As the days go on I feel like I'm using more RAM doing the same tasks. I haven't changed anything really and I went from having 1.03 free to now having 900ish free. What's up with that? And what's the point of 2GB if 1 of it will be used almost all the time. I know this is stock and rooting and removing bloatware will help, but this is crazy for stock isn't it?
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
Unused ram is wasted ram.
Android does a fine job with ram utilization. That's why most of the veterans of Android device will always tell you that Task Killers are a big no-no. There are very good articles regarding this, sorry don't have a link but try to do a google search.
the purpose of having additional RAM is so that i can be used.
I'm running the Base v.5 and often have around 850M to 1G free.
Don't worry about it. Android OS is based on Linux, and as such it's very efficient in memory utilization, unlike Windows.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda premium
Ok, I've just never understood how unused RAM is a bad thing. I always thought having free RAM was what you wanted. So should I even bother occasionally clearing RAM through the built in task manager? Won't these things drain my battery if I don't?
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
they shouldn't have any noticeable impact. they should go into a very low usage mode...kinda like a sleep. if needed the app can resume quickly...if more RAM is needed, then the system will close these "sleeping" apps. i'd allow the system to manage your RAM.
back in the early days of Android there was a good reason to use task killers, but that is not the case in the newer devices. you can use the task manager to kill an app that's hung up or whatnot, but i'd suggest trying to break yourself of that habit....let the system do it's thing for a week or so and see how it goes.
btw...you want enough memory so that apps can do what they need to do when you want them to do it. so yeah, having a lil extra is a good thing but that's only because of "burst usage". if you run at 95% utilization most of the time, then when you have a sudden burst of activity your device may not have enough spare memory to use. but if your at 50% utilization you're fine.
DraginMagik said:
they shouldn't have any noticeable impact. they should go into a very low usage mode...kinda like a sleep. if needed the app can resume quickly...if more RAM is needed, then the system will close these "sleeping" apps. i'd allow the system to manage your RAM.
back in the early days of Android there was a good reason to use task killers, but that is not the case in the newer devices. you can use the task manager to kill an app that's hung up or whatnot, but i'd suggest trying to break yourself of that habit....let the system do it's thing for a week or so and see how it goes.
btw...you want enough memory so that apps can do what they need to do when you want them to do it. so yeah, having a lil extra is a good thing but that's only because of "burst usage". if you run at 95% utilization most of the time, then when you have a sudden burst of activity your device may not have enough spare memory to use. but if your at 50% utilization you're fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks that cleared it up for me.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
Related
The Atrix has 1GB of RAM, so I'd expect a good portion of that to be free at all times. But that's not the case. With normal usage I usually only have about 180 MB free. Even after killing everything with Advanced Task Killer, I only have about 230 MB free. This doesn't seem much better than most other Android phones. What's eating up my RAM? I am running a live wallpaper, but I'd still expect 1GB to go a very long way.
MdX MaxX said:
The Atrix has 1GB of RAM, so I'd expect a good portion of that to be free at all times. But that's not the case. With normal usage I usually only have about 180 MB free. Even after killing everything with Advanced Task Killer, I only have about 230 MB free. This doesn't seem much better than most other Android phones. What's eating up my RAM? I am running a live wallpaper, but I'd still expect 1GB to go a very long way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many threads explained this already.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=75092117
Also, ditch ATK.
Search is your best friend. I should know this by now. Thanks.
And why ditch ATK? I feel like my phone runs cooler with it. Plus, GingerBlur doesn't have the Task Manager that comes stock with the Atrix. Or is a Task Manager really not necessary?
WiredPirate said:
Also, ditch ATK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Atrix already handles task killing as needed very well. With task killer, they will just start up again anyway. Let the Atrix handle this function.
Auto mem killer... people who quote the age old "android handles memory fine" argument are simply rehashing an age old argument without an explanation.
#1 "kill all" is silly.. (it kills functions that start back up regardless thus chewing up battery)
#2 you can tweak the android memory management system with root and automemkiller
#3 it is good to have a task killer for rogue apps.
Sent from my Googletron
ChongoDroid said:
Auto mem killer... people who quote the age old "android handles memory fine" argument are simply rehashing an age old argument without an explanation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-1
I was quoting the Atrix as handling memory, not Android as a whole in your age old argument!
