Related
Hello Android Gurus
I have bought Galaxy S (My first Android phone) 2 weeks ago and i have been experimenting with it since. I have noticed one thing regarding how android manages memory and its quite alarming.
When i start my phone I typically have around 160 Mb of RAM. As i load an application that requires 10 MB for example, the available RAM evidently drops to 150 MB but when I kill the application the RAM goes up but not to the previous level (e.g. goes up to 157).
little RAM is always lost as applications are opened and closed. This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB and the phone becomes REALLY laggy and you have to restart
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
I used to have an iphone 3gs before this one, and no matter how much you open or close applications, the UI is always smooth and responsive. The thing that made me really hate Apple and its products is their "Closed OS" that does not enable you to do much with your phone. That is why i moved to Galaxy S thinking it would give me a better experience
Thanks for your thoughts.
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an awesome video! I never knew the games looked so nice. I'm on a download spree because of that video now
Strange
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is quite strange, the less RAM you have the more non-responsive the phone is and laggy.
Enough RAM has to be maintained to guarantee a smooth user experience.
If the phone requires 100Mb of RAM to run smoothly, then this much has to be maintained.
from my experience with the Galaxy S, there has to be atleaset 80 to 100 MB to maintain a somewhat smmoth interface.
Edit:
I also understand from your input that this is a Samsung problem, not an android problem, and that no matter how low the RAM is, the interface will always be smooth ??????
Mate, just one word - google.
There are about a billion articles online on android memory management, how to impoove it etc.
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.
andy2na said:
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+red baloon on vid which says phone was used for >day, so "free" ram was <50MB, becouse browser etc. reserve some MBs for quick comming back.
And still was no problem to run anything I choose.
Dont quite understand..care to explain more? I'm getting puzzled abt this shortage of ram thingy. Some suggest to use task killer to free up rams while you say dont. But looking at your videos its fast..please explain. Thanks
Sent from my GT-I9000
Android handles the memory management itself. The moment it runs below certain amount of free memory it will start the kill apps. There is no need to run an app killer. Altho the default settings are not enough to provide a smooth experience. Check out the freememmanager app in the market to change the settings. As long as min 45 mb is free everything will run smooth.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
RADLOUNI said:
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is typical Android behavior. See ya later.
Really though, if you're killing tasks, then you're already taking horrible advice from people who haven't an inkling of an idea on how Android manages memory.
Keep in mind that your phone is only using 256MB of its total 512MB of memory. Once a newer kernel is released with himem the phone will use all 512MB.
Android's garbage collection can be set to be more aggressive which would sort of fix your issue by killing more background applications. However, you might as well wait for the newer kernel which will fix your problem anyway.
Though it was more 320 out of 512
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
RADLOUNI said:
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has to do a lot with Android's garbage collector. The reason task-killers are not the best way to go, is because when you kill tasks a lot of the memory is not recovered (garbage collector does not work as it should). Android by default won't start killing apps until you get between 20-30MB of memory. For some reason, in the SGS, as you said, when ram drops below 70MB, the phone starts to feel pretty laggy; the best way to remedy this is to use applications like autokiller or minfreemanager, which require you to be rooted.
For a more in-depth explanation of how android kills processes see this http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details (from the developer of Autokiller).
I would like to know why the phone feels so laggy when ram drops below 70MB, from what I understand, this shouldn't be the case...
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
--> No, this is not typical behavior of Android, i use my HTC Magic before Galaxy S, no lagging problem even the memory is lower than 15MB.
The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)
Brantyr said:
The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't solve the mystery because this is a non-issue on other android phones.
why do i need to keep 50-70mb free to get a smooth running phone where others can handle 30mb free without problems.
Goshh..thanks for simplified. Now ive removed the task killer..and stand firm by the android golden rules...cheers..
Sent from my GT-I9000
I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.
inurb said:
I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.
reuthermonkey said:
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you suggest that I not force close any apps using taskkiller and just let android 2.1 do it's thing with memory management?
When I had the phone for the first week without taskkiller installed, the device ran very slow after the first couple days of use. Your saying that the slowness will go away as android dishes out memory effectively?
I'll uninstall taskkiller and let the device run longer than a week and see if it ever speeds up. thanks
Hi Arc Users,
Do you guys encounter low memory after long period of usage? It seems like the memory does not free up after using the phone for a long time. I mainly use the phone for FB, Camera and messaging.
When the phone hits like 50+MB ram or so it starts to slow down and if it goes lower than 40MB my home screen starts to lag and the app icons take a few secs to load every time i return to home screen. I'll usually reboot the phone but its quite a pain considering the boot timing for my phone is rather long, like close to 1 min.
