Why does my iPad refresh when switching apps?

Refresh?

Your iPad's memory management may need "swap" an active App from RAM to local storage when switching to a different App. When switching back, the original App will reload into RAM - and, depending upon the App, may need to reload volatile data. This might be most apparent when switching to and from a web-browser App.

Having more available RAM may reduce the likelihood of an App having to reload when switching between Apps. That said, the high performance iOS/iPadOS system architecture is designed to fully utilise available RAM. For this system architecture, unused RAM is simply a wasted system resource.

You can't fully eliminate the phenomenon that you describe - however, speaking of personal experience, having more RAM will certainly reduce the likelihood of experiencing the problem.

If your budget allows, perhaps consider that the 1TB/2TB storage models of the fifth/sixth generation and M4 models of iPad Pro benefit from 16GB RAM - whereas the less storage models have 8GB RAM per the iPad Air M2.

Continued...

iOS/iPadOS Apps are generally in one of four states:

• The App is “Active” - it is running running in the foreground. When you switch tasks, the App will continue to run in active state for some minutes before its resources are released and is placed into an Inactive state.

• The App is “Inactive” but remains loaded in [fast] RAM. In this state, the App can be instantly restored to an Active state - but is not consuming CPU or other resources whilst in the inactive state.

• The App is “Inactive” and unloaded. In this state, the App has been completely offloaded (releasing RAM for use by other processes) but its running state has been saved to [slow] flash memory. Returning to an App in this state will cause the App’s saved state to be reloaded from flash memory into Active RAM - without the need to re-initialise the App.

• The App has been closed. All running data has been expelled - there is no “saved” state; relaunch will reload and re-initialise the App from scratch.

Memory management is generally a juggling act. Inactive Apps do consume some system resources, but by design, the required system resources to maintain this state are insignificant.

You're very welcome.

Whichever model iPad you choose, it will represent a significant upgrade over your existing iPad7. With the benefit of information provided here, you will be able to make an informed decision that meets your budget constraints.