iPad Is RAM really important in iPads?

[Sensamic]

Apple will now allow certain apps to use more RAM, but it seems mainly for the iPad Pro. Makes sense, since the basic ipad and air and mini only have 3GB and 4GB, not enough to make a difference in this regard.

Still, if only pro apps will benefit from this, for the average user is it really important 3/4 or 8GB RAM?

Seems like the stock apps like safari will still use little ram, forced by apple.

Does it really matter then or is this just for hardware sake but stock software will still be limited by using little ram? If this is so, then there is no difference between the 3GB of the basic ipad and the 8GB of the Pro.

 

[sracer]

Apple will now allow certain apps to use more RAM, but it seems mainly for the iPad Pro. Makes sense, since the basic ipad and air and mini only have 3GB and 4GB, not enough to make a difference in this regard.

Still, if only pro apps will benefit from this, for the average user is it really important 3/4 or 8GB RAM?

Seems like the stock apps like safari will still use little ram, forced by apple.

Does it really matter then or is this just for hardware sake but stock software will still be limited by using little ram? If this is so, then there is no difference between the 3GB of the basic ipad and the 8GB of the Pro.

It depends. Will you be multitasking and have multiple tabs in Safari? If so, then RAM might be a consideration. For one-task-at-a-time uses, the base level 3GB RAM will be more than enough.

My Galaxy Tab S6 has 6GB RAM and it is a multitasking fiend... especially in DeX mode... and the extra RAM is nice to have to keep things zippy.

 

[Digitalguy]

Yes RAM is very important, but what you say in you post shows that you think of iPadOS like a desktop OS, which it is not...
RAM is important but the fact that apps can access most of the RAM, or not, is NOT.
RAM is important because iPads do not swap to disk when memory is not enough. I a desktop OS, when you start opening many apps/programs, or tabs in a browsers, the system will start to use the SSD as additional RAM, slowing things down somewhat, but keeping everything in memory.
iPadOS instead will start killing some apps and tabs when RAM is low, so when you reopen them they will reload, possibly losing any text you had entered, restarting any video that you had put on pause at a given point etc.
The more RAM you have the less this will happen.
Also the more one single pro apps uses RAM, the more everything else will start reloading (contrary to a desktop OS...)

PS every iPad has its own RAM limit for third party apps (4GB iPads have 3, 6GB ones have 4.5, 8GB ones had 5 so far, but it has probably been increased to 6 since, and so on). 1-2 GB are generally reserved to the OS itself, it's not wasted RAM... the only change that Apple made was for M1 devices, especially for 16GB devices, but even before that 16GB were not wasted since they kept apps in memory for longer (remember that people don't turn off iPad everyday...)
Concerning Safari, nobody can tell what the actual limit for Safari is, since it's a proprietary app...

 

[rui no onna]

Still, if only pro apps will benefit from this, for the average user is it really important 3/4 or 8GB RAM?

Seems like the stock apps like safari will still use little ram, forced by apple.

Safari's a RAM hog if you use a bunch of tabs. I've just had Safari crash twice on me last night on on 15 Beta (iPad 7th gen) doing some price comparisons and I've even had currently active/viewing web pages reload on me.

Meanwhile, I barely experience reloads on the 2021 iPad Pro (iOS 14, 16GB RAM).

iOS 14 + 3-4GB RAM reloads, too but rarely to the point of frustrating like 15 often does.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Safari's a RAM hog if you use a bunch of tabs. I've just had Safari crash twice on me last night on on 15 Beta (iPad 7th gen) doing some price comparisons and I've even had currently active/viewing web pages reload on me.

Meanwhile, I barely experience reloads on the 2021 iPad Pro (iOS 14, 16GB RAM).

iOS 14 + 3-4GB RAM reloads, too but rarely to the point of frustrating like 15 often does.

Very odd

I also have 3GB of RAM and literally never have refreshing on my iPad mini5 on iOS 14

 

[rui no onna]

Very odd

I also have 3GB of RAM and literally never have refreshing on my iPad mini5 on iOS 14

It's typical for me to have 50-100+ tabs open. Some apps I use like Excel seem to be quite heavy on RAM, too, and don't seem to be efficiently coded/properly optimized.

 

[3Rock]

Very odd

I also have 3GB of RAM and literally never have refreshing on my iPad mini5 on iOS 14

I’ve to experience no refreshing on any of my iPads throughout the years when they had between 3/4 and now 6 GB. I use Safari exclusively. A few tabs open but I don’t go hogwild on multitasking.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's typical for me to have 50-100+ tabs open. Some apps I use like Excel seem to be quite heavy on RAM, too, and don't seem to be efficiently coded/properly optimized.

Oh - well christ man..
macOS can easily get bogged to a slog with that type of usage.

That's WAY WAY outside any typical iPad user scenario, I promise you.

 

[hovscorpion12]

As the OP said, to the basic user, RAM is not really that important. For (Pro users, content creators, those who have chosen to replace MacBook with iPad) RAM is a huge deal. Having 12GB of RAM out of 16 GB is game changer for Developers.

Final Cut Pro X requires 8GB of RAM for 4K, 3D, and 360° video editing as well as Adobe. While we won't see FCPX landing on the App Store soon, I can see Photoshop getting an update to take advantage of the 8GB of RAM.

 

[hovscorpion12]

Another 2-3 years, and perhaps Apple will bring 32GB RAM on iPads. Maybe even 64GB

 

[PrettyWings]

It's typical for me to have 50-100+ tabs open. Some apps I use like Excel seem to be quite heavy on RAM, too, and don't seem to be efficiently coded/properly optimized.

When I would see you say that before, I was like, ”Wow, this guy must be doing a lot of work.” Now that I have the 16GB of RAM too I get to that number because I’m too lazy to close tabs ?

As for RAM, I think the non-Pro iPads will have the same experience. It looks like the Pro iPads will now get Pro instances of apps, on-demand. I believe the 8GB Pro iPad will still get to use extra RAM. The 16GB will have the most Pro experience.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Another 2-3 years, and perhaps Apple will bring 32GB RAM on iPads. Maybe even 64GB

And we'll still be stuck with iPadOS mostly as is...

 

[calstanford]

Another 2-3 years, and perhaps Apple will bring 32GB RAM on iPads. Maybe even 64GB

They definitely won't do 64GB on iPads in 2-3 years. There is no immediate use.

 

[Sensamic]

I suspect Apple will limit apps like Safari to the lowest common denominator (3GB in basic iPad), so this essential app wont benefit from having 8GB RAM in Pro.

Or does Apple limit RAM per every iPad? Or is system-wide?

 

[rui no onna]

I suspect Apple will limit apps like Safari to the lowest common denominator (3GB in basic iPad), so this essential app wont benefit from having 8GB RAM in Pro.

Or does Apple limit RAM per every iPad? Or is system-wide?

Actually, iPadOS seems to treat each Safari tab as a separate instance.

Here's my RAM usage with 100+ Safari tabs, Excel, Mail and not much else open.

 

[hovscorpion12]

They definitely won't do 64GB on iPads in 2-3 years. There is no immediate use.

LOL. That was a pipe dream. 16GB RAM is going to be the highest for a long time.

Once iPad 15 launches on Monday, we'll start seeing devs pushing updates to take advantage of the extra RAM. I suspect by next year we will know just how powerful the M1 iPads are.