What are the possible solutions? I've heard that advanced task killers are unnecessary for Gingerbread. If thats the case, how do I free up more memory or have better memory management for the Arc?
Am a first time android user, appreciate any advice from you guys
Thanks!
___________________
+1
Root is the solution. Delete apps and services which you do not use.
I haven't any problem either when free ram goes down to 30MB and i don't use a taskiller.
Just what are you doing when you run out of ram? Never did I run out of ram yet. Running ram hungry games will free up more what is needed as I experienced. When I return to homescreen, it takes a while (around 2 secs) because it will free up ram from the game, then load the homescreen launcher from start/scratch.
Same here but my Arc works fine, even with 30-40MB RAM, so it isn't a real problem.
But it would be nice from SE to make 400-450MB of the 512MB RAM available for the user.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App
Flo95 said:
But it would be nice from SE to make 400-450MB of the 512MB RAM available for the user.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? That is a completely pointless excercise if you understand how ram is handled by the os.
You need to root and remove bloat, check ya settings etc to get better performance. I found letting things constantly access the network was a juice eater, I don't want fb to check every 4 seconds, I update it when I want to read it lol
I use a task manager, but only because I like to see what is running and using resources. I rarely actually kill any apps, just occasionally a few things I rarely use. Even then it fills the space with other stuff.
:edit: sorry flo95, that sounded a bit crappy, no bad attitude was intended.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA App
This is the solution...https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lim.android.automemman&feature=search_result
not a task killer... a memory manager that enhances googles memory management.
mariolouis said:
Just what are you doing when you run out of ram? Never did I run out of ram yet. Running ram hungry games will free up more what is needed as I experienced. When I return to homescreen, it takes a while (around 2 secs) because it will free up ram from the game, then load the homescreen launcher from start/scratch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not play games with my Arc. I just used facebook, MSN, Camera and messaging occasionally throughout the day. Medium usage.
It runs smoothly for several days but maybe after a week or two, the RAM starts to get low.
im_iceman said:
This is the solution...
not a task killer... a memory manager that enhances googles memory management.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Working so far... will monitor after a week or so.
Try a cache cleaner also will free up some space for ya
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App
I use battery guard as a task killer. It comes with a widget where you can see the available amount of ram.
I'm happy about it. Though a lot of people say a task killer doesn't help I have no negative experience using this one... and I never go below 130 ram.
I still think it does help to close tasks that otherwise keep running in the background... But I'm new on android so I could be wrong.
Hey guys
Have you tried this script
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111145
maybe this can help w/o having to install apps or task-killers. Should work on Xperia Arc but I don't guarantee it.
That script seems to do basically the same thing as auto memory manager.. (per my previous post..)..
PS.. I currently have mine set to aggressive.
Hi,
working daily with linux-OS and beeing actively using custom roms since Android 2.1 I have a bit of knowledge on RAM usage on Linux and Android. As many know and like to post "free RAM is wasted RAM" - we all know that. But why? Because all not actively used RAM (lets call it "free") can be used as a cache for applications you likely will need in future. But what if your GNEX runs out of free RAM an is not able to cache any more? What if you start a new huge application like your browser and free RAM has to be obtained to give it to your starting application? Yes - bad things can happen!
But lets start from the beginning:
1. If you go to Settings->Applications->Running you get the RAM-bar at the bottom of the screen. This is splitted in two parts: used and free (like defined above). Used RAM seems to be actively allocated RAM which cannot be used for other things like starting applications and free is the RAM which can be obtained because it only containes caches apps which are not running.
2. Directly above that bar you se a kind of brace which seems not to be just eye-candy but has some meaning: The lower and thiner part of that brace seems to show the part of that RAM (used or free) that is used by the applications/service in the list above. Example: if you switch to cached applications the brace will jump to that part of the bar and by killing some of the cached apps you will change the width of the brace.
Lets put things together:
viewing the used RAM you will notice that the brace does not cover the whole used-ram-bar but, in my case, about the half. I also noticed that the width of the brace does not change greatly with uptime of the device as all listed services will stay at their size more or less so their sum is not going to change greatly. In my case all services sum up to about 250MB meaning the braces width is about 1/3 of the screen assuming that GNEX has 700MB total RAM (the rest of 1GB total physical RAM is allocated to other parts of the SOC-chip like Baseband and GPU and not available to linux-kernel or android).
