Will the iPad Air run every game well enough to last until the next Air is released, given it has less RAM than Air 2? In other words, for gaming purposes, is there any reason to upgrade to Air 2 in the interim (before Air 3 is released)?
The iPad Air should be good enough for gaming for the next couple of future IPad release cycles until the Air 1 becomes the requirement and not the recommended which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing in a sense that I don't expect any game to be incompatible with the Air 1 for quite awhile, on the opposite end games that truly push the limits of the latest Apple devices are few and far since being inclusive to a great assortment of Apple devices is good business sense. I think games that have high end options still look great such as Asphalt 8 but I think a racing or any other game built with Air 2 exclusivity in mind (or Air minimum) would look a level better although not good for the publisher or developers bottom line. TLDR; Vidra is right
I'm sure it'll still be good for the next couple years. I'm thinking about a new ipad next year. With the supposed ipad "pro" being mentioned possibly this year, I'll have more time to decide my upgrade path.
Keep in mind that the first iPad Air is more powerful than the top-end iPad Mini Apple sells today - I think you'll be fine for a while
I have an ipad air 1 too and i dont think i'd be pressed to buy a newer ipad for at least 2 years more... Maybe even 3 if we get lucky.
I don't think the RAM will necessarily be an issue, what is more likely to happen are apps being killed from the background more often. The worse case scenario would be having crashing issue the 4s and iPad 2 are experiencing with a lot of games but pretty sure the Air will have a long shelf life thanks to Metal API.
I am using ipad 4 and it is still serving me really well,probably gonna serve me for 1 more year so iPad Air will be good enough for 1.5 or 2 years or so.
Of course it will I have bought every model the last 4 years but i skipping Air 2. Waiting for Air 3 or w/e they call the new one.
The iPad Air first generation I'd say is pretty good for games, it does have a 1GB of RAM (Heavy 3D iOS game does need 512 MB RAM, you got double that) 1GB of RAM is the same amount on the new iPhone 6 and 6+, which means that games supported on these will easily support the iPad Air! There's the performance as well, but developers are optimizing that. I guess you are very safe!
You're probably okay waiting for the iPad Air 4. I upgraded from the iPad 3 to the Air 2 and the jump was big, but I'd barely heard of any games that didn't run well on the iPad 3. I thing XCom is about the only one I could think of.
