Database Users

Using full ram with root

I've read that 1 of the 2gb of RAM is used for the touchwiz so you effectively only have 1gb. If you install a custom rom, ie. cyanogenmod, do you get to use the full 2gb then?

Filiusincendia said:
I've read that 1 of the 2gb of RAM is used for the touchwiz so you effectively only have 1gb. If you install a custom rom, ie. cyanogenmod, do you get to use the full 2gb then?
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Pretty sure its ICS that takes up the space and its not a full GB. I don't have the phone but a friend has around 1.6 - 1.7 Gigs free at max.

I don't think that would work out, considering the international GS3 has 1GB of RAM and runs TouchWiz.

So much confusion, let's spell this out. First of all our phones have 2gb ram, period. The GPU requires about 0.38gb of the system's 2gb because it doesn't have its own onboard memory. So no matter what software you run, you'll be starting out around 1.62 available.
Different operating systems, frameworks, skins, and applications will have different memory footprints. Touchwiz is probably a bit heavier than AOSP (CM/AOKP), so after a clean boot you'll probably have more free ram running an AOSP variant.
Honestly its all kind of moot at this point however, because I doubt in either situation most people get anywhere near using the all remaining RAM with current ROM offerings. Key lime pie may be another story.

Yeah to his point about not using the RAM is just stupid, unused ram is wasted ram meaning you have it for nothing, for example on stock cm9 you got 1.2 gb free most of the time, 500-600mb free, touchwiz manage ram better but still leaves a lot behind, look up what ram does and you will understand why unused ram is useless
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

jgalan14 said:
Yeah to his point about not using the RAM is just stupid, unused ram is wasted ram meaning you have it for nothing, for example on stock cm9 you got 1.2 gb free most of the time, 500-600mb free, touchwiz manage ram better but still leaves a lot behind, look up what ram does and you will understand why unused ram is useless
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't it ideal to have unused RAM so that when you open apps and multitask, you the memory to keep them alive? Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but if we never had unused Ram then we would never be able to multitask, right?

Spartoi said:
Isn't it ideal to have unused RAM so that when you open apps and multitask, you the memory to keep them alive? Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but if we never had unused Ram then we would never be able to multitask, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To a certain extent, I for one think there's no reason to try and utilize all of it for nothing. And it's pointless to complain about having extra
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

This is quote from something I read in pc mag
" This has to do with extremes. Remember that every so many cycles (don't remember on current ram), your memory has to completely refresh its contents. If you have an extra 16GB that you never use, then you waste time refreshing all of that ram. Also on this note, higher densities, and larger quantities are harder on your controller. For maximum speed and stability, use ram appropriate for your usage pattern"
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

jgalan14 said:
This is quote from something I read in pc mag
" This has to do with extremes. Remember that every so many cycles (don't remember on current ram), your memory has to completely refresh its contents. If you have an extra 16GB that you never use, then you waste time refreshing all of that ram. Also on this note, higher densities, and larger quantities are harder on your controller. For maximum speed and stability, use ram appropriate for your usage pattern"
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While that is true, ram come in discrete chunks and 2 gb is noticeably better than 1. At a certain threshold the memory manager kills off old apps to free up ram. More ram means more recently used apps remain loaded and available sooner plus i have no issues with many pages open in a browser. I typically run with around 600 mb free. Only my dell streak i would often be under 100 and unless i manually closed apps it really bogged down.
Sent from my NookColor using xda app-developers app

1gb of ram is not for TW and the rest for apps....its 2gb total...in reality like 15mb total

[Q] Average free memory in Nexus 10

Hi I just got a tablet but its not nexus 10 with 2gb of ram it only has 1gb of ram. I am contemplating on exchanging my tablet for a nexus 10 and I would like to ask you folks out there what on average is the available free ram on a nexus 10?
I think to average it out this post needs to have a lot of input.
PS Reply

I generally get 400-800 MB free of ram

Looking at free ram is a rather pointless measurement considering Android is Linux, and unix systems go by a "free ram is wasted ram" philosophy. With that said, mine is currently sitting at 541.5MB.

700M
kilopopo said:
Hi I just got a tablet but its not nexus 10 with 2gb of ram it only has 1gb of ram. I am contemplating on exchanging my tablet for a nexus 10 and I would like to ask you folks out there what on average is the available free ram on a nexus 10?
I think to average it out this post needs to have a lot of input.
PS Reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks
Thanks guys now i have an idea of how much memory is available on average.
I wonder if having 2gb is better than having 1gb of ram

Please search first, this question is near pointless and been asked a million times here, but to answer your question more ram never hurts but Android will hardly if ever run into low ram situations with 1gb of total system memory of more. Linux is different than a windows system and likes to use all available ram and when it needs ram for a task will kill tasks that have been idle for too long to free it up so task killers and monitoring free ram are time and battery eating tasks and you will be happier if you kick the habit ASAP
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

the nexus 4 has around 1800mb ram and the nexus 10 should have a similar amount

maxorelad said:
the nexus 4 has around 1800mb ram and the nexus 10 should have a similar amount
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Click to collapse
Probably not, larger resolution means it needs more dedicated to vram
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