But one thing does change greatly!!! The part of the used-ram-bar which is not covered by the brace will be very small after rebooting and will grow with uptime. As the part covered by the brace is a fixed factor this means that the free ram is the trade-off for the growing uncovered part of the used-ram. In my case I get after rebooting the device: 250MB free, 450MB used of which 250 are covered by the brace, leaving 200MB used RAM for whatever (kernel, non-android stuff like filesystem caches, ideas?) After some days of usage this changes to 50MB free, 650MB used of which still about 250MB are covered by the brace, leaving 400MB used for other things (NOT app-cache).
Consequences:
From the assumptions above this means that android is not able to cache apps anymore (because they live in the free RAM) and my device beginns to lag while opening new apps. To obtain enough RAM for starting apps like browers (stock or firefox tested) it will even need to kill services!!! And in extreme low-memory situations it even kills the foreground app you are using (to me it happened while I used firefox). Also when you go to settings->applications->running again you will notice that android will be restarting your services over and over again to obtain more RAM without much success. In the situations my actively used firefox got killed something different happened: the launcher also had been killed because it was starting over but more importently settings->applications->running showed that much of the used RAM not covered by the brace was gone! Free RAM jumped from 50MB to about 200MB which is nearly what I get after a fresh reboot. I assume that in this extreme low memory situation also the kernel did clean up things.
From my observations you will get the following if your free RAM accoring to settings->applications->running is very low:
1. no cached apps if you swich to settings->applications->running->cached
2. laggy phone
3. your launcher gets killed more oftern when returning from e.g. browser
4. more apps get killed when returning to launcher meaning that they will get restarted if you return to that app
5. in low memory situations (app does not fit into free-RAM-part) services will get restarted frequently
6. in extreme low-memory situations kernel cleans up everything (i guess)
The question now is: what is using so much RAM and growing over uptime until our GNEX has no more free RAM? I alread checked different ROMs including stock 4.1.2, stock 4.2.2 slimbean 4.2.2 cm10-stable cm10.1-nightly and all of them show this behavior. The only thing I noticed: all 4.1 ROMS perform better in this area: their RAM does not fill up that quickly but it does. On 4.2 ROMs it takes just few days to run out of free RAM for me. I already wiped my device and installed only realy needed apps (20 out of 140!!!) but it still happens.
I think this happen in any OS
A daily reboot is always a must in my opinion, to free ram, to stop some services, to stop wake locks, to stop battery drain without sense..
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 2
That's what always makes me ask : Is Gnex really have 1gb of memory?
Other phones with same spec. uses same OS have more than 693mb that in gnex , why the hell our phone has the lowest read ram in 1GB category phones
I'm sure this is the only weak-point in gnex
300MB is GPU reserved for camera.
madd0g said:
300MB is GPU reserved for camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I didn't engineer the device. But I presume it's a requirement by the GPU PowerVR chip, since it uses alot of RAM on the Nexus S, which had the same chip only downclocked. It was 330MB usable out of 512MB advertised there. The amount reserved is bigger on GN obviously because of HD video capture option.
madd0g said:
I didn't engineer the device. But I presume it's a requirement by the GPU PowerVR chip, since it uses alot of RAM on the Nexus S, which had the same chip only downclocked. It was 330MB usable out of 512MB advertised there. The amount reserved is bigger on GN obviously because of HD video capture option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree GPU shared system RAM, but 300MB is wayy too much bro. I checked my N4 it has 1.82GB of 2GB total considering N4 Adreno and camera chip is more powerful than i9250
It's (again probably) not because of the speed/power etc. but that it's like that by design. Adreno ain't the same as the one used on GN, so there's no comparison.
I'm sure Google didn't allocate that much memory just to screw us up, but instead there's a legit need for it. For instance, the amount of RAM available on a Galaxy S2 is much bigger, around 830-850MB out of 1 GB and it has a completely different camera/GPU combo, spite full HD video and 8 mpix instead of GNs 5. That's why I presume it's just PowerVRs "fault".
Perhaps, i just checked galaxy tab 2 ics available ram, it less than 700, but after flashed stock JB, it shows more RAM, about 770MB. Tab 2 uses OMAP and PowerVR right? Imho. i just curious why it reserves so much ram. Searched google and can't found the reason :S
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
*Update*
An galaxy S2 with all stock (Android 4.1.2) shows the same amount of used RAM after 10 days of uptime (380MB free and 380MB used - a nearly perfect 50/50 ratio). No sign of degradation so far. Honestly this phone is not used much but still it feels very different from what I see on my Gnex.
Has someone shorlty fully wiped and reflashed his phone to stock 4.2.2 (JDQ39). How does the RAM usage look like after fresh reboot?
