iPad Pro Practical Uses of 16 GB of RAM?

[PrettyWings]

Hey all,

So here it is. iPads are out. One of the novel features this time is 16 GB of RAM. A very compelling upgrade, but what is it's purpose right now? What does it change about your experience? There have been reports about apps not having to refresh while they're all open at once, though that's even being seen in the 8 GB iPad Pro models.

So what does that mean for us right now? Is this all about what we may be able to do in the future as iPad OS is upgraded?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Wackery]

Lots of porn tabs open in Safari at the same time without reloading

 

[kycophpd]

Lots of porn tabs open in Safari at the same time without reloading

This explains your forum username.

 

[TheRealAlex]

None of you want a practical use of 16GB you just spent $1500 on a 1TB 16GB iPad If you want to use 16GB of RAM wait and get a 14” M1X MacBook Pro

 

[AutomaticApple]

Lots of porn tabs open in Safari at the same time without reloading

Safari is snappier!

 

[Wackery]

This explains your forum username.

for all the pro marketing, etc., by its nature the iPad is a media consumption optimized device (porn)

 

[Steve121178]

A very compelling upgrade, but what is it's purpose right now?

I think/hope/expect Apple to make that purpose very clear at WWDC.

iPad Pro with M1 has been designed with whatever Apple have planned for the next couple of years with iPadOS. So it's not the iPad for now, it's the iPad for iPadOS 15 and above.

 

[rui no onna]

None of you want a practical use of 16GB you just spent $1500 on a 1TB 16GB iPad If you want to use 16GB of RAM wait and get a 14” M1X MacBook Pro

Meh, for my usage, the only thing a tricked out MacBook will do is collect dust.

 

[Digitalguy]

Hey all,

So here it is. iPads are out. One of the novel features this time is 16 GB of RAM. A very compelling upgrade, but what is it's purpose right now? What does it change about your experience? There have been reports about apps not having to refresh while they're all open at once, though that's even being seen in the 8 GB iPad Pro models.

So what does that mean for us right now? Is this all about what we may be able to do in the future as iPad OS is upgraded?

What are your thoughts?

At this point 16GB only benefit is less reloads, there is zero other difference, other than having more storage space...
The future is only speculation...

 

[mi7chy]

At this point future proofing and extending the longevity of the device because insufficient RAM has been the #1 reason for device obsolescence.

 

[Slartibart]

A very compelling upgrade, but what is it's purpose right now?

I think/hope/expect Apple to make that purpose very clear at WWDC.

Hm… if you haven’t made up a purpose now, finding purpose depending on the WWDC/the future/the pope/tea leaves pattern on the bottom of your cup can be applied, but is it really something one should do?

 

[nicetriangles]

Developers are confirming that the 16gig models are making a max of 5 gigs of ram available to an individual app. If Apple doesn't address this, it's a huge damn mess for people who bought these for apps like Procreate

 

[Slartibart]

Developers are confirming that the 16gig models are making a max of 5 gigs of ram available to an individual app. If Apple doesn't address this, it's a huge damn mess for people who bought these for apps like Procreate

Link?

 

[Digitalguy]

Developers are confirming that the 16gig models are making a max of 5 gigs of ram available to an individual app. If Apple doesn't address this, it's a huge damn mess for people who bought these for apps like Procreate

This is normal since up until now the maximum RAM was 6GB and you need to leave 1GB to the OS. My guess is that this will now move to 7 for M1 iPads, but I don't expect this to move to anything more, since so far IOS and IPadOS have never been able to distinguish 2 iPads based only on RAM. So, for instance 6GB A12X iPads are treated just like 4GB ones. And the 4GB A9X ipad is treated like the 2GB A9X...
Which doesn't mean, before someone misunderstands this, that the RAM is wasted. The OS uses the RAM, just not single Apps.

 

[nicetriangles]

Link?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1395755668200640518

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1396061108205723649

I've also tested it on Nomad myself and sure enough, in their available ram reading in the viewport it was showing exactly 5 gigs. I talked to the devs in their support discord and they've said that there's nothing about how Nomad is coded that would impose that limitation, it's the OS doing it.

Procreate is currently capping the new iPads at 2gigs because they configure their app to limit to 2 gigs when it does not recognize the model of iPad. They've said will be updating the app soon to use as much ram as the OS lets it.

 

[nicetriangles]

This is normal since up until now the maximum RAM was 6GB and you need to leave 1GB to the OS. My guess is that this will now move to 7 for M1 iPads, but I don't expect this to move to anything more, since so far IOS and IPadOS have never been able to distinguish 2 iPads based only on RAM. So, for instance 6GB A12X iPads are treated just like 4GB ones. And the 4GB A9X ipad is treated like the 2GB A9X...
Which doesn't mean, before someone misunderstands this, that the RAM is wasted. The OS uses the RAM, just not single Apps.

