iOS and iPadOS developers will now be able to exceed RAM limits on supported devices, Apple notes in a support document (via MacRumors).
As a point of comparison, the 2020 iPad Pro with 6GB of RAM limited third-party apps to 3GB of RAM usage.
So, up until now, the only upsides to having more RAM on the newest iPad Pros were the ability to switch between apps faster and have more apps running in the background.
Digital illustration app Procreate, for instance, was only able to increase the layer (stacking image elements on top of each other) counts from 91 on the 2020 iPad Pro to 115 on the M1 iPad Pro. The layer count is the same on the 8GB and 16GB models.
iOS developers may request more memory to boost app performance
Apple will now let developers surpass app memory limits. The company hasn’t disclosed the upper limit, but it will apparently vary depending on the model. Developers will be able to use a function to determine the amount of RAM available.
This entitlement was previously available to internal processes.
Some sort of limits will still unsurprisingly be imposed because if apps gobble up an unreasonable amount of memory, it will affect system performance and undermine the overall experience. Apple has requested developers to ensure their apps behave correctly in the event that additional RAM is not available.
In any case, most apps don’t need a lot of RAM and the biggest beneficiary of the new rules would probably be media-centric apps.