The ATRIX does handle tasks fine on its own, no need to kill them. OP, I should have said ditch ATK for Watchdog.
lol your RAM is in your phone dude! xD
kidding
you must be using to many apps, try a task manager, i use advanced task manager(paid version), and got always 500mb+ of free memory, it just goes to 200mb free when im playing some game(mc2, gangstar or riptide gp) with the music player opened plus firefox 4
look well which apps are eating your memory, and put in auto end list from the original task manager =)
but 230 free still a lot of memory in a phone =p
Most current devices have 20-30mb free at any given time, be happy for your 200+
this is normal behaviour for alot of linux based os'es - linux tends to steal alot of the free ram for file caches etc and releases it s requested by apps.
Usually ATK results in 400-500MB free on my Atrix so that 230MB does sound strange.
Also, I don't notice any difference in performance or battery life between using ATK and letting the OS handle everything. Under the four occasions that I've seen a process eat up CPU (pegging it at 1GHz and making the phone warm), ATK was powerless to stop it... So ATK is pretty useless IMO.
Hello, I have been searching for app killer information. I see that some people don't think is necessary and some say it is. What's the verdict on this topic? Thx
Sent from my MB855 using XDA Premium App
dont use it, unless you know what your looking for. if you do use one look for one that displays processor cycles or how long the app uses the processor. if a rogue app is uses more than it should you kill it. other than that use. do not use them.
edit.
if an app uses excessive processor time, i just straight up delete it. unless i need it then i kill it.
At the Android BBQ, Cyanogen stated that there is absolutely no need for task killers. Granted this is the same thing he has been saying for some time now but misinformation is a hard thing to overcome.
I am sick of App killers, they may have had a place pre Froyo but any recent android build will not benefit from them. Most of the time quite the opposite of what is expected including but not limited to Higher battery drain, background services not syncing, or Force Close issues. In general if an android phone comes into the store I work at with a task killer it will leave with it uninstalled. If you need something to conserve battery I recommend adjusting your sync settings, brightness/timout, and installed apps settings. If you are running out of memory due to too many programs running you can either buy a new phone that has more memory or uninstall some of said programs.
schale01 said:
I am sick of App killers, they may have had a place pre Froyo but any recent android build will not benefit from them. Most of the time quite the opposite of what is expected including but not limited to Higher battery drain, background services not syncing, or Force Close issues. In general if an android phone comes into the store I work at with a task killer it will leave with it uninstalled. If you need something to conserve battery I recommend adjusting your sync settings, brightness/timout, and installed apps settings. If you are running out of memory due to too many programs running you can either buy a new phone that has more memory or uninstall some of said programs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if the photon ran out of memory you would recommend buying the latest and greatest? And delete customers info?
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mikel719 said:
So if the photon ran out of memory you would recommend buying the latest and greatest? And delete customers info?
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and No. A few years ago, 128Mb or even 512Mb on these phone were common. Yes it was nice to have 2Million apps on your phone and 1/2 of them running. It was easy to jam up your phone, so short of a reboot, an app killer was a nice tool.
This has 16Gb (Not Mb) and some space to play on the chip. I work in IT, been doing it for MANY years. Look at the size of these apps in Market Place. If you have THAT many apps, all running at the same time, You need a new phone when available.
BTW: Photon comes with Task Manager out the box, it willdo the same thing.
Just my $0.02!
Thx for the info.. I currently do not have one installed. I never have problems with my photon. Just wondering if it was something I needed.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA Premium App
mikel719 said:
So if the photon ran out of memory you would recommend buying the latest and greatest? And delete customers info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point is that it is an app that adds no value to the device.
An example would be a customer with an LG Optimus (140 MB of onboard memory) that has installed every version of angry birds and now wonders why their phone is slow and unresponsive. A task killer will not fix this, they either need to remove some apps or buy a phone that better suits their needs.
That being said I'm not really worried about the photon running out of memory (either the 3GB allocated to app storage or the 1GB of RAM) I'm not saying it's impossible but for the average user, heck even the average power user it is highly unlikely.
So people still don't realize this is Linux. Unused ram is useless ram. Fill it to the brim, it's there to be used 100%.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
schale01 said:
My point is that it is an app that adds no value to the device.
An example would be a customer with an LG Optimus (140 MB of onboard memory) that has installed every version of angry birds and now wonders why their phone is slow and unresponsive. A task killer will not fix this, they either need to remove some apps or buy a phone that better suits their needs.
