Reported memory on Xperia M5 - ONLY 2.53Gb - NOT 3Gb?? - Sony Xperia M5

Hi all,
Hopefully not another self-inflicted silliness.
Is there any reason my unit does not report 3Gb of RAM?
You'll note that this is not just a 3000/1024 Base 2 type issue.
see attachments for info.

Yeah, I just noticed that too on my M5. A little investigation shows that the device includes 512MB of zram. So apparently the 3GB that is advertised is 2.5GB RAM + 0.5GB zram, not 3GB pure ram. I'm feeling a little cheated right now.

aidfarh said:
Yeah, I just noticed that too on my M5. A little investigation shows that the device includes 512MB of zram. So apparently the 3GB that is advertised is 2.5GB RAM + 0.5GB zram, not 3GB pure ram. I'm feeling a little cheated right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not cheating, it's just how the stock firmware was designed. Xperia M5 does have 3 GiB of RAM, but on stock firmware Sony decided to allocate 512MB of that to a RAM Disk, that's why you see only 2.5GB available. And that's actually a good thing, you can hold more apps in background that way, if the phone ever runs out of RAM it would just move some apps to the compressed RAM Disk instead of killing them, at cost of a slightly delay to go back to that app (CPU takes a while to compress/decompress what is stored on that RAM Disk).
A custom ROM could disable the RAM Disk entirely to make all 3GB of RAM usable or you could also compile stock kernel from source code to disable the RAM Disk too (so you could get all 3 GB available on stock ROM), however that would need an unlocked bootloader and thus, some proprietary features would cease to work...

mbc07 said:
That's not cheating, it's just how the stock firmware was designed. Xperia M5 does have 3 GiB of RAM, but on stock firmware Sony decided to allocate 512MB of that to a RAM Disk, that's why you see only 2.5GB available. And that's actually a good thing, you can hold more apps in background that way, if the phone ever runs out of RAM it would just move some apps to the compressed RAM Disk instead of killing them, at cost of a slightly delay to go back to that app (CPU takes a while to compress/decompress what is stored on that RAM Disk).
A custom ROM could disable the RAM Disk entirely to make all 3GB of RAM usable or you could also compile stock kernel from source code to disable the RAM Disk too (so you could get all 3 GB available on stock ROM), however that would need an unlocked bootloader and thus, some proprietary features would cease to work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, 512MB is the disksize of the RAM disk. Zram is compressed, so the actual RAM used is smaller. Right now, on my M5, with the zram fully used, the compressed size of zram (from /sys/block/zram0/compr_data_size) is only about 120 MB. 2.53 GB + 120 MB is only about 2.65 MB. There's still about 350 MB not accounted for.

aidfarh said:
But, 512MB is the disksize of the RAM disk. Zram is compressed, so the actual RAM used is smaller. Right now, on my M5, with the zram fully used, the compressed size of zram (from /sys/block/zram0/compr_data_size) is only about 120 MB. 2.53 GB + 120 MB is only about 2.65 MB. There's still about 350 MB not accounted for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So? The actual size of zRAM varies depending of what data get stored there (some data can be compressed more or less than other), and you're still not taking in consideration that the kernel itself allocates some RAM to it (all Android devices do that). In other words, you'll never get 3 GiB of usable RAM. Want some examples? Xperia Z2/Z3 also have 3 GB of RAM but only up to 2.76 GB can be actually used (and that would be even less if they had a RAM Disk like Xperia M5). You can also go to GeekBench or any other benchmarking app to see the results by yourself, the usable RAM of a given Android device is always less than its advertised RAM size...

