think there was even a thread somewhere around here about wanting to get Apple to move to 2GB RAM, absolute chaos, unbelievable how long it took them to move.