Apps and games on the new Apple TV 4K can still use only 2GB of RAM, even though the box ships with 8GB. tvOS force-quits any app that goes past that limit, so graphics-heavy games get no benefit from the extra memory on the A19 model today.
9to5Mac tested the 2GB cap on the Apple TV 4K (4th generation) and found that the system closes an app once it allocates more than 2GB. The new model has twice the RAM of the 2022 Apple TV 4K, which pairs an A15 Bionic with 4GB.
Games on the new Apple TV 4K hit 2GB
Apple’s os_proc_available_memory developer API reports 2GB available to an app on the new Apple TV 4K, the same figure it gives on the Apple TV 4K (3rd generation). 9to5Mac says it is unclear whether Apple kept the cap on purpose or by oversight.
Most Apple TV apps are streaming clients that need little memory, so you will not notice the cap while watching shows. Apple also pitches the Apple TV 4K as a gaming box that works with supported game controllers, and large console-style games are the apps that run into a 2GB budget.
You pay $299 for the new Apple TV 4K, a price Apple set during this year’s memory chip shortage. Your 128GB of storage has per-app limits too, since Apple caps a tvOS app at 4GB uncompressed.
An app can host up to 20GB more on the App Store as On-Demand Resources. Apple deprecated On-Demand Resources in tvOS 27 and now points developers to Background Assets instead.
Switch ports needed more memory
Projects that rebuild big console games for Apple hardware had hoped the new model would lift the ceiling. TVPort is a Mac app that turns Nintendo Switch games dumped from your own console into Apple TV apps. tvOS closes those apps at 2,097MB, while a Switch gives a game about 3.2GB.
TVPort works around the limit by backing a game’s memory with a file that tvOS can page out to flash storage. The Apple TV 4K (4th generation) keeps the same per-app ceiling, so ports like TVPort still need that workaround on the A19 hardware.
Siri AI does not explain the cap
Some have speculated that Apple holds back system memory for Siri AI models. The same report doubts that, because the heaviest Siri AI requests on Apple TV hand off to a connected iPhone or to Apple’s servers.
Siri AI also runs on the Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) and later, so the feature does not depend on the 8GB in the new model. The Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) runs Siri AI with 4GB of RAM, half the memory of the A19 box.