ECOTOX said:
Probably not, larger resolution means it needs more dedicated to vram
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's kind of false advertising then. For example, should I sell my computer as having 10GB of RAM, even though only 8GB is actually usable as System RAM, with the other 2GB as Video RAM? Kind of silly imo... should of just put 2GB in the thing and then a separate dedicated amount for video.
But in any case, is there any actual hard proof this is what is happening? I wouldn't know where to begin to look really, but I'd love to see a section of the kernel code that actually dictates this, instead of just hearing "assumptions"

espionage724 said:
It's kind of false advertising then. For example, should I sell my computer as having 10GB of RAM, even though only 8GB is actually usable as System RAM, with the other 2GB as Video RAM? Kind of silly imo... should of just put 2GB in the thing and then a separate dedicated amount for video.
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Click to collapse
When you buy any computer without a dedicated video card you loose ram to the video processing. When you buy a 10gb computer you only get maybe 9gb usable. Same with hard drives due to formatting limitation, it's not false advertising that's how much it has. Consumer ignorance is not the same as false advertising. The system needs some dedicated to video, audio, radio, and anything else that can't have variable sizing. they told you the right amount but you didn't know that just like the desktop you buy in a store the total available isn't the same as user available because the system needs some of it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 12:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 PM ----------
espionage724 said:
But in any case, is there any actual hard proof this is what is happening? I wouldn't know where to begin to look really, but I'd love to see a section of the kernel code that actually dictates this, instead of just hearing "assumptions"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes there is a section of kernel code that dictates it go look at the source. If it's like the samsung vibrant it will be in the kernel config file
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

yes we can

ECOTOX said:
When you buy any computer without a dedicated video card you loose ram to the video processing. When you buy a 10gb computer you only get maybe 9gb usable. Same with hard drives due to formatting limitation, it's not false advertising that's how much it has. Consumer ignorance is not the same as false advertising. The system needs some dedicated to video, audio, radio, and anything else that can't have variable sizing. they told you the right amount but you didn't know that just like the desktop you buy in a store the total available isn't the same as user available because the system needs some of it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose this does make sense; but even with the computers I owned that had integrated graphics, they had some kind of onboard memory attached to them. I could choose to alter how much additional VRAM I needed from system RAM, but didn't have to.
As for my Desktop, out of the 8GB installed in my system, only 1MB (according to Windows anyway) is unusable as "Hardware Dedicated".
Regardless, every other Android device I've seen has a specified amount of RAM it comes with on the box, and has "approximately" the same amount shown as usable in the OS itself. The Nexus 10 says 2GB, with only 1.6GB usable, which isn't nearly "as approximate" imo.

espionage724 said:
I suppose this does make sense; but even with the computers I owned that had integrated graphics, they had some kind of onboard memory attached to them. I could choose to alter how much additional VRAM I needed from system RAM, but didn't have to.
As for my Desktop, out of the 8GB installed in my system, only 1MB (according to Windows anyway) is unusable as "Hardware Dedicated".
Regardless, every other Android device I've seen has a specified amount of RAM it comes with on the box, and has "approximately" the same amount shown as usable in the OS itself. The Nexus 10 says 2GB, with only 1.6GB usable, which isn't nearly "as approximate" imo.
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Click to collapse
i can say with 100% certainty that any computer you have owned without a dedicated GPU that has been made within the past 5-6 yrs has at least 100-200mb dedicated to vram. If it even supports 8gb it is gernerally around 512mb that is dedicated as it probably is within 3-4yrs old and probably has an AMD radeon HD gpu or intel HD GPU which use 256mb at minumum. The only way you would have only 1mb taken is if you have a dedicated GPU or it is reading it wrong. I've worked with computer for over a decade and have had to explain this upwards of 100 times I can also say that every single android device with more than 256mb of ram has at LEAST 100-300mb of its ram dedicated to the GPU, the cell/wifi radio, hardware video decoder, camera, and anything else it needs. Samsung vibrant has about 200mb for those dedicated from the 512mb, galaxy nexus has about 300mb dedicated out of 1gb, hp touchpad about the same. Larger the resolution the more you need so 400mb to the system isnt very odd. Id say min 256mb for the resolution on the N10 for video, then probly 100-128mb for the hardware video decoder and 50mb or so for camera and for wifi radio. that totals to approximately 400mb depending on the exact amounts because i dont know them for the n10. If you really want to you can go into the kernel config and change the amounts, but you will break hd playback, picture taking,etc. Which is what would happen if i configured the amounts too low in my vibrant kernels.
---------- Post added at 01:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 PM ----------
ps, why must auto correct fail me sometimes? ^ x3
and to add to that, look at the amount of user available storage. Do you have the entire 16 or 32gb you bought? no, you will loose about 1-2gb from formating then another 1-2gb for the system and app storage

New Nexus10 shows total ram as 1.2gb via android assistant

New nexus 10 user here. came from an htc flyer. Anyways, android assistant shows total ram on my device as 1.2gb or so. Specs say thing has 2gb. Does any ones else's device report that or is that the way android assitant reports it? I am just wondering if i have a new device with ram issues. Also, with not much running, this things shows available ram like my Vivid (about 300gb or so ) and it is supposed to have 2x the amount of Ram.
Thanks for any insight.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 2

What your seeing is correct. The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM on the motherboard, but 800MB of it is reserved specifically for the GPU. I still think it's kind of cheap marketing, but meh.
Before 4.2.2, only close to 400MB was reserved for the GPU, but apparently you could go past that limit in some cases, and it would cause userspace RAM fragmentation.