That being said I'm not really worried about the photon running out of memory (either the 3GB allocated to app storage or the 1GB of RAM) I'm not saying it's impossible but for the average user, heck even the average power user it is highly unlikely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
memory is different from ram. i have 1.6 gigs of apps(240) my phone doesnt run slow at all. i had 200 plus on my galaxy s and my g1(apps2sd). never slowed down any of my phones as long as you dont download poorly coded apps or use 500 widgets/app killers/bad live wallpapers/crappy home replacements. you can use as much storage as you want and never slow down the phone. its the active apps that are running that slow down the phone, not the inactive ones simply stored in memory for quick access. when android needs memory it kills off inactive apps. simple.
Turbo Droid app out the market
3VO 4Life
liljacques said:
Turbo Droid app out the market
3VO 4Life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely not.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
charlie2900 said:
Thx for the info.. I currently do not have one installed. I never have problems with my photon. Just wondering if it was something I needed.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good choice! On both phone and not needing this!
I have my phone and dont have any issues with it. I installed an advanced task killer and thats when I started having problems once I uninstalled it I was good. No problems whats so ever. Another thing I noticed is with the extra task killer when would dock my photon into the hdmi station I would get low memory pop ups since I uninstalled it no more low memory popups.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
I find that every time I check I am using 470+ ram even after I clear it in task. wtf?
stop clearing task then. its not needed as soon as you do this the required parts will just start back up. you havnt needed to use anything like advanced task killer since android 2.0 we are now on 2.3 time to stop making ur phone use more battery life.
So your telling me that next to stock I should be using up 3/4ths of my ram with no windows or programs opened. Sounds strange to me
yup.. Its how android works.. its not like say the way windows mobile used to be.. having to kill off programs left an right. android keeps those apps in the ram for a reason.
I comprehend the keep running in background, my point is some, I haven't had to bad, people complain of lag or lack of smoothness. Well if I am using all my ram for things running in background am I not restricting the amount I can now pull up. Like I said I am close to stock, couple apps installed, and stock is loading 4-500 megs out of my 750. Hmmm just saying ya know. If you sell me on gig of ram and cut it down to 750 and load it up with 500 in all honesty you are giving me 250. might as well call it an iPhone....hides head and runs.
ghettopops said:
I comprehend the keep running in background, my point is some, I haven't had to bad, people complain of lag or lack of smoothness. Well if I am using all my ram for things running in background am I not restricting the amount I can now pull up. Like I said I am close to stock, couple apps installed, and stock is loading 4-500 megs out of my 750. Hmmm just saying ya know. If you sell me on gig of ram and cut it down to 750 and load it up with 500 in all honesty you are giving me 250. might as well call it an iPhone....hides head and runs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U are WAY off. The phone is allocated a certain amount of ram for its internal workings. Leaving you the 700+ ram for apps and other things. Ur phone works better if u let it manage Ur ram for u. It will naturally kill off apps as u need more ram for other processes that are being called on. Free ram is wasted ram using the ram will actually make Ur phone smoother. And if Ur not using the super charger script i would take a look at it. It helps as well. Or get Rom tool box and do it manually.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
How much of your RAM is consumed ?
Mine is always over 600 out of the 780mb. Even after a ram clear ?
Is this normal ?
Where exactly do you see the ram?
Does it bother you ? mine is smooth as butter, stock everything
Unused ram is just going to waste.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
corrsea said:
Unused ram is just going to waste.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read this before, but I wonder if more memory is used then more battery is consumed. Isn't that right?
sent with SGS3
Loading and unloading apps all the time needs a lot more battery that keeping the RAM filled up. Both performance and battery life would suffer if the RAM would be kept empty.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
i have this problem as well.. and when too much ram is consumed around 650mb on average for me.. my s3 will starts to lag sometimes when exiting from an app to the home screen. anyone has solution to this ? clearing the memory dosen't help much. memory still fluctuates around 600+ mb
Install a task manager with listing capability, e.g. Houmiak Taskmanager and check which process(es) cause the high usage.
It should not lag, usually that's caused by app service processes not terminating correctly when exiting/closing the app and filling up memory to the brink.
