[Q] Excessive RAM Usage? - ZenFone 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi Folks,
I've got the ZE551ML 2.3Ghz/4GB RAM/ 64GB ROM/ USA Version.
I picked up this phone mainly because of the 4GB RAM- I'm sure many of you did the same.
I multitask a lot and would rather not have to quit/close apps and let the memory management handle that.
I've noticed that the default RAM use by the phone (immediately after bootup), is TOO high (about 2GB used), with no background apps but a few background processes running (your FB/ Messenger/ Whatsapp/ Twitter - not too many, just these).
Have noticed that opening several 'light' apps (non- CPU/GPU/RAM intensive apps, fills up the RAM usage significantly). Last night, with less than 50MB free RAM left, the phone froze up and re-booted. This is a sign of very bad coding. Shouldn't the OS be able to kill tasks that have not been recently run to free up RAM?
Do any of you face similar issues? What are your workarounds? I'm aware that ZenUI is extremely RAM intensive itself.
P.S I am aware of 'Memory Leaking Issues'

I get the same. It starts using around 2GB. I had also noticed some apps, like WhatsApp/Snapchat growing to consume 4-500MB over time. That said, it has never froze up on me. I didn't notice Zen UI taking up a lot of RAM at any point, but I started using Nova pretty early on and have frozen most of the ASUS/Zen stuff through Titanium. I'd suggest you root it, if you haven't already, and start freezing out apps you don't use/prevent apps from auto-starting. That helps a lot.
Even leaving 2GB to start with, that's a ton of RAM for multi-tasking, unless you're using especially RAM-intensive apps (aside from the leaking issue). As for a fix, I'm not aware of any yet. We're all pretty much waiting for a new update so we get 5.1.x, where the leak is fixed. Even better, waiting for an AOSP/CM ROM to be released so we can be done with this ASUS stuff to begin with. IIRC there is an Xposed module for the memory leak issue, but last I read it wasn't working (for this device at least).
There must have been some optimizations made with the most recent two updates because the apps I noticed issues with before aren't consuming anywhere near as much RAM as before. WhatsApp/Snapchat are currently using ~220MB combined, whereas before it could get close to 1GB.

Thanks for the Reply.
I'd love to Root the device but unfortunately with corporate email and Mobile-Iron, this is an impossibility. (Consequently even Mobile Iron hogs a portion of the RAM).
Considering that a lot of devices even being released at the moment have 2GB RAM and this is allocated to System resources as well as back-grounded apps. How do those companies manage the memory in half the RAM as the ZF2 (considering they would also face similar memory leak issues)

If you are thinking of RAM usage from a Windows user's perspective, you might be feeling this way. There is no harm in RAM being used. In fact Linux or Android loves caches so much that they fill it up most of the time. And since we have 4GB, why not fill up about 3GB? If a device has lower memory altogether, say 1GB, it will only fill up about 700MB. But of course the memory leaks in 5.0 cause major irregularities.
Bottom line is RAM hogging isn't really an "issue" as far as i am concerned. The issue would be if the RAM does not get released for important tasks and the device starts to lag. But I don't see this happening, so why complain right? However this is just my opinion.

after updating to 2.19.40 my phone also started to consume a lot of ram .....even goes to 645 mb free sometimes

That's perfectly fine. Free RAM is wasted RAM. The OS wants to keep about 500MB or more free because beyond that you do experience slowdown. Above that, it's all gravy.
The system generously allocates that much RAM to itself because it can and to ensure core processes and ZenUI don't slow down. Android caches aggressively so switching between apps will be faster.

Auto-start Manager and Clean Master app, can help free up RAM
Sincerely,
ASUS_USA