espionage724 said:
What your seeing is correct. The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM on the motherboard, but 800MB of it is reserved specifically for the GPU. I still think it's kind of cheap marketing, but meh.
Before 4.2.2, only close to 400MB was reserved for the GPU, but apparently you could go past that limit in some cases, and it would cause userspace RAM fragmentation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could copy that everytime a new user asks about this ram "issue", which isn't, since I saw you answered like 7 times? the same thing.

espionage724 said:
What your seeing is correct. The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM on the motherboard, but 800MB of it is reserved specifically for the GPU. I still think it's kind of cheap marketing, but meh.
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Click to collapse
Not cheap marketing, laptop manufacturers have been doing this for ages with integrated video cards. It's a little deceptive but it's the norm for this. I the Galaxy Nexus also did it. I am not certain but I don't think any mobile device has dedicated video ram, I believe it just is not reported as missing.
The Galaxy Nexus shows as having 893mb of ram.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

lKBZl said:
You could copy that everytime a new user asks about this ram "issue", which isn't, since I saw you answered like 7 times? the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a problem with how I'm describing it? The Nexus 10 does have 2GB of RAM, with close to 800MB (I forget the exact amount but I know I reported it before) being reserved strictly for the GPU, and not userspace apps. I know it's not an "issue", but how I feel about it doesn't really mean too much at all though.
altimax98 said:
Not cheap marketing, laptop manufacturers have been doing this for ages with integrated video cards. It's a little deceptive but it's the norm for this. I the Galaxy Nexus also did it. I am not certain but I don't think any mobile device has dedicated video ram, I believe it just is not reported as missing.
The Galaxy Nexus shows as having 893mb of ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree it's kind of normal, but it's how much is missing that still bothers me. The Galaxy Nexus is said to have 1GB of RAM, and if what you say is true, you're missing only a tiny bit over 100MB (which, is nothing imo). The Nexus 10 on the other hand is missing nearly half the advertised amount (not literally "missing" but not usable under normal conditions).
I'm pretty sure most laptop GPU's don't take "that" much RAM either when it's not dedicated (most I've seen was 512MB shared video memory, on laptops containing 4GB of RAM; very small amount really)

espionage724 said:
What your seeing is correct. The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM on the motherboard, but 800MB of it is reserved specifically for the GPU. I still think it's kind of cheap marketing, but meh.
Before 4.2.2, only close to 400MB was reserved for the GPU, but apparently you could go past that limit in some cases, and it would cause userspace RAM fragmentation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the more i know and read about the n10 the more i feel being ripped off

Ripped of? For around $400-$500, you're getting a device with extremely high resolution (highest in its class EVER), a 1.7 GHz CPU with up to 2.1 possible, a software and hardware support guarantee from Google, an extremely competitive GPU, and future-proofing with the latest Android versions for years to come.
That sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me. I know I've loved my N10.
If you're having issues with your device its likely a manufacturing fault, just return it to Google and get a new one.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

hpl912 said:
the more i know and read about the n10 the more i feel being ripped off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rip off?
Have you checked how much usable space you have after formatting a 1GB drive? The N10 delivers the specified HW but there is always overhead required to use it, no matter which OS you have. That is just a fact of computing. I would argue that you get to use ALL of the N10 hardware when you accurately account for the a running OS and apps.
Compared to Win8 RT, Android (Linux) is a skinny fashion model. Go look at the Win8 RT tablet specs then see how much usable HW is left after it boots up. Here is just one example.

espionage724 said:
Is there a problem with how I'm describing it? The Nexus 10 does have 2GB of RAM, with close to 800MB (I forget the exact amount but I know I reported it before) being reserved strictly for the GPU, and not userspace apps. I know it's not an "issue", but how I feel about it doesn't really mean too much at all though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol why do you take it like this? I just said you answered a lot of times the same, and you could copy it since i'm sure you'll have to answer that again' Where's the problem?

espionage724 said:
Is there a problem with how I'm describing it? The Nexus 10 does have 2GB of RAM, with close to 800MB (I forget the exact amount but I know I reported it before) being reserved strictly for the GPU, and not userspace apps. I know it's not an "issue", but how I feel about it doesn't really mean too much at all though.
I agree it's kind of normal, but it's how much is missing that still bothers me. The Galaxy Nexus is said to have 1GB of RAM, and if what you say is true, you're missing only a tiny bit over 100MB (which, is nothing imo). The Nexus 10 on the other hand is missing nearly half the advertised amount (not literally "missing" but not usable under normal conditions).
I'm pretty sure most laptop GPU's don't take "that" much RAM either when it's not dedicated (most I've seen was 512MB shared video memory, on laptops containing 4GB of RAM; very small amount really)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stand corrected about the Galaxy Nexus. It reports at 693 available ram.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

Very low available free RAM on GN 3 ... something to worry ?

