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jaziCo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 15, 2009
249
121
SoCal (Orange County)
Hey Gang,

Like a lot of you, I got my the new iPad 12.9 256GB yesterday. As most of you are aware by now, anything less than the 1TB model has 8GB RAM, and 1TB and above has double (16gb).

I was working on Lightroom last night, editing a raw photo (about 350MB), and when making edits in Lightroom, I noticed it would stutter here and there as I was working (take some time to load photos, or when using certain tools). I took a video of it happening for example when seeing the before and after edits.

My question is: Does anyone with a 16gb RAM model have this issue as well. If they do, is it just a software issue that needs to be addressed ?

My main purpose for this device will be to edit photos on the go, so I am wondering if its worth wile to upgrade to a 16gb ram model (I don’t need the space, it would be just for the ram).
 
Last edited:

Jukens

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2013
269
223
Hey Gang,

Like a lot of you, I got my the new iPad 12.9 256GB yesterday. As most of you are aware by now, anything less than the 1TB model has 8GB RAM, and 1TB and above has double (16gb).

I was working on Lightroom last night, editing a raw photo (about 350MB), and when making edits in Lightroom, I noticed it would stutter here and there as I was working (take some time to load photos, or when using certain tools). I took a video of it happening for example when seeing the before and after edits.

My question is: Does anyone with a 16gb RAM model have this issue as well. If they do, is it just a software issue that needs to be addressed ?

My main purpose for this device will be to edit photos on the go, so I am wondering if its worth wile to upgrade to a 16gb ram model (I don’t need the space, it would be just for the ram).
I’m starting to see devs apps not recognizing the iPad Pro 2021 correctly and is identifying it as unknown iPad which some devs have stated defaults to a 2gb ram configuration….could be a similar issue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/iPadPro/comments/ni2sjt
 

Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,146
2,821
Hey Gang,

Like a lot of you, I got my the new iPad 12.9 256GB yesterday. As most of you are aware by now, anything less than the 1TB model has 8GB RAM, and 1TB and above has double (16gb).

I was working on Lightroom last night, editing a raw photo (about 350MB), and when making edits in Lightroom, I noticed it would stutter here and there as I was working (take some time to load photos, or when using certain tools). I took a video of it happening for example when seeing the before and after edits.

My question is: Does anyone with a 16gb RAM model have this issue as well. If they do, is it just a software issue that needs to be addressed ?

My main purpose for this device will be to edit photos on the go, so I am wondering if its worth wile to upgrade to a 16gb ram model (I don’t need the space, it would be just for the ram).
First: I am aware that might be not a solution, but •there is always a but, isn’t it? ?•

Second: you checked with another program like RAWPower, Pixelmator Photo or Affinity Photo?

What pixel dimensions have your photos? What depth in bit?
 

Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,146
2,821
Just saw this on Reddit but I can't point to any confirmation of it -

"The iPad is also limiting how much ram an app can use on the 16gb model to 5 gigs."

An iOS limitation on any one app's max RAM usage?
there is a memory budget restriction on iPadOS/iOS for a long time… there is no differences on iPadOS 14.x between the 2020 or M1 iPPs. There are certain other aspects in relation to e.g. hardware accelerated file format handling and whatever - a 350 Gb RAW is quite a thing. For a more humble application - while one has to acknowledge that the files are roughly 1/7 of the 350Gb RAW mentioned by the OP - the M1 iPPs perform… well… outstanding. Then again my 2020 iPP has no problem compositing and handling panoramas of much bigger file sizes… not in Lightroom though.
 

007p

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2012
992
662
Just saw this on Reddit but I can't point to any confirmation of it -

"The iPad is also limiting how much ram an app can use on the 16gb model to 5 gigs."

An iOS limitation on any one app's max RAM usage?

Edit: Further info:

???

This is amazing. Exactly the type of thing I thought Apple would do.

I bet it’s intentional as well. Sure there are massive benefits to more RAM for multitasking, but by limiting how much a single app can use it means that the 2018/2020 pros aren’t left behind, let alone the air/mini.

Can’t wait for iPadOS 15 to still have this limit. My wallet is happy ?
 

mi7chy

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2014
10,628
11,300
That's why iPadOS is a waste for the new 2021 iPad Pro. Give us MacOS plus the benefit of one app to develop and maintain instead of two.
 
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Reactions: 007p

Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,146
2,821
That's why iPadOS is a waste for the new 2021 iPad Pro. Give us MacOS plus the benefit of one app to develop and maintain instead of two.
So you can run more apps while using the maximal memory budget is a waste? The “one API fits all” delivers similar results than “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” - this doesn’t even work for similar, if not identical hardware, under two different OS.
 

007p

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2012
992
662

I feel like this might be slightly worrying. Doesn't this indicate that the OS already has a specific 2021 RAM limit for apps if it is different to the 2020 RAM limit? Sure they could change it whenever they like, but I honestly believe this going to stay around. Just the kind of handicap I'd expect them to put on pro apps. I wouldn't be shocked to see their own first party apps bypass this limit in some fashion too. Between additional hardware resources and private APIs, it'll be that much harder to compete with any first party app ?
 

sparksd

macrumors G4
Jun 7, 2015
10,022
34,469
Seattle WA
The iPad Pro doesn't need to become a MacBook Pro.

I agree with that but it is interesting to know if you are going to use the new iPad for memory-intensive actions such as editing larger 4K videos in an app like LumaFusion. I've certainly blown well past 5GB memory utilization in Lightroom on my laptop with 16GB RAM.
 

doboy

macrumors 68040
Jul 6, 2007
3,778
2,958
???

This is amazing. Exactly the type of thing I thought Apple would do.

I bet it’s intentional as well. Sure there are massive benefits to more RAM for multitasking, but by limiting how much a single app can use it means that the 2018/2020 pros aren’t left behind, let alone the air/mini.

Can’t wait for iPadOS 15 to still have this limit. My wallet is happy ?
So you want the apps to use RAM willy nilly? Yeah, I'm sure app developers will use that feature wisely. ????????
 

doboy

macrumors 68040
Jul 6, 2007
3,778
2,958
What about when an app needs that much RAM? e.g., 4K video editing.
They've been working with devices with 6 GB RAM up to now so what's changed? Maybe Apple needs to allow it for certain apps.
 

007p

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2012
992
662
So you want the apps to use RAM willy nilly? Yeah, I'm sure app developers will use that feature wisely. ????????
Yeah kind of. And also add paging to iPadOS, like any other modern OS have these days.

Sure you might get some devs that poorly code an app to be RAM hungry, but you know what they are? Poor quality apps.
For these iPad Pro’s, it shouldn’t have to be any different than installing a poor quality program on a computer.

Honestly, ‘iPad Pro’ users should not have to be ‘hand holded’ as much as that. Let an advance user remove this limit/enable paging if you must, but something has to give if an iPad pro is ever going to be useful with pro apps. At this rate we’ll need 64gb RAM models before we have a suitable ‘limit’ for some pro apps.

Can’t wait to see Apple’s first party ‘pro apps’ bypass this limit though *grabs popcorn*
 
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