RAM problem
This is what i get today. Using liquidsmooth 2.4 fraco kernel. But i know its not abut apps i use. I dont know where are all that RAM. After reboot with same apps runing in background i have 230-260MB free RAM. But if i using phone day or so it look like this.
Phone get laggy, slow with high latency. Im not sure if its 4.2.2 bug for Gnex or just some mess with ROM but its same on any custom ROM. ill try flash stock and see what i get.
castaway1 said:
This is what i get today. Using liquidsmooth 2.4 fraco kernel. But i know its not abut apps i use. I dont know where are all that RAM. After reboot with same apps runing in background i have 230-260MB free RAM. But if i using phone day or so it look like this.
Phone get laggy, slow with high latency. Im not sure if its 4.2.2 bug for Gnex or just some mess with ROM but its same on any custom ROM. ill try flash stock and see what i get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm experiencing the same problem with AXI0M and AK kernel.
castaway1 said:
This is what i get today. Using liquidsmooth 2.4 fraco kernel...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, this is exaclty what i was talking about... very frequent service restarts and laggy phone and even basic things like keyboard and music-playback can quit while in use. While I tried to compose an email to send a screenshot to my desktop to post it here my stock-mail-app died and the phone rebooted. At least I have now both an after reboot and an after two days of using PARANOID ROM screenshot
I recently switches to PARANOID 3.55 and now have even more issues as the phone boots with just 200MB free RAM. This ROM seems to demand very much RAM.
BTW. I installed Stock for more than a week before switching to PARANOID and had around 260MB free after booting and around 150MB free after some days of usage. Increase was ways lower than on any custom rom. Can anyone comment on this? Same or contrary stock-experience?
Stock JDQ39 rooted. (running one week)
kernel stock or lean both are perfect and have no affect RAM or smoothness. Screenshot is after some days of full usage. Battery life i getting is about 1day with 2h screen on.
now someone tell me that its not custom ROM problem. 4.2.2 stock is just awesome. Im sad that custom ROMs not..
castaway1 said:
Stock JDQ39 rooted. (running one week)
kernel stock or lean both are perfect and have no affect RAM or smoothness. Screenshot is after some days of full usage. Battery life i getting is about 1day with 2h screen on.
now someone tell me that its not custom ROM problem. 4.2.2 stock is just awesome. Im sad that custom ROMs not..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2h screen time is really bad..
But nice to know that stock works well for you..
Mach3.2 said:
2h screen time is really bad..
But nice to know that stock works well for you..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its average +/- 30min and for me its not so bad for 24h
castaway1 said:
its average +/- 30min and for me its not so bad for 24h
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as it makes your boat float, why not?
Beamed from my Grouper
castaway1 said:
Stock JDQ39 rooted. (running one week)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Next step would be to deodex this ROM and to try again because Stock is odexed in contrast to any custom rom. I realy would like to figure out the reason for this bad RAM usage on custom roms.
fajabird said:
Next step would be to deodex this ROM and to try again because Stock is odexed in contrast to any custom rom. I realy would like to figure out the reason for this bad RAM usage on custom roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes im on odexed rom. and im curious if deodexing some custom ROM will help with this. I think about slighty modified vanilla rascarlo ROM with kernel that work perfect lean 6.4 is smooth like stock and dont broke anything. Its deodexed rom so i can propably try THIS to odex it.
http://fitsnugly.euroskank.com/?rom=rasbeanjelly&device=maguro-vanilla
castaway1 said:
... im curious if deodexing some custom ROM will help with this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thing you ment odexing some custom ROM, right? I'm thinking about to try the odex-me apk you can find on XDA which will odex all apks from /system/app but leave the framework.jar stuff untouched. But its far more easy to deodex the stock ROM and to try again
I have been trying to figure out why the Note has so little of the 3 gb of ram available at any given time. After a fresh boot, I might have 1.3 - 1.5 available, but that quickly disappears.
I have frozen all unnecessary apps with Titanium Backup, yet after launching just a few apps, I'll be down to 300 mb or so. Looking at the active applications list in task manager, the apps listed are nowhere near to adding up to over a gb of ram.
Tablet seems to be performing fine, I'd just like to know where the ram is going and why. Especially when tablets with 2 gb of ram seem to have much more free at any given time.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
i am with you on this issue. would like to find out for my self as well! constantly having to clear ram.
youtube, gmail, and browers = 2.1 gb / 3 gb ...
what the heck?
i constantly have to go back and clear apps, this is such a let down because my htc one could load much more than this, and every1 knows, htc one is no where near the spec of note 2014..
