After 4.4 update, total RAM space decreased? - Nexus 10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've heard that Android 4.4 reduced its memory usage.
But after I updated 4.4 on my Nexus 10, I found that the total and free RAM space is even decreased compared to when it was 4.3.
Now my Nexus 10 shows only 1.1GB of total RAM. I remember it was a little larger when it was 4.3 (like 1.3GB?)
As you know, Nexus 10 is a device with 2GB of RAM. And now we can only see half of the RAM available? I think it's funny.

osikiri said:
I've heard that Android 4.4 reduced its memory usage.
But after I updated 4.4 on my Nexus 10, I found that the total and free RAM space is even decreased compared to when it was 4.3.
Now my Nexus 10 shows only 1.1GB of total RAM. I remember it was a little larger when it was 4.3 (like 1.3GB?)
As you know, Nexus 10 is a device with 2GB of RAM. And now we can only see half of the RAM available? I think it's funny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More RAM is allocated to the GPU. Allows better performance, but slightly reduced multi tasking capabilities.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

It's at 1.1 gb since latest jellybean update

osikiri said:
I've heard that Android 4.4 reduced its memory usage.
But after I updated 4.4 on my Nexus 10, I found that the total and free RAM space is even decreased compared to when it was 4.3.
Now my Nexus 10 shows only 1.1GB of total RAM. I remember it was a little larger when it was 4.3 (like 1.3GB?)
As you know, Nexus 10 is a device with 2GB of RAM. And now we can only see half of the RAM available? I think it's funny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Android 4.3 the RAM was 1.08 gb and now as you said it is 1.1 gb so you have gained, 0.02 gb.

Related

[Q] Nexus 4 killing apps even >1GB RAM free

Hi,
I am on stock ROM and stock kernel without Root.
My Nexus 4 killing aps even it has plenty of free RAM. Any solution?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYCRZimWBHw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po43M7jrdi4
Yeah it does. My Nexus 4 has about 1.2GB - 1.5GB RAM permanently free, it can get a bit annoying lol as Android historically was supposed to utilize all the RAM to increase speed.

[Q] any way to retrieve back the 1Gb RAM from GPU allocation?