Hello there.
As someone coming from a very laggy-slow-multitasker Galaxy S3, I am really looking forward to the possibilities the 3Gb of RAM of the GN III can bring to me in my every day lfe.
I mean, I would love being able to switch to multiple apps fastly without having to reload them each time because the system had to kill them due to low memory (nice work, OOM ^^).
And this upgraded multi-windows feature with mutliple apps instances is really looking awesome.
So, here's the thing.
According to that thread on GN II average available free ram : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923380 people can enjoy up to 800-1Gb of free RAM which is great but at that time I could not and would not afford to purchase this device, the SGS III being quite new.
And as of today, I read a thread confirming the Samsung Exynos 5420 in the SM-N900 version.
But what almost killed me, so to speak, is the available free RAM on this screenshot (see attachment) : 14% out of 2700Mb, which is less than 400Mb. THE HELL ?? What am I supposed to do whith that few ...?
So what do you guys think ?

Free RAM is a waste ram, enough said. Only my note 2, the free ram stays at 200mb free on average, never ever faced any lag.

sohebq said:
Free RAM is a waste ram, enough said. Only my note 2, the free ram stays at 200mb free on average, never ever faced any lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I should have expected, I'm being answered with the "free RAM waste" speech.
Let me tell you that this is completely true. BUT the problem here is the free RAM you have at YOUR disposal on boot.
How much will Samsung leave you to play with ?
If the system and the home launcher utilize all the memory so that you have only 400Mb left (as in this screenshot) what can you do with that less ??????
I get about 250Mb left on boot with my SGS III and it is NOT ENOUGH to do some multitasking.
So I will not leave free RAM, I will use it to my heart's content to do MULTI-TASKING with the apps I want to USE and switch between AT WILL without having to RELAUNCHING them. That's all
Therefore if I have only 400Mb left, then this device won't satisfy me. I'll be better on a Nexus 4 I saw with CM and over 1.30Gb free RAM to play with ! ^^

THis 400mb ram left is not on boot man, it could be after several apps opened so when you open a new app, the task manager adjust itself by clearing old apps from memory to find space for new.

Mackovich said:
So what do you guys think ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my N2 which I've never had a multitasking issue with. In fact, the number of apps it can keep alive in the background has always impressed me.
With 116 installed apps and dozens of Samsung's apps doing whatever it is they do I have 200MB of "free" RAM.
When I kill all active processes I have 850MB free.
Mali in the N2 reserves 250MB of RAM for itself. Adreno 320 reserves 500MB of RAM for itself in devices using it. Adreno 330 in the N3 will reserve at least that much, maybe more. I'm guessing that between Adreno's needs and the RAM some of their new apps (two concurrent instances of the same app, enhanced multitasking, updated S Note with Action Memo) need Samsung wisely included 3GB of RAM on the N3 to prevent the very scenario you're afraid of.
You do realize that open apps are counted in the "used RAM" the picture you posted shows? So that device that was being tested could have had a dozen apps open in the background for all we know. And a dozen apps open with free RAM still available would be good, not bad as you're indicating.
P.S. - The part you're missing about the "free RAM" speech is that the idea of having free RAM is kind of stupid. If an app can perform better with more RAM and the OS sees RAM available it'll allocate additional RAM to that app. If more apps join the party the first apps RAM will be reduced to provide a proportionate amount of RAM to other apps running. In other words there's absolutely no reason to have free RAM on an Android device; at least when apps are running.

Actually it's well explained that why we should not worry about ram anymore. good read.
http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care

sohebq said:
THis 400mb ram left is not on boot man, it could be after several apps opened so when you open a new app, the task manager adjust itself by clearing old apps from memory to find space for new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True enough.
If this device was running many apps in background while performing this CPU-Z scan (on the screenshot), then, I would not be worried at all. So I really hope that was the case.
What matters the most to me, is how much ram is allocated to the user, so that when I install my apps I can launch them and switch between them to my leisure without having to relaunch them.
Therefore I do expect to see very low available RAM, but only because of my doing : launching many apps, the apps I use every day. That's my all point.
BarryH_GEG said:
Here's my N2 which I've never had a multitasking issue with. In fact, the number of apps it can keep alive in the background has always impressed me.
With 116 installed apps and dozens of Samsung's apps doing whatever it is they do I have 200MB of "free" RAM.
When I kill all active processes I have 850MB free.
Mali in the N2 reserves 250MB of RAM for itself. Adreno 320 reserves 500MB of RAM for itself in devices using it. Adreno 330 in the N3 will reserve at least that much, maybe more. I'm guessing that between Adreno's needs and the RAM some of their new apps (two concurrent instances of the same app, enhanced multitasking, updated S Note with Action Memo) need Samsung wisely included 3GB of RAM on the N3 to prevent the very scenario you're afraid of.
You do realize that open apps are counted in the "used RAM" the picture you posted shows? So that device that was being tested could have had a dozen apps open in the background for all we know. And a dozen apps open with free RAM still available would be good, not bad as you're indicating.
P.S. - The part you're missing about the "free RAM" speech is that the idea of having free RAM is kind of stupid. If an app can perform better with more RAM and the OS sees RAM available it'll allocate additional RAM to that app. If more apps join the party the first apps RAM will be reduced to provide a proportionate amount of RAM to other apps running. In other words there's absolutely no reason to have free RAM on an Android device; at least when apps are running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting. Now I know where the GPU takes the RAM it needs.
And the part where an app is being less allocated in RAM is strange. I never really saw an app releasing RAM without being killed.
But anyway, with my current 1Gb SGS III, I cannot to do a lot of multitasking and I would really love to have at least 1-to 1.5Gb of free RAM on my GN III that I recently pre-ordered.

