The iPhone 17 is Rumored to Have 12GB of RAM

Rumors have been swirling about the iPhone 17 already. According to a leaker on Weibo known as "Mobile Phone Chip Expert," the iPhone 17, set to debut in 2025, is rumored to boast 12GB of RAM.

The source, "Mobile Phone Chip Expert," isn’t just any random leaker. They’ve built a solid track record over the years, being the first to accurately predict the iPhone 7’s water resistance and the chip strategy of the iPhone 14 series. This same source also recently revealed Apple’s plans to develop its own AI server processor, aiming for mass production by the latter half of 2025. Given this history, the rumor about the iPhone 17’s RAM upgrade is worth paying attention to.

So, why is this increase in RAM such a big deal? Well, AI models, large language models (LLMs), and image diffusion models are resource hogs. They require substantial memory and processing power to run efficiently. In comparison, when I load Google’s Gemma 2 AI model on my PC, it eats up about 8GB of VRAM. This gives you an idea of the heavy lifting involved in running these models. More RAM means more room to handle these demanding tasks, potentially bringing advanced AI capabilities directly to your pocket.

While it’s still unclear (to me) if Apple leverages its GPUs or CPUs for this AI processing, one thing is sure: more memory opens the door for more powerful on-device applications. The iPhone 16, rumored to have 8GB of RAM, is still likely to rely heavily on cloud-based AI for large tasks, but the iPhone 17 could be a game-changer for edge AI applications.

In a world where AI is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives, running complex models directly on your device without relying on the cloud could be a significant advantage.

Source: Weibo - Mobile Phone Chip Expert