Hello, I noticed that, from 4.1 to 4.3, ram dropped twice.
Now it's just a bit more than 1GB.
Well, I bought a device with 2GB RAM. I know, that's not completely wasted but allocated for GPU.
But... 1GB? On 4.1 we had 1.6 GB of real free ram, then 1.3 on 4.2, now 1.1!
And on kit kat? Maybe 512 MB?
Anyway. There is any way to get it back? Custom kernel? Custom ROM? No one tried this? I never compiled a ROM or kernel for android, so I have no idea where to start.
I think that's not an honest way of upgrading. 2GB was high end, and in android world would have been a lot of ram for a lot of time. 1Gb is just barely enough... It's already killing application, usually launcher or keyboard.
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 4
gatsu_1981 said:
Hello, I noticed that, from 4.1 to 4.3, ram dropped twice.
Now it's just a bit more than 1GB.
Well, I bought a device with 2GB RAM. I know, that's not completely wasted but allocated for GPU.
But... 1GB? On 4.1 we had 1.6 GB of real free ram, then 1.3 on 4.2, now 1.1!
And on kit kat? Maybe 512 MB?
Anyway. There is any way to get it back? Custom kernel? Custom ROM? No one tried this? I never compiled a ROM or kernel for android, so I have no idea where to start.
I think that's not an honest way of upgrading. 2GB was high end, and in android world would have been a lot of ram for a lot of time. 1Gb is just barely enough... It's already killing application, usually launcher or keyboard.
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is lots of information out on the internet for this very topic. I believe it has to do with more memory allocation set aside for GPU or processing.
SmokinCharger said:
There is lots of information out on the internet for this very topic. I believe it has to do with more memory allocation set aside for GPU or processing.
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Click to collapse
I know the theory, I don't care why they did that.
It's like selling it for 2GB, then getting 1GB back, then... It's a 1GB tablet!
They should put 1GB for GPU and 2GB for RAM. You know, RAM, Random allocation memory, something that should be accessible from every application, not just locked there waiting for the GPU.
320, even 512 could be acceptable as a sacrifice for GPU allocation.
On PC you can even allocate 64MB on Intel chipset for GPU... And on PC you can have a lot of spare memory.
And on a tablet...One of the most powerful, and what should have been a top-sell for Google, you reserve a gig for GPU?
That's crazy. I almost feel scammed.
On topic:
Yeah, ok, but... If I'm not going to play. Can I flash a different kernel with some different init script?
I think that's something kernel-level. I didn't even rooted my Nexus 10, so I have not a lot of information, but it's not a common thing for tablet > 1920x1080 to allocate a gig for GPU. That's not right... I feel robbed this way.
I also feel the same way. On the nexus s forums there is a mod for kernels called bigmem, which takes some ram from some of the components and make it available to the system, for apps. I think the 1st ones who did this are the cyanogenmod team themselves, in one of their roms.
A kernel dev could do some mods to give more RAM to the user instead of reserving it, lots of phones have kernels like this. Also things can be removed from the ROM to free up more RAM to the user instead of it being taken by system services. I think this is also a lot of the reason we have less free now with Android OS version upgrades, because Google is adding a lot more services and these services take memory. We used to have 512MB of memory reserved for GPU, this was increased to 768MB in 4.2.2. I havent looked at the changelogs for 4.3 on this tablet but I dont think the GPU specifically got more reserved. That other 256MB lost over these couple version looks to do more with system services than GPU reservation.
That is my interest. Is anything available? I don't play a lot.
On an Android device, memory means future proof. Not totally, but a big part plays there IMHO .
1Gb is becoming low end, my galaxy nexus swap a lot if I don't remember to swipe away some application from the application preview button. And my galaxy nexus have 1gb - something like 230 MB allocated = almost 750 mb free. Not too far from 1100 MB free.
It will take a few application update, newer g+, Facebook, Google music and chrome et voila... You launcher will have to restart every time loading your 80 application, and the app will lose data swapping between applications (meaning that it was killed to reserve memory). It' s already happening and it' s sad, since it's a high end device.
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 4
I do not think anything is available now, everyone seems to be concentrating on adding features and functionality than slimming down and freeing memory. An example of what can be done is if you look in the GNex section of development there is a guy named mpokwsths with his "Mpokang kernel" that is removing things and slimming down the kernel to give more free RAM. I believe his thread says he is up at 772MB free on the GNexus now at boot. But no I dont think there is anything yet for the Nexus 10
gatsu_1981 said:
Hello, I noticed that, from 4.1 to 4.3, ram dropped twice.
Now it's just a bit more than 1GB.
Well, I bought a device with 2GB RAM. I know, that's not completely wasted but allocated for GPU.
But... 1GB? On 4.1 we had 1.6 GB of real free ram, then 1.3 on 4.2, now 1.1!
And on kit kat? Maybe 512 MB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rumor is that KitKat will be optimized to run on low-memory devices down to 512 MB (the article mentions android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, but it's likely that's what's being released as KitKat instead) when it comes out in a month, again according to the latest rumors. Presumably it will run a lot better on the Nexus 10, but we'll have to wait and see. At least we'll get it within a week or two of release, :highfive: as opposed to the many months most non-Nexus owners have to wait.

