How much RAM is enough?
With Apple set to announce a major overhaul to its operating systems at its WWDC 2024 event later today, it’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be front and center at the show. But one industry insider believes that Apple’s latest hardware could hold back its AI ambitions and prevent them from leaping ahead of its rivals.
In a question-and-answer post on Medium, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the amount of on-board memory in the upcoming iPhone 16 range – predicted to be 8GB – may not be enough to let the large language model (LLM) behind Apple’s AI truly sing.
“On-device LLMs are unlikely to exceed market expectations due to the iPhone 16’s 8GB DRAM limitation,” Kuo argued in the post, suggesting that eager Apple fans should perhaps temper their expectations going into WWDC.
That said, memory has never been much of an issue in previous iPhones, with Apple’s powerful mobile chips and efficient iOS operating system able to offer market-leading performance regardless of how much RAM they have to work with. The question, though, is whether that situation will still apply when it comes to notoriously demanding AI tools.
