iPad Apps Limited to 5GB of RAM Even on New M1 iPad Pro With 16GB of RAM

Apple is reportedly limiting iPad apps to using just 5GB of RAM, even on the new M1 iPad Pro that has 16GB of RAM.

The limitation was spotted by Procreate users who were eagerly awaiting a recent M1 update that brought support for additional layers.

Artstudio Pro developer Lucky Chan writes,


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.

Clan later follows up saying,

We tested RAM limit on iOS 14.5.x, 14.6 and 14.7beta, on both iPad M1 8GB and 16GB, and in all cases memory limit that app could allocate was exactly 5.1GB. We got these numbers by doing stress tests (allcating memory until app crashes), and by calling "os_proc_available_memory()".

It's possible that Apple could increase this limit when it introduces iPadOS 15 next month. Procreate says its app will be updated to make use of additional RAM if it becomes available.


As of now, we're using all the RAM available to us - as soon as we have access to more, you'll have access to more

You can purchase Procreate from the App Store for $9.99. The new M1 iPad Pro can be ordered from here. Note that only the 1TB and 2TB configurations have 16GB of RAM.

More details at the link below...

Read More [via 9to5Mac]