Enormous RAM usage

Since updating to KitKat RAM usage has been awful, 700 MB is minimum. It kills my multitasking because every background app is killed.. Any sollutions? Thanks
Same here. Google said they will improve ram usage with kitkat but they made it more trash.
matejilic said:
Since updating to KitKat RAM usage has been awful, 700 MB is minimum. It kills my multitasking because every background app is killed.. Any sollutions? Thanks
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Interesting as I'm using a custom ROM (see my signature) which is android v4.4.2 and I'm consistently seeing the lowest used memory since v4.3 took more for graphics. With 4.3 I was seeing 76% used now I see as low as 53%. With regular 66%.
If apps are restarting it is not noticeable.
3DSammy said:
Interesting as I'm using a custom ROM (see my signature) which is android v4.4.2 and I'm consistently seeing the lowest used memory since v4.3 took more for graphics. With 4.3 I was seeing 76% used now I see as low as 53%. With regular 66%.
If apps are restarting it is not noticeable.
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Click to collapse
How much ram is that percent out of though? Third tablet is supposed to have 2 GB ram and I know they say the GPU takes some but I'm also only seeing about 800 mega bytes actually used and out of that only around 200-300 free. It's not really an issue for me but why dues the GPU need so much
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
abdel12345 said:
How much ram is that percent out of though? Third tablet is supposed to have 2 GB ram and I know they say the GPU takes some but I'm also only seeing about 800 mega bytes actually used and out of that only around 200-300 free. It's not really an issue for me but why dues the GPU need so much
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
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I was referring to a Nexus 10, so 2GB. Performance/screen resolution is the reason for so much memory allotted to the GPU. Combined with the OS requirements it seems as if there should be more available but PC's have been allocating memory to GPUs for years.
We have already seen some tablets with 3GB and soon with 64 bit ARM processors and an Android OS to match we'll see 4GB tabs.
As you mentioned unless you are impacted this is much to do about nothing.
3DSammy said:
I was referring to a Nexus 10, so 2GB. Performance/screen resolution is the reason for so much memory allotted to the GPU. Combined with the OS requirements it seems as if there should be more available but PC's have been allocating memory to GPUs for years.
We have already seen some tablets with 3GB and soon with 64 bit ARM processors and an Android OS to match we'll see 4GB tabs.
As you mentioned unless you are impacted this is much to do about nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was talking about my nexus 10 too.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

What's your maximum available ram and how to increase it?

I'm only getting 1.58 GB and after the reboot my ram usage is like 1.31/1.58. I know it's 2GB device. So the question is why only 1.58gb can be used and how to increase it to 2.0gb? Anyone?
Cause probably the rest of the ram is used by core (not Android os) and hardware
Mine is 1.82 GB. Which is normal due to the conversion discrepancy between MB/GB.
1.82 or 1.72. Can't remember and don't want to look right now
The only way to increase it is by using swap. Either with an app like the rhoesoft ram expander (I think thats how it's wrote), or with a rom feature. But the ram you get with swap is not as fast as real ram. It will also degrade the life of the storage in that it is being stored. You can google more info about swap.
Are you sure you're reading it right? I usually have 1.2 GB ram free.
If you have 1.31 from 1.58 free then maybe you should consider uninstalling some apps. Cuz that's an unusual lot of ram usage
osvanberg said:
Mine is 1.82 GB. Which is normal due to the conversion discrepancy between MB/GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2000/1024 isn't 1.82. And I don't know why mine shows 1.5. That's a 300 missing. I'm on 4.4 tw.
It's just like HDD's. You buy one with 500 GB storage and when you set it up it shows only 480 GB or so.
And yes, samsung kinda ripped us off. 9 GB of internal storage is not 16! and 1.82 GB ram is not 2 GB! It's basically false advertisement what they are doing..

The Nexus 10 is suppose to have "2GB" of ram, but my Nexus 10 only have "1099"

The Nexus 10 is suppose to have "2GB" of ram, but my Nexus 10 only have "1099"
The Nexus 10 is suppose to have "2GB" of ram, but my Nexus 10 only have "1099"
what is problem?
android 5.1.1
Round it up and it's 2gb
Mine is also showing 1GB of Ram and its runs slow. Is it supposed to have 2?
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
In later software releases, they decided to allocate more of the ram to the video. Search this forum for a more detailed answer if interested.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
if i recall correctly, about 900mb is reserved for the gpu.
veitograf said:
if i recall correctly, about 900mb is reserved for the gpu.
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Click to collapse
I remember finding this out a few years ago and being pretty upset at the time. The tablet advertises 2GB of RAM, and yet about 1GB of it is only usable for the expected advertising purpose.
It's like me advertising my computer has 12GB of RAM, meanwhile, 4GB of that is dedicated to the GPU (which on it's own isn't really a problem, but it would make more sense to advertise 8GB)
Even then it would still be 12GB.
Let me get a little technical.
If you have an APU based PC, the GPU is on the same die as the processor. So when you use the GPU portion of the APU, it will use the RAM. How much? It depends on the load.
You can still use all of it though, so it isn't a problem. When you aren't using the GPU, all of your RAM is available.

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