A secret RAM limit might be breaking your iPad ‣ Diverse Daily

Apple might be the most cagey of the consumer tech giants. Once it learned that it could build tremendous hype by keeping details under lock and key, it made that a philosophy for a lot more than just the iPhone. For example, while it’s hard to remember now, there was intense speculation in the run-up to the first Apple Watch announcement in September 2014. This helped build up so much attention that before the product actually shipped a few months later, news sites (including one I worked for) were covering sightings of the real-gold Apple Watch Edition on celebrities like Beyoncé and Karl Lagerfeld.

Sometimes these tactics apply to products that are already on the market. Essentially, the company wants to promote an aura of “magic” — a common buzzword in its marketing — instead of focusing on pure specs. There is some legitimate value to this, as the combination of self-designed hardware and software allows for optimization that other companies can only dream of. Specs don’t tell the whole story.

Occasionally, however, Apple’s approach can backfire, and nothing exemplifies this more than the current RAM situation on iPads. The company has long hidden or downplayed RAM in official iPad specs, and that’s about to bite multiple generations of owners.

How much does RAM matter on an iPad?

Hidden variables with real consequences

In many respects, less than you’d think. When you’re shopping for a Windows PC, knowing the amount of RAM you’re getting is crucial. The default these days is 16GB, since an 8GB system can struggle with Chrome when enough tabs are open. Gamers and media professionals often aim for 32GB or more. The fact that there are still 4GB PCs on the market feels like a scam.

Conversely, you probably don’t even know how much RAM your iPad has. As I noted up top, Apple has total control over its hardware and software, so it can shuffle data on a just-in-time basis. The efficiency is so sharp that even my 2020 iPad Pro — which has 6GB of RAM, and an outdated A12Z chip — can not only multitask in iPadOS 26, but do it with relative smoothness. I can’t run something like Final Cut or Resident Evil 8, but that’s as much because of GPU tech as anything.

Being behind the RAM curve comes with several penalties on an iPad, however. For one, the less memory your tablet has, the more likely it is that you’ll have to reload an app when you pick it in the App Switcher. iPadOS tries to preserve apps in a frozen, ready-to-go state for as long as possible, but triages them whenever memory falls low. In my situation, despite the fact that I only really use five or so apps on a regular basis, reloading is a frequent event. If you’re counting on your iPad holding apps in memory for work purposes, you’d better be saving documents frequently.

RAM is definitely going to impact the performance of some iPad apps, and prevent a number of them from running at all. One example of this is Apple’s Logic Pro audio suite. Although it should technically run on my 2020 Pro, even iPads with 8GB are limited in the number of simultaneous plugins they can handle. 6GB is abysmal. Likewise, I wouldn’t want to try Pixelmator Pro for an illustration project involving dozens of layers, not that A12Z devices are supported in the first place.

More rarely, Apple can be forced to admit that new iPadOS features are dependent on RAM. When it introduced Stage Manager multitasking several years ago, a number of iPads were excluded, mostly because it was relying on M-series processors to help convert storage into makeshift RAM. The company eventually ported the feature to some A-series devices like mine, but you can see how having a large amount of RAM from the get-go would offer a significant advantage. Even now, my Pro can’t extend Stage Mangager to an external display, only mirror its current homescreen.

An Apple Intelligence apocalypse?

The Great Filter is coming

There’s a concept in cosmology known as the Great Filter. It’s a hypothetical answer to the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we haven’t detected intelligent alien life yet, given the odds suggest there should be many species in our galaxy. It argues that there’s some phase in the development of a species that many organisms have trouble crossing. While it could be something as basic as abiogenesis, Carl Sagan used to talk about surviving world-ending technologies like nuclear bombs.

It’s an extreme analogy, but in a way, the iPad is approaching its own Great Filter: Apple Intelligence. Until now, Apple’s AI efforts have been easy to ignore. With iPadOS 27, though, they’re getting a revamp based on (though not actually running) Google Gemini. Some enhancements will include contextual awareness, access to broader world knowledge (i.e. the web), and the ability to execute many nuanced commands within apps, such as rotating a photo, or editing a text you just sent.

Tying this all together is Siri AI. Judging from the anecdotes of beta testers, it’s a long-overdue overhaul, finally putting Siri on par with the likes of Gemini and Alexa+. You can make complex, natural-language requests, and it will actually understand and run them, whereas the existing version of Siri sometimes struggles with timers and reminders. Apple is so confident in Siri AI that it’s giving the assistant its own app, and reportedly preparing several new smart home products, ranging from an updated Apple TV 4K to a smart display.

Should you upgrade to a newer iPad just for the best version of Siri AI? Probably not yet, since we may not know everything that’s coming with iPadOS 27, never mind 28.

The problem here is compatibility. On iPads, the new tech won’t work at all if you don’t have an M-series Air or Pro, or else the current iPad mini, which has an A17 Pro chip — the minimum for Apple Intelligence on iPhones. Most significantly, Apple is reserving its best AI models for iPads with an M4 chip or later and 12GB of RAM.

You might not care so much about that now, since in iPadOS 27, it’s mostly going to affect your ability to customize Siri AI’s voice. But if a relatively trivial AI feature is being gated behind 12GB of RAM in 2026, that implies that more important additions will soon be out of reach for millions of iPad owners. The whole reason I’m still using a 2020 Pro is that there hasn’t been a compelling use case for anything newer. If my iPhone and Apple Watch can talk to Siri AI, but my iPad can’t, it’s not only going to be inconsistent, but legitimately hamper my productivity going forward. My iPad’s incarnation of Siri won’t have any awareness of what’s going on with other products.

Should you upgrade to a newer iPad just for the best version of Siri AI? Probably not yet, since we may not know everything that’s coming with iPadOS 27, never mind 28. If your iPad is struggling with multitasking, though, or can’t run many apps, this fall might be the time to take the leap — if you can swallow Apple’s recent price hikes.