Mackovich said:
But anyway, with my current 1Gb SGS III, I cannot to do a lot of multitasking and I would really love to have at least 1-to 1.5Gb of free RAM on my GN III that I recently pre-ordered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1GB on the Exynos SGS3 was probably too little. As Samsung adds sensors and features that are persistent they reserve RAM for themselves and don't release it when other apps need it. So with Mali taking up 250MB the Exynos SGS3 had 750MB of RAM that was usable not counting what Samsung's apps permanently reserved for themselves. The S4 SGS3 had 2GB of RAM because Adreno used more RAM than Mali. It ended up performing better at multitasking because there was only 130MB of that extra RAM dedicated to Adreno so there was lots more available for apps. HTC used 1MB of RAM in the S4 based One XL and it was a multitasking disaster because Adreno ate up 330MB of it and Sense itself is no featherweight.

Free RAM in GN3 via @NZtechfreak
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Adreno GPU taking about 600MB of RAM!

BarryH_GEG said:
1GB on the Exynos SGS3 was probably too little. As Samsung adds sensors and features that are persistent they reserve RAM for themselves and don't release it when other apps need it. So with Mali taking up 250MB the Exynos SGS3 had 750MB of RAM that was usable not counting what Samsung's apps permanently reserved for themselves. The S4 SGS3 had 2GB of RAM because Adreno used more RAM than Mali. It ended up performing better at multitasking because there was only 130MB of that extra RAM dedicated to Adreno so there was lots more available for apps. HTC used 1MB of RAM in the S4 based One XL and it was a multitasking disaster because Adreno ate up 330MB of it and Sense itself is no featherweight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very detailed and interesting! I had no knowledge of this while looking for ways to enhance my SGS III multitasking experience. Now everything seems much clearer. Thanks!
CLARiiON said:
Free RAM in GN3 via @NZtechfreak
Adreno GPU taking about 600MB of RAM!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ! Finally some good news! Is this free RAM upon boot and/or when clearing memory?
If so, then it would be expected that there won't be close to 2Gb of free RAM, since I expect that TW home launcher will use a lot of RAM with all new features such as AirCommand. Don't you think?
Anyway thanks for that screenshot!

If you're really insistent on having 'free' memory, you can change it with a tool like this, needs root
if however, you read (and understood) the article posted above by rl421403(good read, thanks for the link) you will realise that the Engineers who designed the system do actually know what they are doing.

Mackovich said:
Ah ! Finally some good news! Is this free RAM upon boot and/or when clearing memory?
If so, then it would be expected that there won't be close to 2Gb of free RAM, since I expect that TW home launcher will use a lot of RAM with all new features such as AirCommand. Don't you think?
Anyway thanks for that screenshot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After cleaning RAM.
https://twitter.com/NZtechfreak/status/378461088678825984/
Well, no point having 3GB RAM if we are not going to use it..
However I think we have more than enough RAM to work with. 'Free' memory is more than GN2 if you check.

Here's another good article from Dianne Hackborn, a s/w engineer at Google that explains multitasking in detail. A lot of issues people have with certain apps when it comes to multitasking aren't due to Android or RAM but the way the apps themselves have been written (EG: sloppy).
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

There is plenty of ram on the s3... lol these ain't windows phones
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

skally said:
If you're really insistent on having 'free' memory, you can change it with a tool like this, needs root
if however, you read (and understood) the article posted above by rl421403(good read, thanks for the link) you will realise that the Engineers who designed the system do actually know what they are doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I tried something similar that used the MinFree values : zepplerinox supercharger script and eventually it was more than hassle though I had more multi-tasking capabilities.
But on many occasion my device froze because there was no memory left so I abandonned until I would find a better device.
CLARiiON said:
After cleaning RAM.
https://twitter.com/NZtechfreak/status/378461088678825984/
Well, no point having 3GB RAM if we are not going to use it..
However I think we have more than enough RAM to work with. 'Free' memory is more than GN2 if you check.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was worry sick about the 3Gb RAM, because a last minute serious rumour (few days before the IFA) stated RAM would be 2.5Gb and not 3Gb with a Antutu benchmark as a proof.
Then we learnt the real truth.
Anyway, it would definitely seem to be more free RAM than on the GN2, much not as much as one would expect when packing an extra 1Gb RAM, meaning Adreno 330 uses much more as long as TW home launcher.
By the way, is it me or your Twitter link does not work ?
BarryH_GEG said:
Here's another good article from Dianne Hackborn, a s/w engineer at Google that explains multitasking in detail. A lot of issues people have with certain apps when it comes to multitasking aren't due to Android or RAM but the way the apps themselves have been written (EG: sloppy).
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll read it
Now that I think about, when you said the GPU uses the system memory, does it use it on the go or does it have it's dedicated allocation no matter what ?
Because if I am correct, on the previous page, the screenshot shows 2.75 of available memory out of 3Gb. I gather the 250Mb is dedicated to the ROM, right ? So what about the GPU ?
chjema said:
There is plenty of ram on the s3... lol these ain't windows phones
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for me. Even though I flash CM on it. A few services (twitter, music etc...), a few widget and you're fu**ed...
Meaning, upon boot, I have 200-300Mb of free RAM.

