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Apps in M1 iPad Pros Limited to Using 5GB RAM

By Laura Tucker
M1 Ipad Pros 5gb Featured

The new iPad Pros were just released in configurations up to 16GB RAM with the addition of the M1 chip. While you may think it would be great to have all the power, it’s not really what it seems. iPadOS limits apps to only using 5GB RAM, whether they’re used on iPads or iPad Pros with M1 chips. All that great power you just bought is wasted.

Discovery of 5GB Limitation on iPad Apps

The new iPad Pros were announced in late April among much talk of the powerful M1 chip boosting their power. This gives the tablets configurations of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB, giving them 8GB and 16GB RAM . But app developers are discovering they can’t allow their apps to use all that power. With other iPads limited to 6GB, IPadOS is limited to all apps using only 5GB, even on M1 iPad Pros. If you’re a proud new owner of a new M1 iPad Pro, you’re wasting all that power.

The developer of the Artstudio Pro app posted to the Procreate forum that no matter the configuration, the M1 iPad Pros aren’t using all that power. If there’s an attempt to use more than 5GB, the apps crash.

M1 Ipad Pros 5gb Usage2

“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,” wrote the developers.

Procreate answered a question on Twitter, “I would have imagined that the 16GB M1 iPad might get more layers/dimensions than I can currently seem to see with this update?” by explaining, “As of now, all M1 iPads have the same amount of RAM available. As soon as we have access to more, we’ll pass that on to you, too.”

M1 Ipad Pros 5gb Apps

While not allowing more memory to apps individually, the extra power still allows them to have more apps open at the same time in the background. IPadOS can access all the RAM individual apps can’t. M1 still makes it faster – just not as fast as it can be.

Could iPadOS 15 Change This?

With the discovery that the new M1 iPad Pros aren’t using all that memory they’ve been given and are limited to 5GB RAM, the WWDC is one week away. Apple traditionally announces the next versions of iOS, IPadOS, and MacOS and opens them up to developers, releasing them officially in September. Will there be a change to iPadOS that will allow it to make better use of the M1? Users and developers certainly hope so.

Read on to learn of other M1 troubles, with third-party iOS apps crashing the Macs that carry the M1, while also noting its success, running Windows 10 faster than a Surface Pro X.

Image Credit:; Apple Newsroom

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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