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iPad Air memory question

R

richardyot

Junior Member
In Anand's review he states "In general you’re looking at a 20 - 30% increase in memory footprint when dealing with an all 64-bit environment".

Now I presume this is tied to the hardware, does this mean that the A7 inherently uses 20-30% more memory than the A6X in the iPad 4? If yes this essentially means that the Air will have less memory available for apps than the iPad 4.

My main use the iPad is for music, and I was looking at upgrading to the Air, but if it has less memory available than the previous generation this suddenly looks a lot less attractive. Music apps using Audiobus require several apps to be open and working together, and memory is already a problem. What's more it helps to have some free RAM for additional latency (although this could be mitigated by the faster CPU in the Air).
 
I can say almost certainly that the iPad Air is going to be faster than the iPad 4 despite being 64-bit and having the same amount RAM.

Running out of RAM would be incredibly detrimental to the user experience, and I doubt Apple engineered the 64-bit build of iOS 7 without that in mind.
 
How much ram does it have?
I have the original Ipad 1 and it still runs everything fine so how much ram is even needed?
 
JAG87 said:
I can say almost certainly that the iPad Air is going to be faster than the iPad 4 despite being 64-bit and having the same amount RAM.

Running out of RAM would be incredibly detrimental to the user experience, and I doubt Apple engineered the 64-bit build of iOS 7 without that in mind.
Click to expand...

I run out RAM in Safari, on the iPhone 5s. What this means is the tabs in the background sometimes have to reload when I navigate back to them, if I have a lot of tabs (and a few other apps) loaded.

Quite frankly, for a heavy user on a 64-bit iOS tablet, I think 2 GB would be much preferred. That means 2014. If I were the OP, and if his iPad is a recent model, I'd consider holding off for 2014. That said, if it's an older slower model, then probably getting the Air now would be better.
 
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Thanks for the responses, so it seems that the Air does indeed have less available memory than the iPad 4, which is a shame.

I don't really understand why Apple would make such an early jump to a 64 bit architecture without also upgrading the hardware to at least match the previous generation. At this point 64 bit sounds like mostly marketing, and there are cases where performance will actually suffer.

For most people it's not a big deal, but for those of us who are pushing the hardware it's a shame.

Currently I have an iPad 2, right now a refurb iPad 4 is a much more attractive proposition to me than the new Air.
 
richardyot said:
I don't really understand why Apple would make such an early jump to a 64 bit architecture without also upgrading the hardware to at least match the previous generation. At this point 64 bit sounds like mostly marketing, and there are cases where performance will actually suffer.
Click to expand...

They need something to make you want next year's model. When the next iPad comes out everyone will think the current one is junk, intentionally gimped, and something that nobody should have purchased in the first place. Pretty much the same as the previous 4 models.

I agree that the iPad 4 refurbs are looking very attractive right now. I am waiting to see how the larger fire HDX model looks before making a final decision between the iPad 4 or something other than Apple this time around.
 
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richardyot said:
Thanks for the responses, so it seems that the Air does indeed have less available memory than the iPad 4, which is a shame.

I don't really understand why Apple would make such an early jump to a 64 bit architecture without also upgrading the hardware to at least match the previous generation. At this point 64 bit sounds like mostly marketing, and there are cases where performance will actually suffer.

For most people it's not a big deal, but for those of us who are pushing the hardware it's a shame.

Currently I have an iPad 2, right now a refurb iPad 4 is a much more attractive proposition to me than the new Air.
Click to expand...
If you have an iPad 2 and it is working fine for your music needs, then the Air would also work fine and better since the Air has twice the RAM. Also, it is much faster than the iPad 4, while at the same time much lighter than both. That said, a $379 refurb iPad 4 is a decent deal.

And no, it is not just marketing, since the Air IS much faster than the 4. Moreover, it is likely the Air will last a generation longer, when Apple decides to make iOS 64 bit only.
 
If the Air had 2GB of RAM the decision would have been a no-brainer, but as things stand I have to choose between getting an Air with a faster processor but less available RAM, or a refurbished iPad 4 with a slower processor but more available RAM.

For my particular needs I think RAM is more important because of the multi-app workflow with music apps, especially since Apple introduced Inter-App Audio in iOS 7.

The other factor is that whatever decision I make now has to be a compromise, and I will be tempted to upgrade again next year whether I buy an Air or or iPad 4, in which case I might as well save some money now and go for the refurb.
 
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