CLARiiON said:
Free RAM in GN3 via @NZtechfreak
Adreno GPU taking about 600MB of RAM!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2,38Gb?
Where are the 3Gb?
One screen shows 2,7Gb. That's ok. I suppose that rest of ram is for graphical purpose.
But in this screen I only see 2,38Gb? Where are the other 620 Mb? How much memory is graphical dedicated? 300mb or 600mb?

You can consider the new Adreno 330 from Qualcomm to use at least the same amount than it's previous version - Adreno 320- which is 550Mb as explained in page 1

sorry offtopic... but I heard that samsung will offer minimum 32 gb storage on galaxy note3 but according to op screenshot this is a 16gb N9000... so are they still offering 16gb versions for note3?

The amount of RAM in use at boot doesn't surprise me at all. Where do you think all those nifty new resource intensive features live? Even with that and Adreno's piggish appetite the N3 still has more free RAM when cleared than the N2 does. My N2 with memory cleared in on the left. @NZtechfreak said his N3 had no material apps on it and mine’s loaded so that may make a difference. Regardless, I don’t see RAM being an issue based on what’s been posted so far.

BarryH_GEG said:
Here's another good article from Dianne Hackborn, a s/w engineer at Google that explains multitasking in detail. A lot of issues people have with certain apps when it comes to multitasking aren't due to Android or RAM but the way the apps themselves have been written (EG: sloppy).
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. And you can't expect there not to be errors with so many variants of screen sizes and OS updates.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

Nexus 9 uses F2FS filesystem by default!

The Nexus 9 uses the F2FS (flash-friendly) filesystem as default, instead of EXT4! (see attached screenshot)
Also notice the 508 MB Swap partition in the screenshot...

edgarf28 said:
The Nexus 9 uses the F2FS (flash-friendly) filesystem as default, instead of EXT4! (see attached screenshot)
Also notice the 508 MB Swap partition in the screenshot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do a androbench benchmark please i want to know the storage performance
---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 PM ----------
edgarf28 said:
The Nexus 9 uses the F2FS (flash-friendly) filesystem as default, instead of EXT4! (see attached screenshot)
Also notice the 508 MB Swap partition in the screenshot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the swap file used for, is it for the cpu, does it use the ram?
The thing has the fastest set up it should be the most smoothest device ever made.
64 bit tegra k1 with geekbench single core performance of 2000 almost double that snapdragon 801.
Fastest internal storage chip. 15MB random write and 38MB random read.
Android lollipop
F2fs filesystem
2gb ram
---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------
bushgreen said:
Can you do a androbench benchmark please i want to know the storage performance
---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 PM ----------
What is the swap file used for, is it for the cpu, does it use the ram?
The thing has the fastest set up it should be the most smoothest device ever made.
64 bit tegra k1 with geekbench single core performance of 2000 almost double that snapdragon 801.
Fastest internal storage chip. 15MB random write and 38MB random read.
Android lollipop
F2fs filesystem
2gb ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
..

bushgreen said:
Can you do a androbench benchmark please i want to know the storage performance
---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 PM ----------
What is the swap file used for, is it for the cpu, does it use the ram?
The thing has the fastest set up it should be the most smoothest device ever made.
64 bit tegra k1 with geekbench single core performance of 2000 almost double that snapdragon 801.
Fastest internal storage chip. 15MB random write and 38MB random read.
Android lollipop
F2fs filesystem
2gb ram
---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------
.
..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 508 MB Swap partition do not use any RAM, I think it's just an partition on the internal memory to extent the RAM with 508 MB (so basically you have 1.8 Gb RAM + 508 MB Swap)
And see attached screenshot for the AndroBench results.

it is just plain stupid putting only 2GB ram on a 64Bit device and then helping out with 500MB swap. They could have easily add 3GB ram without any significant costs..
Funny thing is that the nexus 6 has 3GB ram and has a variant with 64GB disk.

Looks like f2fs is only used on the encrypted /data partition, /system and /cache still use ext4.
Also, the Nexus 9 actually has zram enabled, which explains the swap "partition". Having 2GB of memory with 0.5GB of zram is an interesting alternative to just using 3GB of memory instead.

farmerbb said:
Looks like f2fs is only used on the encrypted /data partition, /system and /cache still use ext4.
Also, the Nexus 9 actually has zram enabled, which explains the swap "partition". Having 2GB of memory with 0.5GB of zram is an interesting alternative to just using 3GB of memory instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, it is not an interesting alternative, it is a stupid one in every way. the nexus 9 is already quite expensive. 1GB ram just costs a couple of dollars and room is more than enough within. and considering it is 64Bit it will bloat up ram usage anyway, not to forget that this high screen resolution eats up a lot of ram, too.

a user said:
no, it is not an interesting alternative, it is a stupid one in every way. the nexus 9 is already quite expensive. 1GB ram just costs a couple of dollars and room is more than enough within. and considering it is 64Bit it will bloat up ram usage anyway, not to forget that this high screen resolution eats up a lot of ram, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's stupid until you realize how channeling works. The option to user zram is a very interesting one and it might be a better solution. So far benchmarks of the tablet agree with HTC/Google.
EDIT: also, in a serialized "queue" architecture like the this 64bit K1 with 2 cores, multitasking is not the priority. 2GB + zRam or 3GB should not make much difference.
Google opted for this kind of CPU in the N9 to make it as fast as an ipad air2 on your active task. You don't have multiple windows, you won't do true multitasking in this tablet. This is an ipad alternative, and even these architectural details show it.

