[Q] Memory? - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi Everybody,
I have a question about the memory on the vibrant.
In the task manager, it says that I only have 304mb of total memory.
Why?
I've read some posts saying that the vibrant runs on 2.6.29 which does not support himem, therefore limiting the ram to only 304mb. But my vibrant is on 2.6.32, which is said to support himem, and still I only get 304mb. What is up with this?
Also at most I get 160mb of free memory, does anyone have more free memory? I know that android has great memory management, but I just want to check if I have the normal amount of free memory.
Thanks to all replies, bad or good ;-)

No one has more free RAM unless they have a loltaskkiller running in the background aggressively killing tasks.
The phone reserves 128 MB RAM for the GPU out of the 512. None of the Galaxy S phones have (or had) 512 App-Accessible RAM.
Verizon advertises the Fascinate as having 384 MB RAM which seems more accurate because phone reserves 128 for the graphics (512-128=384) and then reserves ~64 MB for the system (384-326 we see = 58).
It has 384 MB RAM, and 128 dedicated the GPU outside of the App RAM. Samsung just advertised it as 512 because they added them together and didn't make any distinction (which makes the advertisement legally legit) and they didn't feel like adding a bit more RAM to the device the way HTC typically does with their phones (extra 64MB in the HD2/HD7 and they put 768 in the MyTouch to compensate for pretty much everything).
HTH.

Oh, now it makes sense. So if 64mb is reserved to the system and I get 140mb of used memory with no apps running, does.that mean android uses about 200mb out of the available 384mb?

tincanman said:
Oh, now it makes sense. So if 64mb is reserved to the system and I get 140mb of used memory with no apps running, does.that mean android uses about 200mb out of the available 384mb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android uses about 120-150 MB as a base, the rest are cached applications, which allows them to starts up faster next time you run them, but the cached RAM will be freed up if the current running application needs it. You can try disabling free services to reduce the amount Android uses, although it doesn't free up too much.
It makes me wonder does the GPU really need 128 MB of RAM?!

It probably doesn't need 128 MB. They probably could have done well by just giving it 96 and letting the rest of the 32 go for the System (Apps), and then adding another 64 MB to the system on top of that to give the user more time ot multi-task non-game applications.
Not to mention most games load a lot of data in RAM and the lack of Application RAM can/does bottleneck the phone in some of them - making the "incredible" GPU not much of an improvement over phones with more RAM in them and comparable CPU performance (and a faster file system, as well).

Moved of: Samsung Vibrant > Vibrant General
To: Samsung Vibrant > Vibrant Q&A
Please put your questions to: Vibrant Q&A

Related

[Q] My RAM usgae is appalling!!!

My RAM (not internal memory) usage is terrible. Out of 190MB I have 63MB free. Anyone have any ideas how I can improve it, or is this normal??
I am running CyanogenMOD 6.1 with Flykernel 12a (well check my SIG for info).
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!
That is normal. In fact, 63MB is quite a lot, usually it'll dip to between 35-40MB.
Why are you bothered by 63MB? After all, unused RAM is wasted RAM.
skymera said:
That is normal. In fact, 63MB is quite a lot, usually it'll dip to between 35-40MB.
Why are you bothered by 63MB? After all, unused RAM is wasted RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression it was like a computer, the more ram available, the faster it was...
Is that a wrong assumption?
RAM is fast(er) than flash memory (Which may be used for swap etc).
So loading apps into RAM is beneficial.
While having more RAM is indeed good, having more free generally isn't.
RAM is there to be used. I run CM6.1 and it manages itself fine, so you need not worry
no probs, I'll stop fretting... My Internal storage sits at about 157MB
When I free my RAM I'm getting about ~70Mb maximum but normally 35-45Mb. Remenber that's not Desire HD that's an old phone.
Android's internal memory killer will keep everything OK... There's no need for more RAM to make it faster.
In fact, using taskillers to close apps in the background actually may slow the phone, as the apps have to "reload" fully again, rather than residing in RAM. If that space is needed, it will be freed immediately
So yeah, don't worry about RAM usage whatsoever

