Database Users

Ram discussion on mobile phones

With most new phones having 1 gig standard now, I see the new LG phone announced will be coming with a crazy 2 gig of ram. I'm no technical pro but isn't that a little overkill for a phone? I've never had an issue with 1 gig on my last few phones, and I know ram isn't all that expensive but it seems to be a marketing ploy to me.
anyway, other opinions or thoughts?
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Creating a need is what todays mobile market is about. My point is who actually needs the full power of todays phones, a very small percentage i imagine
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Would be better if they thought about creating faster 1GB RAM chips instead.
But imagine that you have quad-core 1.5GHz CPU and 8 GB of RAM. That would allow you to use full scale linux OS on your smartphone (I know it is possible now, but it's far from useable)

I'd be more impressed with ddr3 ram.
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I would be happy if with increasing all dis horsepower manufactures can focus on increasing the battery backup also.
If MotoRazr Maxx can have 3300 mA battery...NOTE2 should have atleast 5000 mA

The 2GB would definitely be needed if they also increased the max number of tabs in the browser. That alone can eat my 1GB.
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tomksoft said:
Would be better if they thought about creating faster 1GB RAM chips instead.
But imagine that you have quad-core 1.5GHz CPU and 8 GB of RAM. That would allow you to use full scale linux OS on your smartphone (I know it is possible now, but it's far from useable)
Click to expand...
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I beg to differ I would say its very useable already but yes faster chips would be a much better root, the more bottle necks you can remove the better

tomksoft said:
Would be better if they thought about creating faster 1GB RAM chips instead.
But imagine that you have quad-core 1.5GHz CPU and 8 GB of RAM. That would allow you to use full scale linux OS on your smartphone (I know it is possible now, but it's far from useable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full scale Linux runs perfectly well on much weaker systems. If you're talking about the Linux-on-Android project, the UI is not very responsive because it's not running natively, but through a painfully slow remote desktop thing. The actual processing that's happening behind the scenes is pretty quick and so it's still very useful.

Depends what you are doing.as to how much memory you need, etc.
Screen resolutions are getting bigger, cameras are higher res, etc. it all adds up to more data to hold on to and move around. Having an extra 0.5GB or 1GB can make a huge difference in some cases (e.g. Photo or video editing on-device.)
Also, Android puts apps to sleep rather than closing them down and releasing the resources by default (only properly disposing of them when more resources are required for a foreground app. Having extra RAM means more can be resident in memory without needing to dispose of anything so that could lead to a slicker UI experience and a phone that seems really fast and responsive.

The thing that disappointed me the most about the s3 was the ram, really ruined it for me. Phones today must have 1.5gb atleast.

pboesboes said:
Full scale Linux runs perfectly well on much weaker systems. If you're talking about the Linux-on-Android project, the UI is not very responsive because it's not running natively, but through a painfully slow remote desktop thing. The actual processing that's happening behind the scenes is pretty quick and so it's still very useful.
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Click to collapse
Indeed once we can get a working native X11 desktop running (There are a few projects working hardo n this so its likely it will happen!) it will feel alot quicker, but if you try using command line applications they feel just as snappy as running on a few years old desktop

zacthespack said:
Indeed once we can get a working native X11 desktop running (There are a few projects working hardo n this so its likely it will happen!) it will feel alot quicker, but if you try using command line applications they feel just as snappy as running on a few years old desktop
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Click to collapse
Yeah, it's pretty impressive what our phones are capable of.
Having a native desktop would be awesome. The possibilities are... endless!

pboesboes said:
Yeah, it's pretty impressive what our phones are capable of.
Having a native desktop would be awesome. The possibilities are... endless!
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Click to collapse
indeed I fell in love with android when I got my HTC Magic (Android 1.5 baby ) its grown up alot but I have always been amazed at how open it is and just hwo much you can do with it

yon222 said:
The thing that disappointed me the most about the s3 was the ram, really ruined it for me. Phones today must have 1.5gb atleast.
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What the herr you going to do w/ 1.5GB of Ram? Run Photoshop CS5 and have 50 apps open lol? You don't need it. It would be nice, but it's not necessary.

Zamboney said:
The 2GB would definitely be needed if they also increased the max number of tabs in the browser. That alone can eat my 1GB.
Sent from my superior GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
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What I was about to say too.
I'll sometimes have 5 to 6 tabs open whilst using Instagram and Facebook and drawsomething.

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

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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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)
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Click to collapse
I stand corrected about the Galaxy Nexus. It reports at 693 available ram.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

[Q] RAM missing?

Hi
I´m kind of new here but still haven´t found an answer why my Nexus only shows 1097 RAM instad of 2000? Even tried different hardware checker and they all tell me the same. Have I made I bad flash?

Davidkallen said:
Hi
I´m kind of new here but still haven´t found an answer why my Nexus only shows 1097 RAM instad of 2000? Even tried different hardware checker and they all tell me the same. Have I made I bad flash?
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Click to collapse
The 2GB ram on the device must accommodate both the operating system and graphics Ram before any apps are loaded. So what you see is normal. This is no different for laptops. Also the 16 or 32 GB internal storage shows less after formatting and Android OS plus Google apps (Gapps) are installed. At least with the Nexus 10 you have much less bloatware compared to other Tablets (eg. Samsung).
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

3DSammy said:
The 2GB ram on the device must accommodate both the operating system and graphics Ram before any apps are loaded. So what you see is normal. This is no different for laptops. Also the 16 or 32 GB internal storage shows less after formatting and Android OS plus Google apps (Gapps) are installed. At least with the Nexus 10 you have much less bloatware compared to other Tablets (eg. Samsung).
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
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Click to collapse
Thanks for you answer 3Dsammy.
I understand that you use RAM when things are installed, But I still dont get it. When I was on stock it showed in settings 2 gb RAM. And now Hardware info (app) System RAM 1097?. Same with Clean sweeper.

Davidkallen said:
I understand that you use RAM when things are installed, But I still dont get it. When I was on stock it showed in settings 2 gb RAM. And now Hardware info (app) System RAM 1097?. Same with Clean sweeper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus 10 has never shown 2gb available, I've had it since launch and I believe the most I've ever seen was back on 4.2 was about 1400MB or so, and it has gone down from there on each update. You never get what they advertise on the box, every single one of my devices has less than whats advertised, my Note 3 is supposed to have 3gb available, but really its only 2.38 after its said and done..
1098 is normal on 4.4.2 for N10, I've attached a shot from mine ... I can only assume most of it is being reserved for the GPU and its super high resolution.
** These threads might have more information you are looking for.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2377356
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2463178

Hi,
As already stated here, just clearing a little the information for you .
The Nexus 10 has a huge screen resolution, therefore it requires a more powerful GPU, even having a pretty powerful graphic processors which is the MALI, it's not powerful enough for the 1600p screen, so they allocated ≈1GB to the graphic unit to prevent any possible issues.
Also, there are some apps running in background, so it takes some RAM too.
Hope this clarifies a little ,
~Lord
"All I Ever Needed Was A Little Piece of Hope" - World of Fantasy (Helloween)
Sent from my monstrous Xperia Z1

Thank for your help:good:

I did notice that with slim kat 4.2.2 I have 1647 ram available and with 4.4.2 slim kat I had 1099.
so I thought that Kit Kat uses less RAM but I don't really see it with those comparisons.
Joe

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.