Apple M1 iPad Pro comes with 16GB RAM but the apps are limited to 5GB in iPadOS: Report

Although the M1 iPad Pro provided by Apple has configurations of 8GB and 16GB RAM, the developers have now shown that no matter what configuration the application is running on, the memory usage of the application is limited to only 5GB.

‌M1‌ iPadPro has two memory configurations. The 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB models are equipped with 8GB RAM, while the 1TB and 2TB models offer 16GB of RAM, the highest of the iPad. Even if the amount of RAM on the iPad is unprecedented, the amount that developers can actually use is reportedly severely limited.

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Published by developers on the Procreate forum behind the graphics and design app Artstudio Pro, these apps can only use 5GB of RAM on the new ‌M1‌iPad Pro. According to the developer, trying to reuse it will cause the app to crash.
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There is a big problem with ‌M1‌ ‌iPad Pro‌. After making stress test and other tests on new ‌M1‌ ‌iPad Pro‌ with 16GB or RAM, it turned out that app can use ONLY 5GB or RAM! If we allocate more, app crashes. It is only 0.5GB more that in old iPads with 6GB of RAM! I suppose it isn’t better on ‌iPad‌ with 8GB.

After releasing an application optimized for M1, Procreate also pointed out on Twitter that with 8GB or 16GB of available RAM, the application is limited by the amount of RAM available.

The previous largest RAM in ‌iPad‌ was last year’s ‌iPad Pro‌, which has 6GB of RAM regardless of storage configuration. Given that the 5GB limit imposed by iPadOS on apps does not necessarily cause any alarm bells, because developers can access most of the available memory. Despite using ‌M1‌ ‌iPad Pro‌, developers cannot fully utilize the potential of the available hardware.

The increased RAM, especially in the high-end 1TB and 2TB models, will allow users to keep more applications open in the background, thus still benefiting users. iPadOS itself can access the entire unified memory pool of M1, and according to reports, the application can only access 5GB of it.

iPad users have been saying for a long time: iPadOS can’t make full use of the available hardware and potential of iPad Pro, and now, because of the built-in M1 chip of iPad Pro, this situation is definitely more.

Apple will hold a global developer conference on June 7 and is expected to announce iOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS 12, tvOS 15, and iPadOS 15. The first release includes the ability for users to place widgets anywhere in the grid.

We have contacted Apple to clarify the information regarding the number of accessible RAM applications and will update this post if we receive a response.

|Via|