[Q] Real RAM size

Hello, as we know, Galaxy S1 was advertised with 512MB ram, but in real there was only ~340MB of usable RAM! So i want to ask, how much ram is usable for applications and how much is free after fresh boot? Can someone check this? You can see this informations in task manager.
I think its about 800-850 RAM.
The original SGS had 512mb of ram as advertised. For some reason people assume that their phone behaves different than their computer. The operating system and everything like that needs to use the ram as well.
AS stated though I understand the SGS2 to have approximately 850MB of ram free after running the OS etc.
If I continually hit advanced task killer it will give me about 445MB free. In the standard task manager it says /833MB.
I don't really think this is all too relevant. You will never have anywhere near the maximum amount available just as you won't in a modern PC either and with phone OS's getting more power hungry and complex this is unlikely to change.
If the amount of ram bothers you check the video of the guy doing heavy multitasking on the phone and that will clear your mind.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
kickassdave said:
If I continually hit advanced task killer it will give me about 445MB free. In the standard task manager it says /833MB.
I don't really think this is all too relevant. You will never have anywhere near the maximum amount available just as you won't in a modern PC either and with phone OS's getting more power hungry and complex this is unlikely to change.
If the amount of ram bothers you check the video of the guy doing heavy multitasking on the phone and that will clear your mind.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for usefull information. I'm just interested in real numbers, because HTC phones have all advertised ram available to system, instead of samsung, which is cheating about this. Yes the OS is using ram... but from 833MB, not from 1gig. How can system use ram which is not visible to system? Android is linux, you can easily see how much ram is available and usable for system... it's 833 not 1gig. I believe that there is 1GB ram chip, but some memory is dedicated to other components. However 833 MB is really enough for mobile phone.
Shanakin said:
The original SGS had 512mb of ram as advertised.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did have 512MB of ram in hardware, but a pretty big part of the 512mb was actually dedicated video memory for 3d and movies. The Galaxy Tab 7" which was advertised with 512MB actually had ~600MB of ram in hardware, with extra ram outside the 512MB being for the dedicated video.
With the SGS2 it seems to be as the original SGS with dedicated video ram being taken out of the 1GB. It's easy enough to check by looking at the kernel config files. (And you can even tweak the numbers a bit to get a bit more free ram, as was done in the SGS)
Hope we're not heading down the old line of trying to run with loads of free RAM... I'm of the philosophy that if you have the RAM available, you should use it, rather than have to load things up from storage due to removing it to make a number bigger on a task manager...
ranwej said:
Thank you for usefull information. I'm just interested in real numbers, because HTC phones have all advertised ram available to system, instead of samsung, which is cheating about this. Yes the OS is using ram... but from 833MB, not from 1gig. How can system use ram which is not visible to system? Android is linux, you can easily see how much ram is available and usable for system... it's 833 not 1gig. I believe that there is 1GB ram chip, but some memory is dedicated to other components. However 833 MB is really enough for mobile phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Htc does/did this as well. My Legend is advertised with 384mb ram, but only 290 is available to the system.
Sent from my Legend using XDA Premium App
pulser_g2 said:
Hope we're not heading down the old line of trying to run with loads of free RAM... I'm of the philosophy that if you have the RAM available, you should use it, rather than have to load things up from storage due to removing it to make a number bigger on a task manager...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your philosophy is absolutely correct. In Windows that might be a good thing, because it starts buffering to the HD when you run out. But Android will just close some background processes automatically to clear ram as needed.
Sent from my Legend using XDA Premium App
pulser_g2 said:
Hope we're not heading down the old line of trying to run with loads of free RAM... I'm of the philosophy that if you have the RAM available, you should use it, rather than have to load things up from storage due to removing it to make a number bigger on a task manager...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately people these days only know about ram management from that poor excuse of an OS called Windows.... excluding 7.
pulser_g2 said:
Hope we're not heading down the old line of trying to run with loads of free RAM... I'm of the philosophy that if you have the RAM available, you should use it, rather than have to load things up from storage due to removing it to make a number bigger on a task manager...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, as long as there is a big line between FREE RAM and TOTAL RAM. More total RAM is always a very very good thing regardless of how good the ram management is.
This thread is about total RAM available to Linux/Android, so it's good imho.

[Q] Rezound memory usage

Hey guys, first I want to say I'm new to android so forgive me I got my rezound today and am a bit concerned with the memory usage. I'm showing that the phone has 817 megs of memory (thought this was supposed to be 1 gig?) and i'm showing the usage at 683 and really don't have anything installed yet.
Is this normal? If it's not, how should I proceed to resolve this.
Thanks!
In android, memory is used differently. Unused ram in android is wasted ram. I know this is counter-intuitive but it is true. Having no free ram won't impact the performance because android intelligently keeps things in ram so that they can be opened for faster access. If ram is needed by an application, things are automatically closed to free up ram.
It's normal, I have 704MB in use and 141MB free. Once we have perm-root and can debloat, I expect some more memory to free up.
You can also launch "Task Manager" and see what processes are running.
Keep in mind, Sense uses a LOT of RAM to operate.
Once the phone is debloated, a ROM is flashed that gets rid of most, if not all, of Sense, you can expect anywhere from 300-500 megs of RAM free.
I use fast reboot from the market and I consistantly have 390-415 mbs free.
I'm not asking in terms of memory usage, but do we really only have 817 megs of ram? Might as well call it 756 instead of 1024. Or is there ram being used by the system that doesn't show up there? Again, I know how android caches apps, I just want to see if the actual total ram is correct?

Do we really have 1GB of RAM?