FrankBullitt said:
It's stupid until you realize how channeling works. The option to user zram is a very interesting one and it might be a better solution. So far benchmarks of the tablet agree with HTC/Google.
EDIT: also, in a serialized "queue" architecture like the this 64bit K1 with 2 cores, multitasking is not the priority. 2GB + zRam or 3GB should not make much difference.
Google opted for this kind of CPU in the N9 to make it as fast as an ipad air2 on your active task. You don't have multiple windows, you won't do true multitasking in this tablet. This is an ipad alternative, and even these architectural details show it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a lot of unrelated stuff in your post. there is no need for zram or swap (regarding the first posts its swap and not compressed ram, but i do not know myself what it is) if you get an extra 1GB of ram. 1 GB of ram is ALWAYS better than zram or swap. zram is a nice option when you cannot extend the memory for various reasons and swap may be used for heigh memory use cases when you have some not too slow alternate memory. n9 internal memory is still damn slow for swapping (if it is indeed a swap faile on disk at all).
but actually there seems to be no good reason to not add an extra GB as we can see the nexus 6 has it, the nexus 9 ha definetly room for it (it is not like pc dram module) and it is damn cheap also.
secondly, i'm not talking about multitasking when i pointed out 64bit, so why the hell are you bringing this in? beside of that on a tablet multitasking it meanwhile not so uncommen. the point is that a 64 bit os has a MUCH larger memory footprint. also such high screen resolutions add a decent amount of memory either. and finally, your argument about benchmarks proving anything related to my comment is unrelated at best. it doesn't prove anything related to my statement.
there is aboluelty no reason to prefere zram or swap over an extra GB of ram, and it seems that there is nothing that would made it difficult for htc to add it. i can only assume that they added this just collect some experience on it and nothing more.
i really don't get it. what's the purpose of your statement? showing of your lack of knowledge or celebrating fanboyship "oh cool, they skipped a 5$ GB ram but gave us zram hurayyyyy".
sounds totally sound to give a smartphone 1GB ram more, same high resoltion on a smaller screen and twice as much disk space
EDIT: but please finally tell us WHAT exactly is so "interessting" adding zram or swap instead of one GB ram? you post has no information except this little claim. one might find this decision interesting of course due to its stupidity but it doesn't look that this is the source of your interest.

Any conjecture or theoretical analysis is ultimately pretty meaningless. Just let the performance speak for itself.

@mkygod hallelujah !! ??

a user said:
a lot of unrelated stuff in your post. there is no need for zram or swap (regarding the first posts its swap and not compressed ram, but i do not know myself what it is) if you get an extra 1GB of ram. 1 GB of ram is ALWAYS better than zram or swap. zram is a nice option when you cannot extend the memory for various reasons and swap may be used for heigh memory use cases when you have some not too slow alternate memory. n9 internal memory is still damn slow for swapping (if it is indeed a swap faile on disk at all).
but actually there seems to be no good reason to not add an extra GB as we can see the nexus 6 has it, the nexus 9 ha definetly room for it (it is not like pc dram module) and it is damn cheap also.
secondly, i'm not talking about multitasking when i pointed out 64bit, so why the hell are you bringing this in? beside of that on a tablet multitasking it meanwhile not so uncommen. the point is that a 64 bit os has a MUCH larger memory footprint. also such high screen resolutions add a decent amount of memory either. and finally, your argument about benchmarks proving anything related to my comment is unrelated at best. it doesn't prove anything related to my statement.
there is aboluelty no reason to prefere zram or swap over an extra GB of ram, and it seems that there is nothing that would made it difficult for htc to add it. i can only assume that they added this just collect some experience on it and nothing more.
i really don't get it. what's the purpose of your statement? showing of your lack of knowledge or celebrating fanboyship "oh cool, they skipped a 5$ GB ram but gave us zram hurayyyyy".
sounds totally sound to give a smartphone 1GB ram more, same high resoltion on a smaller screen and twice as much disk space
EDIT: but please finally tell us WHAT exactly is so "interessting" adding zram or swap instead of one GB ram? you post has no information except this little claim. one might find this decision interesting of course due to its stupidity but it doesn't look that this is the source of your interest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No...you would understand what he was talking about if you understood what he meant by "architecture". The Tegra K1 chip employed by the N9, aka Project Denver, is the first in order execution CPU since...like, 1990.......This device was never designed to multitask, as the CPU itself was designed to finish tasks in order, and be damn fast at that.
Here, read up on this: http://hothardware.com/News/Nvidias-64bit-Tegra-K1-The-Ghost-of-Transmeta-Rides-Again/
Adding 1GB of RAM is useless, since 64bit really needs 4 & up to shine, it doesn't make a difference whether or not you tack on another GB.....