If you got such apps you might want to try 'Fast Reboot' which usually gets rid of them very fast with (imho) less performance impact than most other 'memory cleaners'
thanks.. i have thus far downloaded ram booster.. works great for me .. free up lotsa memory and now it fluatueting around 400 :good: now my s3 is running at the speed it should be
Im at 600/780Mb.
No apps running under active apps.
Yet if i hit clear memory, it says 21 apps closed and drops down to 530
I get high RAM usage too , sometimes can reach up to 680 but the odd thing is that I don't see any difference in terms of performance. It is still fast as ever.
Veilus said:
Im at 600/780Mb.
No apps running under active apps.
Yet if i hit clear memory, it says 21 apps closed and drops down to 530
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And how long does it stay that way?
Tip: stop looking at ram usage, stop killing apps and stop creating duplicate threads of the same subject
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Solution?
First off these forums are here for people to ask for help. Old threads have no new interest.
I stumbled across this in hope of a permeant fix as mine too is around 650mb and phone starts to lag. Only quick solution I have is to go into developer options and click background processes and limit the amount that can occur. I turned mine to 0. Don't know the effect on battery yet but its around 500mb now and the phone is now back to its smooth self.
Wont that stop software such as weather to update in the background?
sent with WSGS3
antdawe said:
First off these forums are here for people to ask for help. Old threads have no new interest.
I stumbled across this in hope of a permeant fix as mine too is around 650mb and phone starts to lag. Only quick solution I have is to go into developer options and click background processes and limit the amount that can occur. I turned mine to 0. Don't know the effect on battery yet but its around 500mb now and the phone is now back to its smooth self.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best way to preserve ram is to switch off your phone..that way it will have 1 gb ram..
[Off topic] killing background processes will make your phone like my Nokia 1100..with no multitasking..all the apps will close once you exit..and all the data will be loaded up when you restart again..taking up more cpu time and battery..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
zoot1 said:
Best way to preserve ram is to switch off your phone..that way it will have 1 gb ram..
[Off topic] killing background processes will make your phone like my Nokia 1100..with no multitasking..all the apps will close once you exit..and all the data will be loaded up when you restart again..taking up more cpu time and battery..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quoted for truth.
No multitasking = slower phone, worse battery.
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I was having the same problem with my S3 the first week I bought it. I switched it off and on again and it was back to normal
Just my point of view using a comparison :
On the computer when I installed more RAM it's to have more apps load in it instead of waiting for them to be loaded... Not just to have more RAM unused...
On the phone it's the same.
Android seems to handle ram usage very well, killing apps on it self when ram is required...
Reason I did it was when my ram was going above 600mb upon exiting apps my home screen would hang with no icons for a few seconds. Task manager, clear process and it return to normal. Limiting the process somehow worked. It's not logical but these are phones not computers.
There's no software trick on my mac that can increase ram like jelly beans has done so who knows.
Plus most apps apart from weather etc store their last state and resume where you left off so doing what I says does not affect me.
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I too have this ram problem. I like that the phone is doing its best to keep the ram full for multitasking purposes but i hate when it lags when i go back to the home screen. Also sometimes i close an app to do something else, say texting, then go back and it has to re-open the app because android killed it to free up space. Couldnt it just cache it if it needs space instead of fully closing it?
I heard there was an update that fixed this ram issue but its not showing up for my phone.
In some ways i miss my galaxy s2 :/
I'm currently running the devil kernel on my phone, using the new devil app to control settings but I really don't know a couple settings though. First what I'd zram and is it better than swap? And what's the best value to set the zram at? I have it on 150mb.
Also what's better zram or swap?
Dude look @ the op
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk 2
No info about what it is in the op U_U
well, based on my reading...(Basically meaning take this with a grain of salt because I may not perfectly re-present the information, but this is how I've come to understand it lol )
zram basically compresses unused apps within the system RAM. This allows the system to swap less needed processes to the zram partition for faster access at a later time, instead of killing them. This does take up some of your ram though, so I imagine that the value you are setting is determining exactly what percentage of your ram that the zram partition is allotted.
Swap instead uses a small portion of the SDcard like RAM. The phone will attempt to keep as much within the ram as possible until fill, and then begin using the swap partition on the SDcard. At that point, the phone will begin moving inactive blocks of memory to the SD, freeing up RAM for active processes. If one of the pages on the SD needs to be accessed again, it will be moved back into RAM, and a different inactive page in RAM will be moved onto the SD ('swapped').