I have been so busy catching up with all the amazing stuff Da_G has been pumping out (thanks!) that I didn't even take a look at this until now. I am showing that we only have 733MB of avaliable RAM. That is a far cry from 1024MB.
I am seeing 733MB w/ both Android System Info and with the built-in Task Manager.
Does anyone know if we indeed have 1024MB of RAM and... if it is just assigned else where?
Yes we have 1GB every phone has RAM missing because the system is holding it.
I remember one time the OS didn't support that much not sure if that's the case now but the phone has 1GB to my knowledge and.what I've read
sent from AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note Dual Core 1.83 GHz
Just like memory... Do we really have 16gb? Its never what they say... All marketing!
Sent from my SGH-I717M
I have also read that is has 1GB everywhere, but missing 291MB seems like an awful lot.
I beleive my Atrix showed 897MB. I just seems like an awful lot 'mssing' w/ the Note.
big samm said:
Just like memory... Do we really have 16gb? Its never what they say... All marketing!
Sent from my SGH-I717M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am with you on that! Makes me
I noticed the same, it's showing short but using the same app(system tuner pro) on my G2 it showed the correct 512mb.
It's not false marketing; it's fact. There is 1GB of RAM in the phone. I'm pretty sure the rest of the RAM is used by the GPU. My GS2 has the same thing, shows about 800MB of RAM available to apps.
What does it matter? I usually have 3-500MB of free RAM. Have you ever managed to fill the RAM with processes? Do you know anyone who has? Android clears old apps from memory even when there is enough free so I have never even come close to filling my RAM.
Graphics memory
As with any computer your phone has a gpu which needs graphics memory and because the gpu is integrated (SOC) it takes its memory off the top. This can be seen with any computer you have with integrated graphics it will section off some memory for your gpu.
As for the flash memory space many issues can take it down such as the file system, operating system, it just depends but trust me before the phone was turned on and android installed it had 16gb of memory and 1gb of ram
I'm about 100% CPU and GPU can't share ram as they do completely different tasks. They could have just added the cram and the ram to get 1GB though... But otherwise, the missing ram is from system tasks and the OS.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA App
teiglin said:
It's not false marketing; it's fact. There is 1GB of RAM in the phone. I'm pretty sure the rest of the RAM is used by the GPU. My GS2 has the same thing, shows about 800MB of RAM available to apps.
What does it matter? I usually have 3-500MB of free RAM. Have you ever managed to fill the RAM with processes? Do you know anyone who has? Android clears old apps from memory even when there is enough free so I have never even come close to filling my RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do we have a reference or any proof of this?
And to the post directly above this, any computer that does not have a dedicated graphics card uses shared system memory, just like our phones. 733MB is just quite a bit away from 1024MB.
they can and do use the same memory because they are the same soc aka system on chip. all this is integrated.
So if you built a PC yourself and loaded it with 2gig RAM and booted into windows it would have 2 gig FREE memory?
MrDSL said:
So if you built a PC yourself and loaded it with 2gig RAM and booted into windows it would have 2 gig FREE memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not talking about FREE. I am talking about the system as a whole. Do we really have 1GB of RAM? Where it is being used I am not so concerned about at this point, but it may help us figure out if we do indeed have 1GB (Where is the remaing 291MB assigned).
The missing 291 is being used by android..to load the launcher Widgets and everything else in the background.
MrDSL said:
The missing 291 is being used by android..to load the launcher Widgets and everything else in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have international version of note.its same way on this one.the missing ram is held by system tasks.as for 16gb storage memory.if you wipe all area on usb storage .u will have 16gb but not a working phone.another thing about free ram.dont use task manager to stop apps.all it does is make the phone lag.leave everything running.
teiglin said:
It's not false marketing; it's fact. There is 1GB of RAM in the phone. I'm pretty sure the rest of the RAM is used by the GPU. My GS2 has the same thing, shows about 800MB of RAM available to apps.
What does it matter? I usually have 3-500MB of free RAM. Have you ever managed to fill the RAM with processes? Do you know anyone who has? Android clears old apps from memory even when there is enough free so I have never even come close to filling my RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have 300-500 MB FREE ram? My note is bone stock and I'm running at 400/700 MB RAM (meaning 300 MB free). This is also when I "Clear memory" too. Something wrong with my apps?
tizzy said:
You have 300-500 MB FREE ram? My note is bone stock and I'm running at 400/700 MB RAM (meaning 300 MB free). This is also when I "Clear memory" too. Something wrong with my apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 700 free. With just 2 home screens 2 Widgets and a few apps and live wallpaper.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Two dozen open apps on mine right now, and it shows 283 MB used, 302 MB free.
On my AT&T gs2 I consistantly show 830 to 850 MB free. On my note I only see a lil over 700. How can this have less ram than my gs2? I have over 80 app on my gs2 and less than half that on my note!!!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
Probably xtra things (like snote )loaded on note that wouldn't be on your s2
Sent from a Galaxy far, far away!

Reducing shared graphics memory

Hi
I have a device with 256mb RAM but it only shows 111mb user accessible and the rest is hidden (probably)
with usually on 30-40mb cached and 2-5mb free ram its difficult multitasking properly or using any app properly for that matter.
How can I reduce the shared graphics memory from the kernel to get more user ram?
Thank you
i got same problem. my device have 512mb but free ram is max. 210 RAM.
++bump++
Although I'm not sure...here's my idea of what you would need to do...
Get the kernel source, find the files/drivers related to graphics...edit the amount of dedicated memory
I don't suggest doing this as it will likely cause the system to become unstable due to lack of dedicated ram...I wouldn't expect much multi tasking ability from any device that has under 500mb of ram total...
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

Categories

Resources