UAL4588 said:
No...you would understand what he was talking about if you understood what he meant by "architecture". The Tegra K1 chip employed by the N9, aka Project Denver, is the first in order execution CPU since...like, 1990.......This device was never designed to multitask, as the CPU itself was designed to finish tasks in order, and be damn fast at that.
Here, read up on this: http://hothardware.com/News/Nvidias-64bit-Tegra-K1-The-Ghost-of-Transmeta-Rides-Again/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know very well how denver works and it still has nothing to do with what i said.
Adding 1GB of RAM is useless, since 64bit really needs 4 & up to shine, it doesn't make a difference whether or not you tack on another GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's simply not true! 64bit does not shine more orn 4GB ram or on 12GB. you need 64bit for 4GB+ ram (while 4GB actually works on 32bit with PAE). but i am not talking about when 64bit is needed to allow for more memory. i am talking about the double sized memory pointers, the bigger size ints and longs, due to 64bit! this caused all native code to consume far more memory. but as ia already said multiple times, not only the 64bit os itself eats a lot of memory it also the high resolution graphics but also the meanwhile increased resolution assets of android.
i don't say that it is actually needed to install more memory. but if they decided to add zram it seems they actually needed more memory. the point is that it is stupid to extend the memory with zram instead of just simply adding 1GB ram.
i can't say it more clearly. the stupidity is to NOT INSTALL 1GB MORE RAM BUT INSTEAD USE ZRAM TO MAKE UP FOR LACK OF MEMORY.

It doesnt need a swap file 2gb ram is enough

UAL4588 said:
No...you would understand what he was talking about if you understood what he meant by "architecture". The Tegra K1 chip employed by the N9, aka Project Denver, is the first in order execution CPU since...like, 1990.......This device was never designed to multitask, as the CPU itself was designed to finish tasks in order, and be damn fast at that.
Here, read up on this: http://hothardware.com/News/Nvidias-64bit-Tegra-K1-The-Ghost-of-Transmeta-Rides-Again/
Adding 1GB of RAM is useless, since 64bit really needs 4 & up to shine, it doesn't make a difference whether or not you tack on another GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Arm chips didn't really start to use out of order instructions until the cortex a9, sometime around the Tegra 2 and the atrix. There were plenty, literally hundreds of android phones with cortex a7 and a8 cpu's with in order execution. (Think of the older snapdragons, the hummingbird, the omap's) Because this CPU happens to be an in order processor, doesn't mean its now a non multitasking tablet or OS. Multitasking performance should not be expected to get WORSE, with better hardware(I'm not saying it is, but it shouldn't be expected).
Yes 64 bit processors shine with above 4 gigs of ram(as far as mapping more memory), but 64 bit applications have a larger memory footprint than the same application compiled for 32 bit CPU's(uses more ram). So with the higher resolution and 64 bit OS, 2 gigs of ram may be pushing it, and it is probably why they added the swap.
No matter how you slice it, ram is always better than swap. Ram is always gonna be faster memory than a large storage device. If they thought 2 gigs would not be enough ram, swap should not have even be a consideration, just make it 3. The nexus 10 was a prime example of this due to the screen resolution and the GPU needing too much ram. Most of the 10's issues were the CPU not having quite enough power and not enough ram. Chrome would refresh pages with just a few tabs open when switching between them.

I personally would not trust a young filesystem that was initiated by Samsung.
Both of the above sounds like my data is at risk

After playing with it for a few days , I observed reload of the launcher sometimes. I am not sure if Lollipop is not yet well optimized for N9 or whatever. I think that 3GB of ram should be better.

2gb Ram is plenty it does not need the swap file
I hope the swap file ain't causing any slow downs or lag because it is reading writing to it instead of using the main ram

edgarf28 said:
The 508 MB Swap partition do not use any RAM, I think it's just an partition on the internal memory to extent the RAM with 508 MB (so basically you have 1.8 Gb RAM + 508 MB Swap)
And see attached screenshot for the AndroBench results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A swap partition is just that, it swaps memory to a file system when memory or other resources are gone. Some applications will do it by default.
I'm positive you don't have a grasp on linux or *inux systems. You should read up on 'em.

I beg to differ... I'm so sick and tired of all my apps getting booted out of memory the moment they're off-screen. Even the damn launcher vanishes way too quick and takes an eternity to reload. This tablet sucks for multi taking, even though the gorgeous screen is taylor-made for it.

a user said:
i know very well how denver works and it still has nothing to do with what i said.
that's simply not true! 64bit does not shine more orn 4GB ram or on 12GB. you need 64bit for 4GB+ ram (while 4GB actually works on 32bit with PAE). but i am not talking about when 64bit is needed to allow for more memory. i am talking about the double sized memory pointers, the bigger size ints and longs, due to 64bit! this caused all native code to consume far more memory. but as ia already said multiple times, not only the 64bit os itself eats a lot of memory it also the high resolution graphics but also the meanwhile increased resolution assets of android.
i don't say that it is actually needed to install more memory. but if they decided to add zram it seems they actually needed more memory. the point is that it is stupid to extend the memory with zram instead of just simply adding 1GB ram.
i can't say it more clearly. the stupidity is to NOT INSTALL 1GB MORE RAM BUT INSTEAD USE ZRAM TO MAKE UP FOR LACK OF MEMORY.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree with this, I'd be happy to pay $10-$20 more for and extra 1 to 2 Gb or ram.
Then they could have gone something like 4GB Ram + zram
Would have been better
And while denver may be an In order design, its 7 way Superscalar which should outweigh the benifits of a 3 way OoOE Design for multitasking