Apple's iPhone 4S includes 512 MB of RAM, same as iPhone 4

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A pair of reports this week are lending support to earlier claims that Apple's new iPhone 4S does not include more on-board RAM than its predecessor.



Donald Mustard, creative director for Epic Games subsidiary Chair Entertainment, recently let slip in an interview detailing Infinity Blade 2 that the iPhone 4S will sport 512 MB of RAM.



Given that a demo of Infinity Blade 2 was prepared for and unveiled as part of Apple's iPhone 4S keynote presentation last Tuesday, Mustard's comments are likely a result of first-hand knowledge of the iPhone 4S specifications, as Apple was reported to have provided select game developers with early versions of the iPhone 4S hardware for their development purposes.



Separately, a poster on a Chinese-language blog claims to have taken possession of the iPhone 4S, which he also says has 512MB of RAM. Both reports appear to confirm an AppleInsider article that first reported the information in early September.



With the move to Apple's A5 chip and dual-core graphics, the iPhone 4S's underpinnings now largely mirror that of the iPad 2, which also contains 512MB of RAM.



For the past two years, Apple has used the iPad to usher in a new mobile architecture before transferring those rights to a new iPhone. As such, iPad 3 stands to become the most likely iOS device to first receive an upgrade to 1GB of RAM when it hits the market early in the second quarter of 2012.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 95
    I see no reason to assert that the iPad 3 will contain 1GB of RAM, nor sufficient reason to define 1GB of RAM as some kind of new 'threshold' for Apple's iOS products.
  • Reply 2 of 95
    negafoxnegafox Posts: 480member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    With the move to Apple's A5 chip and dual-core graphics, the iPhone 4S's underpinnings now largely mirror that of the iPad 2, which also contains 512MB of RAM.



    Benchmarks seem to indicate that the iPhone 4S' A5 processor is likely clocked slower than the iPad 2's processor.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    I see no reason to assert that the iPad 3 will contain 1GB of RAM, nor sufficient reason to define 1GB of RAM as some kind of new 'threshold' for Apple's iOS products.



    Safari would benefit greatly from increased RAM to handle graphic intensive websites such as Memebase better. Or, multiple tabs.
  • Reply 3 of 95
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Negafox View Post


    Benchmarks seem to indicate that the iPhone 4S' A5 processor is likely clocked slower than the iPad 2's processor.



    Makes sense. It's a smaller, more mobile device, and lacks the battery of the iPad 2.
  • Reply 4 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    I see no reason to assert that the iPad 3 will contain 1GB of RAM, nor sufficient reason to define 1GB of RAM as some kind of new 'threshold' for Apple's iOS products.



    Moreover, it is likely that there is an iPhone 4S with 1GB of RAM sitting in a lab in Cupertino. The Powers That Be simply decided that the extra RAM really didn't provide a significant improvement of the user experience that is achieved with 512MB. I'm sure Apple's prototype testing protocol includes a wide variety of functions (web browsing, photography, videography, editing media, a selection of popular apps, Siri, etc.).
  • Reply 5 of 95
    postulantpostulant Posts: 1,272member
    It's time to rethink the correlation between memory and performance. Looking at iPhone 4S' performance today, it's clear to me that I have more learning to do. I'm wondering if this is purely the result of software optimization. Whatever the case, the guys in Cupertino know something that many technologists do not.
  • Reply 6 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Pendergast View Post


    Makes sense. It's a smaller, more mobile device, and lacks the battery of the iPad 2.



    Are we 100% sure it only has 512K RAM?



    Why don't they use some of the media storage as RAM? Then it would have 16.5, 32.5 or 64.5 GB or RAM? Which would be more than most Macs!
  • Reply 7 of 95
    negafoxnegafox Posts: 480member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Postulant View Post


    It's time to rethink the correlation between memory and performance. Looking at iPhone 4S' performance today, it's clear to me that I have more learning to do. I'm wondering if this is purely the result of software optimization. Whatever the case, the guys in Cupertino know something that many technologists do not.



