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Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 Have Increased RAM

MacRumors has confirmed that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 have increased RAM compared to the previous-generation models.

apple watch s12 ultra 4
Both new models are equipped with 4GB of RAM, according to Apple's developer tool Xcode 27.

Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 models are equipped with 2GB of RAM, so the Series 12 and Ultra 4 have twice as much memory.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 models are equipped with a new S11 chip that powers new Apple Intelligence features when the watches are paired to an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. The increased RAM will help to enable these new functions, such as Live Rewind text snippets and Siri Recap summaries, and give a boost to Siri AI.

Despite a severe memory chip shortage that has driven up the price of RAM and resulted in Apple raising prices on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and more in recent months, the Series 12 and Ultra 4 start at $399 and $799 respectively in the U.S., meaning the devices have the same starting prices as the Series 11 and Ultra 3 even with more RAM.

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Top Rated Comments

Leobreaker Avatar
9 weeks ago
Don't worry, that extra 2GB of RAM will be reserved for Siri AI even if disabled, so your performance won't be improved.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
9 weeks ago

@Joe Rossignol

can you please provide source of this information? According to the Wiki (link below) those only have 1GB of RAM. and afaik RAM didn't increase between S9/10/11 and U2/3.
Please enlighten us, Thank You


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Watch
Apple's developer tool Xcode lists a "memClass" for each device that corresponds with an amount of RAM.

There has been 2GB of RAM since the Apple Watch Series 9.

Here's more proof ('https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/17oag3r/comment/k7zw8tm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button') beyond Xcode.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9 weeks ago
Assumption regarding price is that 4 GB of RAM is essentially the minimum they can get now so thats why there isn't a price increase, and the general sales we see on Apple watches means they know a price increase wouldn't be accepted by consumers.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
9 weeks ago

J

Just checked and for Ultra 4/S12 I get "memoryClass" > 3
memClass 3 actually means 4GB of RAM.

This quirk is the result of Apple releasing an iPad Pro with 4GB of RAM before it eventually offered an iPhone or iPad with 3GB of RAM.

memClass 4 = 3GB of RAM.

After this quirk, all memClass values directly correspond with RAM, i.e. 6 = 6 GB and 8 = 8 GB and 12 = 12GB.

(There is another quirk. I believe 15 is used for 1.5GB, but not 100% sure on this.)

memClass trivia one day?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BorisDG Avatar
9 weeks ago

Holy cow, this is a 4x RAM increase. The Ultra 3 has 1GB RAM.

Hopefully this means my Music app stops crashing due to low memory on standalone Watch mode during workouts.
Not true. The Ultra 3 has 2GB, just like all the watches based on the S9/S10, which were pretty much the same SKU.

Here is another (favorite) source ('https://hubweb.cn/apple-silicon/chip-s/').
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
9 weeks ago

Not true. The Ultra 3 has 2GB, just like all the watches based on the S9/S10, which were pretty much the same SKU.

Here is another (favorite) source ('https://hubweb.cn/apple-silicon/chip-s/').
Yeah, there is a lot of misinformation out there about Apple Watch RAM amounts, because Apple does not advertise it.

A lot of generic tech websites that offer tech specs just put 1GB of RAM, an incorrect number that is randomly floating around and repeated due to a lack of fact checking.

As you said, Apple Watch Series 9 through Series 11 all had 2GB of RAM.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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