That would be a huge steaming bile of BS if Apple advertised 16gigs knowing fully that people have been begging for more ram for apps and then limit apps to well below 16. MacOS can do it. People paid a lot of extra money to get these 16gig models.

 

[Digitalguy]

That would be a huge steaming bile of BS if Apple advertised 16gigs knowing fully that people have been begging for more ram for apps and then limit apps to well below 16. MacOS can do it. People paid a lot of extra money to get these 16gig models.

That's how it has been working since the iPad pro exists... iPads have been treated the same if they had the same SOC, regardless of RAM... including by the OS, not just by apps.... (some OS functions allowed on 3GB iPads are not allowed on the 4GB 1st gen pro, because of the 2GB variant). MacOS is a different OS and uses paging anyway, so it works differently...
Will Apple make iPadOS able to differentiate 16GB M1 devices from 8GB ones? And allow apps to access more RAM and have higher settings for 16GB devices?
I don't think that things will change, but we'll see. Again the 16GB are not wasted anyway, since apps can stay in RAM longer

 

[nicetriangles]

That's how it has been working since the iPad pro exists... iPads have been treated the same if they had the same SOC, regardless of RAM... including by the OS, not just by apps.... (some OS functions allowed on 3GB iPads are not allowed on the 4GB 1st gen pro, because of the 2GB variant). MacOS is a different OS and uses paging anyway, so it works differently...
Will Apple make iPadOS able to differentiate 16GB M1 devices from 8GB ones? And allow apps to access more RAM and have higher settings for 16GB devices?
I don't think that things will change, but we'll see. Again the 16GB are not wasted anyway, since apps can stay in RAM longer

Not true. The 2020 opens up more ram to apps than the 2017 did which opens more ram to apps than other models with less RAM.

And yeah it is a waste if your usecase for the device is using heavy PRO apps and not just keeping a boatload of apps open at all times.

 

[Slartibart]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1395755668200640518

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1396061108205723649

I've also tested it on Nomad myself and sure enough, in their available ram reading in the viewport it was showing exactly 5 gigs. I talked to the devs in their support discord and they've said that there's nothing about how Nomad is coded that would impose that limitation, it's the OS doing it.

Procreate is currently capping the new iPads at 2gigs because they configure their app to limit to 2 gigs when it does not recognize the model of iPad. They've said will be updating the app soon to use as much ram as the OS lets it.

so image processing composites willl be restricted to 5GB? That’s 2.5times of what‘s possible now on a iPP 2020… what was the problem exactly? Maximum memory budgets on iOS/iPadOS are known for quite some time, so it’s more for M1 iPads it the same as for the 2020 iPPs, your point?

EDIT: factual corrections after being pointed out in this thread

 

[nicetriangles]

That’s 2.5times of what‘s possible now

False. Nomad sculpt can access a max of 3 gigs of ram on my 2017 model pro and on my 2021 it can access 5. That's not even 2x a device from 3 generations back and the 2021 has 4x the total ram.

 

[Digitalguy]

Not true. The 2020 opens up more ram to apps than the 2017 did which opens more ram to apps than other models with less RAM.

And yeah it is a waste if your usecase for the device is using heavy PRO apps and not just keeping a boatload of apps open at all times.

Not true? You must have misunderstood. Of course the 2020 opens up more RAM, because it HAS more RAM, but there is ONLY 1 RAM amount.
The 2020 allows for 5GB since it has 6GB, the 2017 only has 4GB so it only allows 3GB. But there are no RAM variants for either model...
Only the A9X and A12X have 2 RAM variants, in addition to M1 iPads... And what happens is just what I explained above...(both variants are treated like the lower one).
As for PRO apps, we'll see when they arrive...

 

[nicetriangles]

As for PRO apps, we'll see when they arrive...

Professional grade apps already exist for the iPad.

 

[Digitalguy]

Professional grade apps already exist for the iPad.

You are right, I was thinking of Apple Final Cut and Logic, but it's fair to say that some professional apps already exist

 

[almostinsane]

Someone should tell the Wallstreet Journal coders that if you add a new tab, go away from Safari and back, or turn off the screen and back on again that the page does NOT need to be refreshed every frickin time.

More RAM just doesn’t help everything when people are the negating factor.

 

[Slartibart]

False. Nomad sculpt can access a max of 3 gigs of ram on my 2017 model pro and on my 2021 it can access 5. That's not even 2x a device from 3 generations back and the 2021 has 4x the total ram.

My bad. if you want please run this and report your numbers. I stand corrected regarding my previous post - memory budget on iPadOS 14.5.x seems to be restricted to a higher amount as previous versions of iPadOS (on the same hardware). I did the factor wrong for the 2020 iPPs.