    Multithreading optimizations is my guess to make solid use of both cores.
  • Reply 8 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Postulant View Post


    It's time to rethink the correlation between memory and performance. Looking at iPhone 4S' performance today, it's clear to me that I have more learning to do. I'm wondering if this is purely the result of software optimization. Whatever the case, the guys in Cupertino know something that many technologists do not.



    You can truly optimize the software when you have complete control over the hardware design.



    Apple is a software-driven company who writes software and creates services that run best on their proprietary hardware.
  • Reply 9 of 95
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    I see no reason to assert that the iPad 3 will contain 1GB of RAM, nor sufficient reason to define 1GB of RAM as some kind of new 'threshold' for Apple's iOS products.



    If the iPad 3 gets double resolution then I think 1GB RAM is a given.
  • Reply 10 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Negafox View Post


    Multithreading optimizations is my guess to make solid use of both cores.



    And the additional GPU cores and increased L2 Cache (1MB vs 512k) add to the optimization.
  • Reply 11 of 95
    rhyderhyde Posts: 294member
    c'mon folks,

    the RAM is built into the CPU chip. Its the same CPU as the iPad2. Why would anyone expect it to have a different amount of RAM than the iPad2? Of course it has 512MB of RAM.
  • Reply 12 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    I see no reason to assert that the iPad 3 will contain 1GB of RAM, nor sufficient reason to define 1GB of RAM as some kind of new 'threshold' for Apple's iOS products.



    That's what I like about AppleInsider: making promises that Apple may or may not keep. We don't even know if it will be called "iPad 3". It could be the iPad 2S
  • Reply 13 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eswinson View Post


    And the additional GPU cores and increased L2 Cache (1MB vs 512k) add to the optimization.



    My guess is that the memory bus in the A5 is faster than that of the A4. That would be another source of optimization.
  • Reply 14 of 95
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Moreover, it is likely that there is an iPhone 4S with 1GB of RAM sitting in a lab in Cupertino. The Powers That Be simply decided that the extra RAM really didn't provide a significant improvement of the user experience that is achieved with 512MB. I'm sure Apple's prototype testing protocol includes a wide variety of functions (web browsing, photography, videography, editing media, a selection of popular apps, Siri, etc.).



    I think not requiring that Safari reload on every page switch would be a significant improvement in user experience.
  • Reply 15 of 95
    pokepoke Posts: 506member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rhyde View Post


    c'mon folks,

    the RAM is built into the CPU chip. Its the same CPU as the iPad2. Why would anyone expect it to have a different amount of RAM than the iPad2? Of course it has 512MB of RAM.



    The iPhone 4 A4 had more RAM (512mb) than the iPad A4 (256mb). The 4th gen iPod touch with A4 also only has 256mb RAM.
  • Reply 16 of 95
    My original Apple computer had 64K of RAM on board. I suggest Apple go back to the way they sold the Apple IIe, with dual disc drives.

  • Reply 17 of 95
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I think not requiring that Safari reload on every page switch would be a significant improvement in user experience.



    I've never had that happen with the iPhone, expect for a couple early revision of iPhone oS 2.x, and with the original iPad.
  • Reply 18 of 95
    I was hoping that the 4s would more RAM cause i cant remember how many times my Iphone 4 has crashed due to safari using so much ram. now i have to think whether to get the iphone 4s.
  • Reply 19 of 95
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    You can truly optimize the software when you have complete control over the hardware design.



    Apple is a software-driven company who writes software and creates services that run best on their proprietary hardware.



    See, for example:

    http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...rk_scores.html



    Look at the iPhone 4 scores with iOS 4.2.1 vs iOS 5.0. Clearly, the software has been significantly improved.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rhyde View Post


    c'mon folks,

    the RAM is built into the CPU chip. Its the same CPU as the iPad2. Why would anyone expect it to have a different amount of RAM than the iPad2? Of course it has 512MB of RAM.



    Because the RAM and the CPU are different components of the same module.
  • Reply 20 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I think not requiring that Safari reload on every page switch would be a significant improvement in user experience.



    My guess is that Apple tests Safari with multiple tabs. Again, the Powers That Be decided from their testing of this and other applications that 512MB provided a sufficiently satisfactory experience for the majority of its users.



    Perhaps you are loading extra-intensive pages. I don't recall having Safari reload each time on my iPad 2.
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