I'm not rooted but I noticed the same thing with the ram, I thought rooting and freezing some Samsung apps, specially Knox stuff, would free up a lot of ram. I'm starting to think that it's not a big deal and Android frees up ram as needed before it starts to get laggy (of course it's not perfect). I think lag issues are somewhere else and not so much in freeing up more ram. Don't you feel anyway that your note is a lot faster after rooting and freezing those apps? As far as I know most rooted users feel that way...(?)
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I have rooted mine about two weeks ago then froze all sort of junk listed in here and some other I identified mysefl. Now my used ram remains around 500 clean and around 700-800 when I open few apps. So guys the secret is getting a lot of useless apps frozen especially knox stuff.
greyhulk said:
I have been trying to figure out why the Note has so little of the 3 gb of ram available at any given time. After a fresh boot, I might have 1.3 - 1.5 available, but that quickly disappears.
I have frozen all unnecessary apps with Titanium Backup, yet after launching just a few apps, I'll be down to 300 mb or so. Looking at the active applications list in task manager, the apps listed are nowhere near to adding up to over a gb of ram.
Tablet seems to be performing fine, I'd just like to know where the ram is going and why. Especially when tablets with 2 gb of ram seem to have much more free at any given time.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is based on Linux. Android and Linux both run better when they use as much ram as possible. If you Google Android ram usage you can find a couple of interesting articles about this.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
nrage23 said:
Android is based on Linux. Android and Linux both run better when they use as much ram as possible. If you Google Android ram usage you can find a couple of interesting articles about this.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, stuff is kept in the RAM as much as possible to increase performance. As soon as an app requires more RAM than is available, the system moves apps from the RAM as required. Clearing the RAM only increases the time it takes to start an app next time.
I would be disappointed if its NOT beeing used...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
delanvital said:
Yup, stuff is kept in the RAM as much as possible to increase performance. As soon as an app requires more RAM than is available, the system moves apps from the RAM as required. Clearing the RAM only increases the time it takes to start an app next time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People are used to Windows needing free ram and do realize that Linux is a completely different animal altogether.
Here is the article for those that want to understand the ram usage.
http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care
http://www.linuxatemyram.com/
Okay, guys. Disclaimer: I'm an IT professional and the Mobility expert for my company. I know how the RAM is used and why. I'm just curious as to what is using it. Especially in comparison to the Nexus 10, which has 2/3 of the RAM and has approximately the same amount available at any given time.
I wasn't looking for assurance that this is how it's supposed to work. I'm curious as to what you guys think is actually filling it up. Since I have disabled most unnecessary processes and only run a few apps at any given time, I can't see why so little is free.
greyhulk said:
... I'm curious as to what you guys think is actually filling it up. Since I have disabled most unnecessary processes and only run a few apps at any given time, I can't see why so little is free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The objective of good android RAM management is to keep RAM full of the the highest priority apps. This enables faster and smoother response. The apps that are in RAM on your device will be different than on someone else's device. If you are curious about how android decides what put in RAM and what to take out, do a google search on "android process lifecycle"
if you're concerned about ram usage go to dev settings and change the "Limit background processes" to something more you liking.
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
kanagawaben said:
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
graphO said:
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xda_husky said:
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kanagawaben said:
Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not what OP is saying, at all.
DanielKennethRego said:
That is not what OP is saying, at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
Hnk1 said:
The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
DanielKennethRego said:
...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes it's good to swallow some pride and in that there's more dignity. I explained everything from bits and pieces and I'm sure OP can conclude it unlike you.
Do not hesitate to quote me for any query. Always welcomed
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
aloy99 said:
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damian5000 said:
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
damian5000 said:
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your frustrations and it could be Asus related buy I think this is how chrome operates generally so it's the browser in my opinion. I suggest you use dolphin browser (not mini version) because it usually preloads pages on my devices and it is fast as well but I usually use it for flash support only. I prefer opera classic (now opera) on my phone with chrome . On my tab, I use chrome only. It always works for me and it's Asus made. Tell me what you think of it after using it a bit . I like chrome for its sync support which is very simple and helpful.
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
aloy99 said:
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are more worried about RAM that is left in your memory rather than actual performance. This can happen especially if you had very high expectations from this phone. According to ASUS, this is a midrange phone on their website. Not a flagship if you are hoping!
I suggest check the performance by installing some heavy graphic games and see if it lags or not. I am sure that would be the best way to find out!
Good Luck!
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
TOT_tomdora said:
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, thank you for finally making that point clear as it's the main reason, which clearly isn't Asus' fault.
pato2015 said:
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An ironic, yet awesome find pato!:thumbup: Be sure to relay this to the other places on the net that you're involved with that pertains to the Zenfone 2.
Sent from the Ace's MB865 using Tapatalk