Rumors of a potential portion of unused RAM on the new iPad Pro have been circling since users have decided to teardown the product and share their findings. Several iPad Pro owners have spotted a difference in their M4 chips and the subsequent RAM size. A user on Macrumors discusses this disparity, listing teardown images from UFD Tech, JerryRigEverything, and iFixit as references.
Apple’s M4 iPad Pros are advertised as having 8GB of RAM, however, the rumors surrounding this product seem to suggest that the chips could host 12GB of RAM instead. This is due to a speculated difference in the labeling of some chips. Let’s take a closer look at what some users have noticed before you go ahead and buy the new iPad Pro.
Does the M4 iPad Pro have unused RAM?
The rumored differences in M4 iPad Pro RAM sizes have been spotted by users tearing down their products and noting how the chips have been labeled. On the Techlnsights website, teardown photographs of the 1TB model are shown where 2 RAM chips alongside the M4 are labeled D8DNV. This label means that these are MT62F1G64D4AS-026 XT:C chips, offering 8 gigabytes and subsequently confirming the 16GB of RAM listed on Apple’s tech specs page.
However, when teardown photographs of lower-capacity models are viewed there is a significant difference. On UFD tech, JerryRigEverything, and iFixit, the labels on the chips read Z8DMS. Z8DMS decodes as MT62F768M64D4AS-026 XT:B. When listed on DigiKey and Mouser it is mentioned that the chip offers 6 gigabytes, which is a total of 12GB of RAM. Which is different to the 8GB listed on Apple’s specs, and subsequently leads to the speculation surrounding the RAM size of this product.
Apple iPad Pro M4 chip
Apple iPad Pro missing chip
Why is this the case?
Apple has not confirmed the difference in these chips, therefore everything is speculated and there is no apparent reason for it. However, it could be argued that it is because 4GB chips wouldn’t have enough dies to supply 120 GB/s of bandwidth anymore due to the increase in RAM density per die. If the rumors are correct it would mean a portion of the RAM on the iPad Pro would go to waste, leading to an unused that these chips offer nearly a third of unused memory.
Either way, Apple advertise 8GB of RAM on the M4 chip – and we certainly have that. The possibility to have more could be an interesting development if speculation is proven to be true.
