[Q] Can I increase the physical RAM size? - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Dear all,
I am curious if I can purchase a larger RAM module and replace the one in my SGS resulting in more RAM space available to applications?
My SGS is running fast but I have a lot of applications installed which utilize RAM in background. As everyone know although SGS claim to have 512MB memory, the actual memory available for user application is around 3xx MB only. I am woundering if upgrade of physical RAM is feasible.
Thanks!

HKcow said:
Dear all,
I am curious if I can purchase a larger RAM module and replace the one in my SGS resulting in more RAM space available to applications?
My SGS is running fast but I have a lot of applications installed which utilize RAM in background. As everyone know although SGS claim to have 512MB memory, the actual memory available for user application is around 3xx MB only. I am woundering if upgrade of physical RAM is feasible.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd highly doubt that it would be possible. Maybe some high skilled person could make the swap (it probably wouldn't be easy to find one..), but no-one knows if it would have even theoretical chances to work. And yes SGS has 512mb of ram..but os and apps just take their part of it in any situation.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

Related

How much RAM is free on your galaxy s? No himem kernal support

My friend just got his phone from unlocked mobiles, i am still waiting for mine from Handtec... argh... but i just got him to check how much free memory he had from looking at advanced task killer and he only had 37MB free!!? Got him to kill everything and he only got about 130MB free in total.
Can other people check theirs to see, because its looking like the same problem that happened with the nexus one where only 256MB of the 512MB RAM was available to use, until they upgrade it to Froyo 2.2 or change the kernal to allow for Hi Mem support.
rubbish if they havent sorted this!
anyone?
ya.. its the same because of the limitation in 2.6.29 kernel not the phone. More reason to bug Samsung to upgrade to froyo or root the device
Yeah i don't think they've fixed it, ,my phone only reports about over 100 meg free.
where do you go to see memory available?
122m Avail. memory using adv task killer.
bugger, i thought they would have at least sorted out the kernal to support himem. if XDA developers can do it for android 2.1 then why cant samsung! very lame and annoying as I have seen my friends phone slow down quite a few times now.
I flashed froyo JPD + voodoo lagfix and my RAM manger shows
191 / 304 MB.
I choosed level 1 and 2 and clean memory, now it is using 144 MB.
I guess it is supposed to show 512 MB.
If I kill everything, 142M free (stock JVK). I used to be able to get ~170M free with JPY...
I'm of the, sometimes controversial, opinion that unused RAM is wasted RAM though and don't really care how much is free - as long there's no lag!
Valeo said:
I'm of the, sometimes controversial, opinion that unused RAM is wasted RAM though and don't really care how much is free - as long there's no lag!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have same opinion. We will never see 512mb ram available, as someones may think..we HAVE 512mb ram, but due technical issues, it won't be all usable for us..and as a linux based system, it's good to have mem full as possible. Generally speaking...
There is many topics about ram in xda..with lots of information..
sent from my i9000 w/ xda premium
209\329, jvk
As far as i can remember, we don't see the whole 512 mb RAM (or at least 400+) because of PowerVR GPU, which reserves a lot of ram for itself.

Full 512 mb available?