Related

[Q] Why no ones talk about the lag cause by Insufficient memory

I notice the phone start lagging when there are less than 100Meg of available RAM on both 2.1 or 2.2 SGS.
Questions....
1. How do i make sure there will always be min 130 available when not in use?
I'm currently using Froyo Task Manager, ATK and SystemPanel together to make that happen manually. A better suggestion or use of them will be appreciated.
I also tried MemoryPlus and Taskkiller (The red android logo)
2. There are so many background service running some of them start with com.samsung.... (what are these?) do we need them?
3. Why some Apps always run without us telling them to run, or ask us to give them to permission to run on background at will?
ATK
In ATK in settings you have auto kill level, which is disabled on default.
jakaka said:
In ATK in settings you have auto kill level, which is disabled on default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using JPC, ATK autokill will not able to kill at a system level like SystemPanel, so after a day of active use, the memory will still continue to reduce as some of the background service start consuming more and more memory or run more background process. E.g. Touchwiz from 17 Meg to 25 Meg.
So at the start with ATK, i will have 130Meg, after a day of active use i left with 80Meg. With Apps killed.
I use autokiller set to aggressive. memory left 152mb
ivanchin99 said:
I use autokiller set to aggressive. memory left 152mb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, does that remain for few days? How often do you restart your phone?
free memory is bad memory!
why don't let android do it's job?! this ist linux with a clever memory management, not windows 95!!! deinstall all auto task killer android is handling the memory very well. it uses all it can get and if it's not enough it kills old uses apps from it. why have free memory, there is absolutely no reson for that! ram is fast, let the often used apps be there not on slow sd or nand!
Mykron said:
free memory is bad memory!
why don't let android do it's job?! this ist linux with a clever memory management, not windows 95!!! deinstall all auto task killer android is handling the memory very well. it uses all it can get and if it's not enough it kills old uses apps from it. why have free memory, there is absolutely no reson for that! ram is fast, let the often used apps be there not on slow sd or nand!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
QFT!
What is the point of having memory if it is constantly empty?
Think about it this way...If you had five friends at your house and you have five chairs, do you make 2 or 3 of your friends stand so there is always empty space or do you let everyone sit down and worry about something worthwhile?
Finguz said:
QFT!
What is the point of having memory if it is constantly empty?
Think about it this way...If you had five friends at your house and you have five chairs, do you make 2 or 3 of your friends stand so there is always empty space or do you let everyone sit down and worry about something worthwhile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, upto a certain point... I don't think you need to have at least 100 or 150 mb free but it DOES seem to help to not let it get down to like 30mb...
For me:
-JM7
-animations off
-voodoo lag fix
-minfree manager set to preset agressive.
minfree manager customizes the android memory management system.
I love it this way, No lags when starting the Phone (DIALER) or anything else. The dialer annoys me the must, this must be lag free, if i want to dial i want to dial right away.
Btw, I think you have made some wrong assumptions about the Android memory management system, as mentioned, unused ram is wasted ram.
dagrim1 said:
True, upto a certain point... I don't think you need to have at least 100 or 150 mb free but it DOES seem to help to not let it get down to like 30mb...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed but I have never seen my Galaxy with free memory that low and I don't use a task killer. Of course I don't often have more than 3 or 4 apps running at the same time
This is not about letting ram do nothing.you surely don't wasn't your ram get used up by programs you don't want while you had no hand in this.All those services running I don't want.badly written programs that are hanging out in memory instead of closing.at least in symbian an app closed when you exited.
Why would you have 100MB free ? Do you have any application that needs 100MB to run ?! The android system already has enough memory to run so even if you could have 200MB of free memory you phone wouldn't run any faster you would just be able to lauch around 20 apps at the same time.
Read this:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Linux however isn’t generally affected by this. While I admit that I don’t know the architecture and reason for this… linux will run the same regardless of if you have 20mb free memory or 200mb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finguz said:
Agreed but I have never seen my Galaxy with free memory that low and I don't use a task killer. Of course I don't often have more than 3 or 4 apps running at the same time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dunno, I just noticed that one time my phone was VERY sluggish and memory free was around 20mb or so. Cleaning it up did seem to help (unless one of the programs killed was causing the lag of course).
Ah well... Whatever people choose right?
You guys can argue all you want that free RAM is a waste of RAM....
But it is a fact that the SGS runs much slower when the free RAM is low. This is the experience of all the SGS'es I have tried and my own as well. At least this is the case when running 2.1. I have not tested anyone with 2.2 yet.
It s starts to lag when memory is below 40 mb. So when it s low and you start an application it starts to lag. I set it to 50-55-60 and got hardly any lag. No need to keep so much free ram
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
matty___ said:
It s starts to lag when memory is below 40 mb. So when it s low and you start an application it starts to lag. I set it to 50-55-60 and got hardly any lag. No need to keep so much free ram
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ROM are you using? as the low memory killer level for background apps is set at 40M which means you should have 40M free all the time or it will start killing background apps. This is also why task killers are useless, free ram is wasted ram for android.
I never had the experience that more free RAM is faster, perhaps with the stock rom but JC and upwards are all good by default. Animations off + Oneclick lagfix (or another) and the phone stays totally lag free.
Being an android user for 1,5 years now i'm very confident Taskkillers are useless except when an app is stuck. I've had periods where I used them allot but the phone only gets slower as the killed apps have to be loaded into the memory again.
Finguz said:
QFT!
What is the point of having memory if it is constantly empty?
Think about it this way...If you had five friends at your house and you have five chairs, do you make 2 or 3 of your friends stand so there is always empty space or do you let everyone sit down and worry about something worthwhile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Provided you are not expecting anymore friends. The problem happens if all your 5 friends are happily seated and along comes 2 more friends a-visiting. So you have to now move 2 inactive (for want of a better word) friends out of the seats so that you can accommodate the 2 new ones. This takes time. So why not move these friends out as soon as they become inactive so that the space is readily available when someone comes calling?
Try to have a read about garbage collector before argueing about free memory.
The more you try to have a large amount of memory, the more you will need major GC (and during major GC all activity is frozen).
If you let the system manage memory, it does minor GC as needed when it reaches min memory waterline (seems to be 50Mo on SGS).
Let the system do its job.
Get rid of task killer.
Mykron said:
free memory is bad memory!
why don't let android do it's job?! this ist linux with a clever memory management, not windows 95!!! deinstall all auto task killer android is handling the memory very well. it uses all it can get and if it's not enough it kills old uses apps from it. why have free memory, there is absolutely no reason for that! ram is fast, let the often used apps be there not on slow sd or nand!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely disagree. OK, it is better to use memory, but the android memory management is extremely inefficient since it does not know which foreground and background processes are important to the user and which are not, even though it tries to figure that out. Since the Galaxy S does not allow the system to use the full 512MB of memory, this can be a critical factor. And the Galaxy S definitely lags massively when less then 70 or so MB of free RAM is available this is definitely a fact.
The biggest problem is that you cannot manually close apps and only have multitasking access to the last 6 apps used. If you use 7 apps simultaneously, the 1st app still consumes memory but you cannot even switch back to it. And there are so many useless background processes, starting up over and over again and consuming hundreds of MB memory if they are not killed in regular fashion.
Who needs gesture search, amazon mp3, layar, and all the samsung crap running in the background all the time. If you only have 10 such applications and each of them only consumes 15MB of ram, 150MB are wasted for nothing.
Every second market application registers itself as autostart on every boot, so to use a autostart manager is also mandatory.
Since everybody can easily develop for Android the application quality and resource efficiency is not always perfect. So in my opinion Android needs a task manager, this is why even Samsung integrates such a application.
Using a well configured ATK (set to ignore system applications, widgets and apps frequently used for multitasking and killing every else on screen off) and autokiller (strict setting) in addition to Autostart Manager (had to remove 40!!! useless apps from automatic startup) and lagfix, the SGS runs perfectly smooth.