Swap files don't restrict available RAM but writing to the sdcard impacts the speed of opening apps.
Now, which is better? No idea ^^ Lol
Holly crap I'm enabling swap lol. Do I need to repartition my SD card for swap?
I wouldn't enable swap, you don't need it, zram us nifty but also not need. Your system can handle memory just fine without you. Just let it to its thing and you will be fine.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I agree completely. My former device had a hack that we came up with that would force app2sd on a 2.1 build. This was great at the time but it cause some serious lag. We then enabled the swap to help with the memory issues. It worked for awhile but then all these apps started to come out that were, not to sound funny, memory hogs. This device only had 128mb of user RAM, so it was a constant struggle to get it working. Gotta remember that this was pre-GB times, so Froyo was the ICS of that time.
Here is more to read from this devices section about how swap works. The thread was revived on Post #9 and my explaination is Post#16.
Moral of the story is that I agree with Eco, let the phone work for you and not you against it. There are few memory issues with the Vibrant. Is it running 2gb of RAM? No but do you really need something like that on a phone?
Woodrube said:
I agree completely. My former device had a hack that we came up with that would force app2sd on a 2.1 build. This was great at the time but it cause some serious lag. We then enabled the swap to help with the memory issues. It worked for awhile but then all these apps started to come out that were, not to sound funny, memory hogs. This device only had 128mb of user RAM, so it was a constant struggle to get it working. Gotta remember that this was pre-GB times, so Froyo was the ICS of that time.
Here is more to read from this devices section about how swap works. The thread was revived on Post #9 and my explaination is Post#16.
Moral of the story is that I agree with Eco, let the phone work for you and not you against it. There are few memory issues with the Vibrant. Is it running 2gb of RAM? No but do you really need something like that on a phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, Android is designed for low Memory systems. It can handle out of Memory situations on its own, and will kill unneeded apps as is necessary to free ram for running apps. Don't worry about how much "free" ram you have because it doesn't matter. You want more free ram learn to set the ram usage settings to be more aggressive at killing idle apps. It'll and up using more battery, but if free ram is what you want then that's how to do it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Woody said:
I agree completely. My former device had a hack that we came up with that would force app2sd on a 2.1 build. This was great at the time but it cause some serious lag. We then enabled the swap to help with the memory issues. It worked for awhile but then all these apps started to come out that were, not to sound funny, memory hogs. This device only had 128mb of user RAM, so it was a constant struggle to get it working. Gotta remember that this was pre-GB times, so Froyo was the ICS of that time.
Here is more to read from this devices section about how swap works. The thread was revived on Post #9 and my explaination is Post#16.
Moral of the story is that I agree with Eco, let the phone work for you and not you against it. There are few memory issues with the Vibrant. Is it running 2gb of RAM? No but do you really need something like that on a phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good old g1 and mytouch days
No signature for you!
Woody said:
There are few memory issues with the Vibrant. Is it running 2gb of RAM? No but do you really need something like that on a phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, yes. There are certain apps, like Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype and probably more, that have their background services running even if you close the app. Those services are for sending notification, but they are slowing down this device very much (Even if only the Facebook service is running). So I do feel the device does not handle memory so good. And I can't blame it, since it has a limited memory, but I do wish I had more RAM.
Don't enable zram or swap unless you have the EU bug or like your shizz lag like a mo'fo'. If your phone is playing nicely, then disable both. Allow Purging of Assets also.Set it to two processes in Dev Section.
Sent from a Beaner
Like the SIG D'fresh!
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Dougfresh said:
... Set it to two processes in Dev Section.
Sent from a Beaner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By this do you mean the "Background Process Limits"?
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scottPilgrim said:
hey devil, got a question for you...
any particular reason why you removed zRAM from your kernel? i was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on why it isn't necessary on this device.
Thanks man
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xenoism said:
zram basically compresses unused apps within the system RAM. This allows the system to swap less needed processes to the zram partition for faster access at a later time, instead of killing them. This does take up some of your ram though, so I imagine that the value you are setting is determining exactly what percentage of your ram that the zram partition is allotted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really needed on our device that have 2gb of ram memory.
Have ever been in a situation where you have been out of free ram? Neither have I.
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Our devices don't have 2gb ram memory. They have 512mb ram memory
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cannondaleV2000 said:
Our devices don't have 2gb ram memory. They have 512mb ram memory
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1+