Thanks both.
I might expect that 3Gb might actually only be 2.76Gb if they installed 3e9 rather than 3x2^30.
But are we saying therefore that the M range uses a zram drive and the Z range does not?
How can we check what the maximum zdrive setting is on this phone? There used to be a Google play app call zram status, but the Github version does not work on my phone.

icstm said:
But are we saying therefore that the M range uses a zram drive and the Z range does not?
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xperia M5 does use a zRAM Disk. Xperia M doesn't. Can't say anything about Xperia M2 and M4, didn't own those devices...
About Xperia Z series, I can confirm Z3 and Z3+ does not use a zRAM Disk. It's probably the same thing with Xperia Z2 since both Z2 and Z3 are very similar and even share the same firmware build number (like Z3+ and Z5 too)...

mbc07 said:
Xperia M5 does use a zRAM Disk. Xperia M doesn't. Can't say anything about Xperia M2 and M4, didn't own those devices...
About Xperia Z series, I can confirm Z3 and Z3+ does not use a zRAM Disk. It's probably the same thing with Xperia Z2 since both Z2 and Z3 are very similar and even share the same firmware build number (like Z3+ and Z5 too)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The M2 does use a zRAM disk.

Related

Xperia S RAM customization on Custom ROM Needed

i am currently using advance stock kernal but still the ram allotment is 635 i dont want z ram all those stuff as i need more ram when os can also take some space which is fine as the reserved ram is not used at all taking more space in the alloted memory still
I want a custom kernal which can allot atleast 750mb of ram to user when loaded as usual it take 350-400 still i have 350 which is fine for me.
But reserving some ram and not using to the core is not acceptable.
As many other companies does the same and they know 30-35 for OS and rest for user but i can see even xperia P it has 800 mb ram to user visibility and in Samsung galaxy s3 897 mb ram why xperia S along having a different setup. Dont tell Hardware reserve its not acceptable.
I would appreciate if any one guide on how to modify the ram .
Also i dont want any surprise that xperia doesnt have 1gb ram.
Those RAM you don't see is reserved for the rest of the device, specially GPU.
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

[Q] How increase RAM in JB..??

