Does the higher Ram on the 1TB iPad Pro make a difference?

I just read that the 1TB iPad Pro has 6gbs of ram. Does anyone know of a review that looked into what difference the ram makes?

Federico Viticci (@viticci) talked about it in a series of tweets. He was able to get the iPad to need the extra RAM. Although his use case for doing that may not be practical for what you’ll use it for, it does illustrate that there could be a future where the extra RAM would be required.

I wouldn’t stress about it unless you plan to keep it for years AND you think you might need the professing power (think audio or visual processing type tasks).

He found an edge-case with Shortcuts where one weirdo shortcut took up something like 3.4Gb, IIRC. For most people, for most things, for years to come 4Gb should be plenty though. I mean, there are people with 4 year old iPads and minuscule RAM who are breezing through work and play right now.

You’re not going to notice a difference.

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@bowline I agree his example wasn’t something that will prove you need it now. But I think with the trend in more “pro” apps, it could be a concern in the future. Basically, he showed the iPad will use the RAM if it has it.

Do I think more RAM is required right now? No.
Do I think that will remain true even a couple years into the future? I’m not so sure.

If someone really wants to future proof their iPad, they should get the model with the most amount of RAM. For what it’s worth, I went the 256GB model; so I clearly am not TOO worried about being left behind.

That said, the cost of the 1tb model is so much higher that it may no be worth it even if it would let you keep the iPad an extra year.

For instance, the 1tb model costs about 50% more than the 256gb. Let’s say it means you can keep the iPad for 4 years rather than three. Spending 50% more for 33% more useful life wouldn’t really be a great deal.

It really depends on how much storage you’d get absent the RAM difference and what your assumptions about device lifetime are.

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@ChrisUpchurch That’s a really good point with the math. While I can’t claim to have run those calculations in my head, they surely help me feel better about my 256GB purchase. So thanks! :slight_smile:

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Originally I landed on the 512 GB under doubt, figuring that it really should be enough storage. But when this 6 GB RAM news broke, and was later confirmed to be actually available for use by other processes than storage handling by Vittici, I ended up with the 1 TB.

But that was the sum of RAM + uncertainty on storage needs which ended up pushing me over.

I very much doubt that I would have opted for the 1 TB had I concluded on a 256 GB was enough storage.