Using a lot of RAM... for some reason?

Ok so I was running an app to check on CPU speeds (unrelated research) when I noticed that this same app was saying I only had 340mb of RAM free...
This seemed a bit strange, considering this tablet has 3GB of RAM on board, and I'm not really running anything at the moment.
I went into the storage setting page, and looked at running processes, and it says that I am using 2.5GB of my RAM.
but... if I add up all the ram usage on all the running processes, it only adds up to about 500mb....
So what is using up the other 2gb?
If anyone has any suggestions, it'd be nice, as at the moment it seems I only have 1gb of usable RAM in this device...
EDIT:
Nevermind, I think I solved it... sort of. I found that the ram clearing button is in a different place than I remember, and I have managed to clear out some more space... though even after a full reset 1.5gb of ram is immediately being used. Seems a lot.
Though this is a stock rom etc so I suspect thats normal.
electrical tcfpain
nirurin said:
Ok so I was running an app to check on CPU speeds (unrelated research) when I noticed that this same app was saying I only had 340mb of RAM free...
This seemed a bit strange, considering this tablet has 3GB of RAM on board, and I'm not really running anything at the moment.
I went into the storage setting page, and looked at running processes, and it says that I am using 2.5GB of my RAM.
but... if I add up all the ram usage on all the running processes, it only adds up to about 500mb....
So what is using up the other 2gb?
If anyone has any suggestions, it'd be nice, as at the moment it seems I only have 1gb of usable RAM in this device...
EDIT:
Nevermind, I think I solved it... sort of. I found that the ram clearing button is in a different place than I remember, and I have managed to clear out some more space... though even after a full reset 1.5gb of ram is immediately being used. Seems a lot.
Though this is a stock rom etc so I suspect thats normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably aren't using all 2.5GB for actual running programs.
Windows 7 does a great job of managing money. If it has any unused memory it will hold often used programs or data in memory in case it's needed. If a running program needs that memory it's quickly shifted. Otherwise when you reopen that program you recently closed, it may load quickly from memory rather than from the drive. I suspect Android does things similar.
Modern systems programmers consider "free" memory to be wasted, so they put it to the best use they can anticipate. That gives you the benefit of all memory as often as possible. If they only allowed the memory to be used for what's needed right now, your Note would only have about 1 GB memory, and would be considerably slower.
It's a little like having the cook wash your car while waiting three hours for the turkey to cook. You get both the turkey and the car wash.
jnichols2 said:
You probably aren't using all 2.5GB for actual running programs.
Windows 7 does a great job of managing money. If it has any unused memory it will hold often used programs or data in memory in case it's needed. If a running program needs that memory it's quickly shifted. Otherwise when you reopen that program you recently closed, it may load quickly from memory rather than from the drive. I suspect Android does things similar.
Modern systems programmers consider "free" memory to be wasted, so they put it to the best use they can anticipate. That gives you the benefit of all memory as often as possible. If they only allowed the memory to be used for what's needed right now, your Note would only have about 1 GB memory, and would be considerably slower.
It's a little like having the cook wash your car while waiting three hours for the turkey to cook. You get both the turkey and the car wash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you mean android, not windows 7
Though I imagine both do the same thing lol
nirurin said:
I'm guessing you mean android, not windows 7
Though I imagine both do the same thing lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Windows 7 as an example because I know how it works. Like you, I imagine Android 4.3 does the same thing.
I was wondering about this as well. On my Note 2, when I clean the ram, it will go to 480-500 / 1.75g on this tab, ext I could get is 1.33/2.75.......
I went through and turned off a lot of the apps, it helped free up a little bit.
Does anyone have a list of the apps that are safe to turn off?
:beer:
Sent from my SM-P600 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
I have LTE version with Snapdragon and when I start the tablet, it uses about 890MB of 2,35GB available (yes, it has 3GB RAM, but graphic processor uses some of this RAM)... When it loads all apps to RAM (about 50 of them, we know android do this) and I start few apps(FB, Gmail, Chrome, Hangouts for example), I still use only about 1,3GB of RAM... So almost 1GB is still free
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
ddavtian said:
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Android is a mobile OS which means that it can backup and restore not needed apps if necessary and the 3GB are only the runtime memory beside this it can use the whole internal memory for "running" apps. So long Android got enough memory it holds all apps in memory which speed up the whole device. Therefore it is positive that the Note use his whole 3GB memory and don't think that killing apps or free memory will be a good idea. It will slow your device and produce lags.
ddavtian said:
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Elim said:
+1
Android is a mobile OS which means that it can backup and restore not needed apps if necessary and the 3GB are only the runtime memory beside this it can use the whole internal memory for "running" apps. So long Android got enough memory it holds all apps in memory which speed up the whole device. Therefore it is positive that the Note use his whole 3GB memory and don't think that killing apps or free memory will be a good idea. It will slow your device and produce lags.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are both right. Android is based on linux. Linux uses ram very effectively to cache apps and data to speed up your system. When something needs ram it removes a different app or data from the ram to keep moving. It works totally different from Windows. Check out this article.
http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care
Every day since Android came out someone asks this question somewhere... Is Google offline?
Sent from my SM-P605 using XDA Premium HD app
If you want to change how your ram is managed, and you have root, you can use the v6 supercharger or a simple minfree setting app. V6 is in the developer section of the general android forum on this site. I've found that m ram fills up from cached apps. V6 will let you auto clear however often you want.

High memory being use

After installed few apps to the new oppo find 7a, the memory in use constantly stay at over 1GB and only 300-400MB available. anyone else has the similar issue? even close all the recent apps doesn't seem to increase the memory available. is it ROM/OS related issue?
I got 1,23Go RAM used for 542Mo available after clearing recent apps.
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
seanpr123 said:
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply. it's just my OCD...i always wanna see more memory available than in use...
Just as Sean said, unused ram is useless ram.
It's all about access speed, the more data you store in ram the more content is quickly available.
Flash memory has an average transfer rate of 5 to 7mb/s while ram has an average transfer rate of several gb/s.
The difference in speed here is very noticeable and the main reason why recent android versions (or Linux in general) caches so much data in ram.
Long story short, the more ram is in use, the faster your phone gets.
400mb is basically the safety threshold that it keeps unoccupied just to be sure it has some left in case of an emergency (you trying to open content that isn't already cached).
Gesendet von meinem MI 2 mit Tapatalk
seanpr123 said:
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I don't reboot my Xperia Z for a few days it ends up with like 170mb of free ram and loses its power to multi task and the phone because laggy as hell lol >_>
That's a different issue I would say.
The services occupying the ram should give up caching memory once a newcomer requires ram.
This changes nothing about the fact that, if it's done right, caching is the way to go.
Probably a bugged software component rather than an broken ideal.
Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk
MrColdbird said:
That's a different issue I would say.
The services occupying the ram should give up caching memory once a newcomer requires ram.
This changes nothing about the fact that, if it's done right, caching is the way to go.
Probably a bugged software component rather than an broken ideal.
Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after 2-3 days of use, i find that the free (unused) RAM are actually not a problem, doesn't matter there is 300MB left or 600MB left, i can hardly tell the difference. but the most important thing is, the experience is very smooth and running well, no laggy. i'm actually very impressed. i think OPPO did a great job on managing background apps and optimizing user experience on the find 7a here!