Hi All
after upgarde from GB to JB (either LEAK / Official), JB seemed Slow. whether to change the partitions on a flash PIT file MB2 / 4 can increase the RAM capacity in JB.
I found a thread where we can change it by using the application PIT "PIT_Magic".
but I do not understand how its use. if anyone can to using it please share...
Thanks
Original Thread PIT MAGIC
rozyid said:
Hi All
after upgarde from GB to JB (either LEAK / Official), JB seemed Slow. whether to change the partitions on a flash PIT file MB2 / 4 can increase the RAM capacity in JB.
I found a thread where we can change it by using the application PIT "PIT_Magic".
but I do not understand how its use. if anyone can to using it please share...
Thanks
Original Thread PIT MAGIC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cant do that!there is about 140MB unused ram in stock firmware. in order to increase ram and use full of it ,you sould have uncompiled kernel source and know android kernel programming and change it.
but always you can change your phone partition sizes through PIT Magic while falshing.
kernel source
sorset said:
You cant do that!there is about 140MB unused ram in stock firmware. in order to increase ram and use full of it ,you sould have uncompiled kernel source and know android kernel programming and change it.
but always you can change your phone partition sizes through PIT Magic while falshing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Sorset
maybe we can help to hafidzduddin to edit the kernel in order to read that we change the RAM to 1 GB .. ..
From where you flashing JB? From GB or JB XXMB4?
edit PIT to get 1gb RAM
ddikodroid said:
From where you flashing JB? From GB or JB XXMB4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from JB MB4
i just Edit PIT FILE on MB4 to get RAM 1 GB, but I have not dared to try it..
I am still gathering information about the RAM partition address....
1 GB? ~768MB is enough for me. Though i really think that it can't go over 700+MB.
1 Gb? WTF?
Our device doesn't have true ram? I thought that we have some sort of LDDR2 ram and it's quite different from it's flash NAND.
I think you can't go over installed 768 mb and you can't even reach this number because gpu also use the same ram.
I hope Samsung didn't put the ram on storage because it will wear out like hell. NAND it's not fast, not even prone to multiple write cycles.
Even if you're successful in increasing you ram, you will make something like swap partition on linux. But I highly doubt it will work.
Swap system is not used on mobile devices because NAND wears up too fast.
According to this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35222874&postcount=14
...we do not have LDDR2. There is only 4GB chip named UME300 (IC-NAND Flash Memory, 4 GB, SDIN5D2-4G-944L, BGA, P/N: 1107-002091)
It may be true regarding memory size of ACE 2:
system 1,2 + USB 1,1 + 0,768 + spare for dead cells = 4GB
SIII Mini for example have 1GB RAM and I/O and RAM operations are much much faster. Also there are no 768MB LDDR2 chips on market. Using emmc as low speed LDDR2 substitute is quite common in Samsung devices.
arroyo said:
According to this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35222874&postcount=14
...we do not have LDDR2. There is only 4GB chip named UME300 (IC-NAND Flash Memory, 4 GB, SDIN5D2-4G-944L, BGA, P/N: 1107-002091)
It may be true regarding memory size of ACE 2:
system 1,2 + USB 1,1 + 0,768 + spare for dead cells = 4GB
SIII Mini for example have 1GB RAM and I/O and RAM operations are much much faster. Also there are no 768MB LDDR2 chips on market. Using emmc as low speed LDDR2 substitute is quite common in Samsung devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought this was a joke at first when rozyid said we can increase our RAM
so it was 601MB system + 302MB cache + 1,2GB data + 1,1GB usb = ~3,2GB
It will make sense if the remaining is our "RAM"
if somehow someone able to increase this by resizing other partition (/cache maybe?) it would be really nice
And btw, what is the function of /cache? When I checked it using link2sd it wasn't used
But hey, didn't we used another partition /preload in JB? If I'm not wrong it was about 200MB, right? So then it be more than 4GB if we add it to previous calculation
Sent from my GT-I8160 using xda app-developers app
[Noob] For example wont decreasing the RAM on the device increase the "ram" allocated to the GPU thus increasing our gaming performance in any way?
S3 mini RAM score is only 10% faster in antutu, either S3 mini doesn't have true RAM or our device has one.
I think you've added up incorrectly here. 4GB is usually 3.7gb total.
Also, if you looked in the PDF's from one of the links above, you would notice we do in fact have LP-DDR2 ram...
arroyo said:
According to this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35222874&postcount=14
...we do not have LDDR2. There is only 4GB chip named UME300 (IC-NAND Flash Memory, 4 GB, SDIN5D2-4G-944L, BGA, P/N: 1107-002091)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was very confused when you wrote this. It's absolute non-sense to use NAND as RAM. It will wear in only one month.
They should have at least the most creepy ram, cache or something else that it can be re-writable.
You can have smooth gui with no RAM installed. It's impossible. You can't draw 20000 triangles per frame and having decent framerates without having a ram that it's capable of speed near 1 Gb/s ...
Also usually memory came in banks, 256 Mb banks were usual in the past, so puting 3 banks can give you 768 MB.
@Jamielawther
I would love that fact to be truth, but this diagram is not hardware schematic. It is logical diagram how things push data between elements. Move couple pages further and try to find element for LP-DDR2 on PCB. I did not found one. Also in document 05-GT-I8160-EPLIS-11.pdf you have the list of electrical parts. I did not found SEC Code for anything that could be LP-DDR2.
@veaceslaw
Take a look at PCB in 08-GT-I8160-TSHOO-7.pdf. There are no 3 ram chips there. In fact there is only one 4GB. If they used emmc as a RAM, it won't die in one month. Probably it last for 2 years or more ... after warranty it may die.
In my PC, SSD disk is used as TEMP and cache memory for last 2 years. Still running flawlessly. Every ROM chip has some space left for spare blocks to be used as a replacement for died blocks.
arroyo said:
@veaceslav
Take a look at PCB in 08-GT-I8160-TSHOO-7.pdf. There are no 3 ram chips there. In fact there is only one 4GB. If they used emmc as a RAM, it won't die in one month. Probably it last for 2 years or more ... after warranty it may die.
In my PC, SSD disk is used as TEMP and cache memory for last 2 years. Still running flawlessly. Every ROM chip has some space left for spare blocks to be used as a replacement for died blocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you find the U8500 chip?
veaceslav said:
Can you find the U8500 chip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UCP300
arroyo said:
UCP300
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/t-1363562.html
UCP 300 is RF chip and I don't know what rf is, but it's in GT i9100 and I don't think i9100 have Novathor
if you do it guys it would be awesome
because all good games with best graphics lags
i even dont want to get back to this ugly outdated gingerbread
arroyo said:
@Jamielawther
I would love that fact to be truth, but this diagram is not hardware schematic. It is logical diagram how things push data between elements. Move couple pages further and try to find element for LP-DDR2 on PCB. I did not found one. Also in document 05-GT-I8160-EPLIS-11.pdf you have the list of electrical parts. I did not found SEC Code for anything that could be LP-DDR2.
@veaceslaw
Take a look at PCB in 08-GT-I8160-TSHOO-7.pdf. There are no 3 ram chips there. In fact there is only one 4GB. If they used emmc as a RAM, it won't die in one month. Probably it last for 2 years or more ... after warranty it may die.
In my PC, SSD disk is used as TEMP and cache memory for last 2 years. Still running flawlessly. Every ROM chip has some space left for spare blocks to be used as a replacement for died blocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone bothered to look through the documentation?
If you check 08-GT-I8160-TSHOO-7.pdf on the first page you can see the block diagram and there you can see stated LP-DDR2.
Check the attached picture.
If same chip is being used as RAM, then what is the benefit of moving data from on part of same memory to another? Won't that reduce io speed, cos I thought the purpose of RAM is to speed up data access for CPU from normally slower data storage eg. Hard drive.
Sent from my GT-I8160 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Kernels, Phone Setup, RAM, Scripts

