New iPad Pro comes with 4GB of RAM, 1TB version may come with 6GB

Although all of Apple's new iPad Pros are nominally supposed to offer the same performance as they all boast the same A12X processor, 1-terabyte models may actually have superior RAM, according to one developer.

"Multiple people are telling me that only the 1TB iPad Pros get 6GB RAM," developer Steve Troughton-Smith noted on Twitter. Other Pro models are said to have 4 gigabytes of RAM, the same as the 2017 version of the hardware.

Relatively few people are likely to pay for a 1-terabyte Pro, as the cost is not just greater than any previous iPad but in some cases more than a MacBook Pro. An 11-inch, Wi-Fi-only Pro with that amount of storage is $1,549. The pricetag jumps to $1,749 for a 12.9-inch display, and adding cellular can raise it as high as $1,899. This doesn't include a keyboard or Apple Pencil.

64-gigabyte 11-inch Pros start at $799, already $150 more than it cost to get a 10.5-inch tablet last year.

It's not clear why Apple would add extra RAM for one storage tier. It may have been deemed necessary to ensure smooth performance when handling that amount of data, though that's rarely a concern with Mac and Windows PCs and shouldn't be here either, given Apple's storage controller efficiency.

AppleInsider has asked for comment regarding the matter from Apple, and will update accordingly.

The signature features of the new iPad Pros are small bezels, USB-C, multi-angle Face ID, and support for a second-generation Apple Pencil with new tap commands and wireless charging.

17 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 6 years ago

Both are a big leap over the previous models. Impressive... most impressive!

rogifan_new 4297 comments · 9 Years

Aren’t the current iPad Pros 4GB? I’m pretty sure the 12.9” is.

tipoo 1121 comments · 14 Years

Going to guess that impressive Photoshop demonstration was running on the 6GB one then, which most people won't get. Photoshop can chew through RAM.

tipoo said:

Going to guess that impressive Photoshop demonstration was running on the 6GB one then, which most people won't get. Photoshop can chew through RAM.

I’m sure that’s a safe assumption. A professional is going to buy the top end model.

melgross 33607 comments · 20 Years

tipoo said:

Going to guess that impressive Photoshop demonstration was running on the 6GB one then, which most people won't get. Photoshop can chew through RAM.

That’s what I was wondering about. I know iOS is much more efficient with RAM than windows and macOS, but running a 3Gig file on a device with 4Gig RAM seems just a tiny bit squeezed to me. Since PS likes to have three copies of a file running, and for 100% efficiency, all must be in RAM, I’m wondering how this would work. Apple said that they had a new high speed drive controller chip they designed for this. So possibly, they’re using even faster NAND this year. Previously, speeds were slightly in excess of 500MB/s sequential. But we know that in some Macs, Apple is running over 2GB/s. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that’s what we have here? If so, having less RAM isn’t such a limitation.