RAM usage

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

What is eating all the S6 edge memory?

My last phone, the G3, has 3 GB of RAM. The G3 runs Lollipop perfectly. The S6 edge has 3 GB of RAM and there's never any of it. I understand that there's a very aggressive low memory killer but it is ridiculous that a top of the line phone needs to reclaim my podcast app or Audible while they're playing. There should be a ton of free memory and a ton of cached apps in it but the memory is full and there is nothing cached. I've never been so frustrated with a phone. I spend a lot of time sighing at it when it does something stupid. Anyway, if anyone knows where this mysterious memory is being used, please chime in.
There are suspicions that it could be related to the touchwiz launcher, try a different launcher just for the heck of it and see how it goes.
Pp.
gunslingerfry said:
My last phone, the G3, has 3 GB of RAM. The G3 runs Lollipop perfectly. The S6 edge has 3 GB of RAM and there's never any of it. I understand that there's a very aggressive low memory killer but it is ridiculous that a top of the line phone needs to reclaim my podcast app or Audible while they're playing. There should be a ton of free memory and a ton of cached apps in it but the memory is full and there is nothing cached. I've never been so frustrated with a phone. I spend a lot of time sighing at it when it does something stupid. Anyway, if anyone knows where this mysterious memory is being used, please chime in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi gunslingerfry,
I was just reading about this on forbes. Here is what their author says to explain the poor memory usage and how to fix it "What should happen is RAM used by apps and services is released when those apps and services are not in use. Instead it is not being released which means each new app or service has to eat into additional memory until there is no more available, at which point the slowdowns and crashes begin.
The only half solutions at present are a) to hit the ‘Close All’ button in the multitasking card menu to dismiss all apps to try and claw some memory back, or b) to reboot the device. Interestingly the latter is expected to have helped keep the issue under the radar in reviews as performance testing is always done from a fresh boot."
So it sounds like you are sort of out of luck for now, but I am sure there will be some update that fixes the issue shortly.
I'm experiencing this myself but apps that I reopen from the multitask window have to reload and I lose where I was previously.. Very annoying to say the least.
Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk
PanchoPlanet said:
There are suspicions that it could be related to the touchwiz launcher, try a different launcher just for the heck of it and see how it goes.
Pp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never use the TW launcher because I don't enjoy using it. I use Action Launcher. It's very lightweight.
Goldmeyer said:
Hi gunslingerfry,
I was just reading about this on forbes. Here is what their author says to explain the poor memory usage and how to fix it "What should happen is RAM used by apps and services is released when those apps and services are not in use. Instead it is not being released which means each new app or service has to eat into additional memory until there is no more available, at which point the slowdowns and crashes begin.
The only half solutions at present are a) to hit the ‘Close All’ button in the multitasking card menu to dismiss all apps to try and claw some memory back, or b) to reboot the device. Interestingly the latter is expected to have helped keep the issue under the radar in reviews as performance testing is always done from a fresh boot."
So it sounds like you are sort of out of luck for now, but I am sure there will be some update that fixes the issue shortly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Goldmeyer, this doesn't explain why it's 75% utilized on boot but with no running apps (according to the smart manager app). I've tried the build.prop tweaks posted around here and there is a significant difference. Smart manager reports there are dozens of apps being pre-loaded on boot (which is normal, this is what we want!) but with the same 75% utilized. Those tweaks tended to lag the device after a couple hours, which may be a manifestation of what the Forbes article is referring to. So I guess the thing I don't get, and maybe a better understanding of what the dha/lmk values that are being tweaked would help, is what is currently allocating all that excess memory? Is TW just allocating ridiculous amounts of memory to make sure it runs smoothly? Is Android hoarding it for its own uses? And if so, how can any device with less than 3 GB of ram possibly function on Lollipop?
On a much more technical note, I understand that running 64 bit means using a little more ram. Addresses are twice the size and integers will be twice the size but that doesn't explain 2.3 GB. It shouldn't be loading the entire system partition into ram.

Categories

Resources