Hey guys!
I noticed in the specifications of this phone, it claims to have 0.50gb of RAM (512mb) However all your kernels are around 370 of under?
Is this mistake in the specifications or are you lowering Ram for some strange reason unknown to me?
I'm using liquid smooth build#2 at the moment, but i'm only getting around 99mb free Ram.. I don't know why but it seems the Phone has less Ram then i initially thought.. However, i don't have any scripts going at the moment, i don't need battery, so any " and it's good on battery " will be respectively ignored.
I have looked around but not really found a decent enough set up for this phone yet.. Can someone please recommend me a kernel for 4.2.2 which is fast, and responsive, but also one with good Ram?
And can someone recommend some scripts worth using with this Phone? Again, don't go on about battery or SD life or phone life, idc about it, it's a spare phone..
Thanks in advance guys, could you provide me with links as well if it's not too much trouble? I prefer being directed straight to the point so i don't end up using the wrong Kernel/script..
Edit1: I'm not changing Rom. At all. unless you get an updated Carbon or 4.3.
Penguin450 said:
Hey guys!
I noticed in the specifications of this phone, it claims to have 0.50gb of RAM (512mb) However all your kernels are around 370 of under?
Is this mistake in the specifications or are you lowering Ram for some strange reason unknown to me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems noone is willing to reply, but this probably because some searching and logical thinking would answer your questions. So since you are not willing to do it yourself others don´t mind replying to you.
So well I don´t use any scripts but regarding RAM size think about it. If you buy a PC with lets say 2GB installed RAM. Will you get also 2GB free ram by running an Operating System on it?
honeyx said:
Seems noone is willing to reply, but this probably because some searching and logical thinking would answer your questions. So since you are not willing to do it yourself others don´t mind replying to you.
So well I don´t use any scripts but regarding RAM size think about it. If you buy a PC with lets say 2GB installed RAM. Will you get also 2GB free ram by running an Operating System on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were to purchase 2gb of ram likelyhood is you will recieve 1.59+- usable Ram, free Ram would be totally different, however the way it was presented, and the way i portrayed it was thet the Ramdisk of the kernel was at 370+-, rather then 512.. I'm using a Desire C, which is running CM10 with 300mb free ram, with a 512mb ram disk, whereas with hurtskys kernel 3.0.x i get 99mb free? on 4.2.2 on my golfu i got 270mb free ram, and that was a Rom of 250mb+ and it's only at 767mhz.. yet seems smoother then the SGW? :s On paper it should be the other way around..
dun think u should worry about free ram.
android is based on linux, linux memory concept is different from other OS.
it something like " free memory is waste memory".
memory is always filled and hold so tat it wont waste time to reload.
if need more memory, system will free memory for other usage.
maybe this will help explain better, http://www.linuxatemyram.com/
Penguin450 said:
If you were to purchase 2gb of ram likelyhood is you will recieve 1.59+- usable Ram, free Ram would be totally different, however the way it was presented, and the way i portrayed it was thet the Ramdisk of the kernel was at 370+-, rather then 512.. I'm using a Desire C, which is running CM10 with 300mb free ram, with a 512mb ram disk, whereas with hurtskys kernel 3.0.x i get 99mb free? on 4.2.2 on my golfu i got 270mb free ram, and that was a Rom of 250mb+ and it's only at 767mhz.. yet seems smoother then the SGW? :s On paper it should be the other way around..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should first read what a ramdisk is. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ramdisk
The 270+MB in hurtskys or my kernel is the real RAM aviable. The rest is reserved for the ROM, camera, drivers and processes to work correctly.

