Which version iPad Pro should I buy?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Which version iPad Pro should I buy?

Which model should I buy? I'm more concerned about RAM. I already have 2TB of iCloud storage. Perhaps people who have tried the 8GB and 16GB M4 can share their experience with me. Could I reach the 8GB limit with iOS 26?

I want to color grade on DaVinci Resolve, edit photos (Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom), draw logos and illustrations, play games like AC Mirage and Resident Evil at the highest graphics settings, and of course, write texts and emails and surf the web.

Posted on Oct 20, 2025 9:46 AM

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Answer 1

fadh22

Level 1

8 points

Oct 22, 2025 12:30 PM in response to two-facex

I have the M4 pro 256 gb which has 8gb of ram. I use it for editing 4k on resolve, logic pro, and lightroom. So far it hasn't really let me down. There were several times that I'd edit and resolve will suddenly close but that's like 2 out of 10 times, really. The only downside is that if I want to use relight in davinci, it wouldn't really let me use it as it requires 12gb of ram. For that alone, I have been considering upgrading to the M5.

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Answer 2

Oct 20, 2025 3:57 PM in response to two-facex

So as to boost performance, by design, your iPad will always use as much RAM as is available. If the processing task requires more free RAM than is currently available, iPadOS will "page" Apps and data between available RAM and local storage when memory is required for other tasks.

Having more RAM increases system performance. Many users choose the 1TB or 2TB models simply to maximise available system performance.

If you are considering a new iPad Pro M5, you might also wish to consider that the 1TB/2TB models benefit from a 10-core CPU - whereas the 256MB/512MB models have a 9-core CPU.

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Answer 3

xWauwau

Level 3

650 points

Oct 20, 2025 9:55 AM in response to two-facex

I can talk about my 8GB iPad Air, and my 24 GB MacBook.

Well, video editing has been working fine on my iPad. as long as I haven't used effects, then the playback gets horrible.

And Adobe Lightroom, at least on macOS, somehow managed to occupy over 22 GB of my RAM. So, I'd stay cautious about the 8 GB for editing and gaming.

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