[Q] 2Gb Vs 3Gb RAM

Hey!
Would like to know if it is noticeble the difference between the LG G3 the version of 3Gb of RAM from the 2Gb of RAM.
Any one have tested or know?
Thanks.
G3 uses 1.5 gb of ram at all times, so if you get the 2 gb version itll always be pretty close to the ceiling
nohcho said:
G3 uses 1.5 gb of ram at all times, so if you get the 2 gb version itll always be pretty close to the ceiling
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'One' of the main reasons I got the G3 was that it has 3GB ram. Most modern phones are pretty similar in terms of speed but memory makes a big difference. You can get by with 2gb but 3GB is much better and makes it much more future proof.
If you are using dual window for all apps through the little mod, you are less likely to have issues with running low on memory.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
Currently it doesn't really matter - Android 4.4 requires only 512 MB.
The reason why a device with much RAM shows a high RAM usage is that Android considers empty/unused RAM to be wasted. As long as there is RAM available it will fill it with apps. It doesn't require additional battery power to keep a currently unused app in the RAM, it even saves power (and time) at the app's next usage because instead of loading the app it just needs to shove it to the front.
There is a defined amount of RAM that is kept empty for instantaneous usage, but everything else will get filled - provided that there are enough apps to fill it with. Android's memory management keeps track of your app usage. Apps that are used regularly get a high priority, seldom used apps a low one. If the system runs out of memory it will close low priority apps, beginning with those that haven't been used for the longest amount of time.
The only difference between 2 GB and 3 GB is that more seldom used apps can be held in the RAM. Under normal circumstances you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between 2 GB and 3 GB. About half of the devices shipped with KitKat still only have 1 GB.
Android L will probably require 1 GB - and with the 64bit support it might even result in devices with more than 4 GB of RAM. But that will be just for marketing, not because there is a technical need. Same as now with the 3 GB devices.
But I have to admit: I am a sucker for specs as well. I think about buying a G3 and since the surcharge for the 32 GB flash and the 3 GB RAM is only about 10% if will most likely go for the bigger one. I try to hide being suckered with the argument that 32 GB of flash are a lot better than 16 GB. - RAM? There is a difference in RAM sizes?

How to increase Internal,Ram

Hey guys I have a Xperia s running on 6.0.1 aosp ROM...it is rooted and repartitioned ...can anyone tell me how to get the complete 32gb and 1gb ram coz the custom ROM has eaten my 3gb internal and I need full 1gb ram ..thks
Have you ever used a computer before?
The OS needs resources, it's a piece of software after all. The GPU will, in turn take some RAM, as it's not exactly a GeForce with dedicated RAM.
In other words, the only way you're getting 32 GB and 1 GB of RAM is if you uninstall everything, including the OS. Good luck doing anything with it other than holding down some sheets of paper or balancing a table.

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