Does the froyo update make the full 512 mb ram available? I had heard earlier that only a part of it was available due to 2.1 limitations.
Sent from my GT-I9000 ADJF1 using XDA App
They were always available, ~300Mb for Programs and the rest for the system files... Why should that change?
I think what the OP meant was whether one had more memory for apps as ht tp:// developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.html claims that the 2.6.32 kernel upgrade would bring "HIGHMEM support for RAM >256MB".
At the moment, we do not have the full memory available in the Linux system:
Code:
$ adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
$ free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 333420 329988 3432 0 34724
Swap: 0 0 0
Total: 333420 329988 3432
I do not know whether that is related to the graphics hardware taking some of the memory, or to the kernel version:
Code:
$ uname -r
2.6.29
Edit: What do you mean by 'system files'? The OS is stored on mass storage, right? And Dalvik and friends should appear as userspace processes taking up regular memory.
satta said:
I think what the OP meant was whether one had more memory for apps as developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.html claims that the 2.6.32 kernel upgrade would bring "HIGHMEM support for RAM >256MB".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do understand that this does not compute, since there has always been more than 256MB available
Or has there?
I was wondering about the same thing, kernel 2.6.32.9 (JP3) also shows a little more than 300mb...
buddy01 said:
You do understand that this does not compute, since there has always been more than 256MB available
Or has there?
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Click to collapse
Hey, I'm just quoting from an official AOSP site
Mine shows 30 mb available under advanced task killer. What am I missing?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
@satta yeah that's what I meant and that's what I had read. Cheers
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I've seen Desire have over 400MB of memory available for applications in a video with a some sort of task manager on..
Are you sure, max i got on my nexus one was 312MB in some rare cases, using it without closing apps at all, never got below 100MB... But my Galaxy's max is 170MB, is almost half what my nexus gave me, that kinda suck (don't know if it matter bu tit feels bad in my head )
Desire has 576MB memory.. N1 has 512MB
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Maximum free RAM i got from my sgs is 210mb, easily achieved by using Astro's process manager and killing all non-essential services.
why t.f. do you guys always want to have lots of fre ram? please read a little about android memory management... free ram is wasted ram!
FadeFx said:
why t.f. do you guys always want to have lots of fre ram? please read a little about android memory management... free ram is wasted ram!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So? We all still want our phones to be as future proof as we hoped they would be when we bought them. And we want the extra RAM simply because it's supposed to be there.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
FadeFx said:
why t.f. do you guys always want to have lots of fre ram? please read a little about android memory management... free ram is wasted ram!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as it doesn't go below that ~70mb when the phones actually start lagging
Might also want to take into consideration that the counterpart Desire used in this thread is also an android phone, sure too much free memory is wasted memory but too little usable memory = lag and if there isn't a lot to use in the first place then it won't take much for the phone to start lagging.
Some help in JG and onward firmwares but it's still quite funny that a simple user can make a fix to create a solution for the entire problem and Samsung hasn't either thought about this or taken it into consideration. (Mimocan is my hero <3)
edit: WOO my first post after actually following these forums for almost half a year, just registered recently
Hey,
Actually you do not need that much RAM. Im running on JG5, which IMO is the most stable and usable firmware out there. Has been running the phone for 3 days straight without any ATK like apps, and has not experience any lags.
Another thing is that, IMHO ATKs slow down the system.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
The current Samsung froyo builds do not support highmem. It is a kernel compile time config option. Samsung will hopefully enable it in later builds.
Highmem made a noticeable difference in performance on my nexus one.
ed10000 said:
So? We all still want our phones to be as future proof as we hoped they would be when we bought them. And we want the extra RAM simply because it's supposed to be there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nonsense. You are not entitled to more free ram in any way.
Every os uses a part of the ram for the kernel code and its buffers.
In addition the advanced graphics will need memory for its texture storage and graphic representation.
A froyo kernel will not make a major difference.
The sg has 512 memory today and it is using it as it should...
akselic said:
As long as it doesn't go below that ~70mb when the phones actually start lagging
Might also want to take into consideration that the counterpart Desire used in this thread is also an android phone, sure too much free memory is wasted memory but too little usable memory = lag and if there isn't a lot to use in the first place then it won't take much for the phone to start lagging.
Some help in JG and onward firmwares but it's still quite funny that a simple user can make a fix to create a solution for the entire problem and Samsung hasn't either thought about this or taken it into consideration. (Mimocan is my hero <3)
edit: WOO my first post after actually following these forums for almost half a year, just registered recently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lagging is actually not caused by to less free ram, in android there is no such. the used ram is caused by apps that you opened and then exited again. if you open a new app that needs more ram than aviailable (actually with a little gap of some mb) the system will close apps that are not used anymore and only kept in ram for faster opening. the lag comes from bad i/o speeds of the nand (internal memory) where apps data is stored. on i7500 there is 192mb of ram and it works ok with froyo (thanx to drakaz and gaosp team!) only thing is that every app you open forces the app you opened before to be kicked out of ram what makes switching between apps makes somewhat a pain.
also free memory and usable memory is apples and pears, useable is all memory that contains no actually running in foreground app or service. and free memory is the rest that contains absolutely no information and thus WASTED
edit: btw i7500 is running well with 20mb free ram.
I often have no more than 30 MBs free, and not running THAT many apps. What is strange is that sometimes there is 70-80 MB free, and I have not done anyting. What happens in the background is a mystery... Any suggestions?

[Q] Too little RAM?

I've seen other phones that will be released this Q1 or Q2 having 1GB of RAM whilst the Optimus 2X only has 512MB.
I myself have kind of got the feeling that 512MB's would be enough and that 1GB is unnecessary, but I would like your opinions, and maybe an explenation to why 512MB's would be enough?
Since Atrix won't be released in Sweden that pretty much leaves it to Optimus 2X or the Galaxy S2, but the S2 will probably be like 200 dollars more. Would that really be worth the money RAM-wise (other differences doesn't matter that much to me)?
I'm of the mind that 512MB will be fine for the forseeable future. If you consider that the most demanding apps are typically games, and the most impressive games (since GameLoft, Epic etc have signed on with nVidia...) will be developed to Tegra 2 specs, I can't imagine those Tegra 2 specs would preclude running on 512MB of RAM. Following that assumption, by the time 512MB of RAM isn't enough, you will probably be due for an upgrade anyway.
I'm starting to think that the only reason the Atrix has 1GB is because the WebTop mode runs well over 512MB in typical operation. Then, of course, the Galaxy 2 has a gig so that it doesn't look inferior on paper.
Just my conjecturous 2 cents.
Sjael said:
I'm of the mind that 512MB will be fine for the forseeable future. If you consider that the most demanding apps are typically games, and the most impressive games (since GameLoft, Epic etc have signed on with nVidia...) will be developed to Tegra 2 specs, I can't imagine those Tegra 2 specs would preclude running on 512MB of RAM. Following that assumption, by the time 512MB of RAM isn't enough, you will probably be due for an upgrade anyway.
I'm starting to think that the only reason the Atrix has 1GB is because the WebTop mode runs well over 512MB in typical operation. Then, of course, the Galaxy 2 has a gig so that it doesn't look inferior on paper.
Just my conjecturous 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply! I also thought about the RAM being for the WebTop but then Samsung released the S2 lol.. I would probably agree with you that 512MB will be enough in at least the coming year or so, hell, you can almost run a game like World of Warcraft on 512MB RAM.
Maybe Motorola and Samsung are just putting in hardware that is ahead of the future to atract the customers that want 'the best'. Of course, they are probably slightly better but from what I understand it is kind of hard to fill up 512MB RAM which they also say in Anandtechs review of the Atrix.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4165/the-motorola-atrix-4g-preview
If only LG could put in at least 768MB I wouldn't have to worry
Have to agree with Sjael about the 512MB of RAM in the Atrix being for the laptop dock. In that preview you posted in the benchmark tests the optimus came out on top of the atrix pretty much every time. So don't let the 512 MB of RAM detour you!
I would not mind 512MB RAM(Actually, you can use only 372MB of ram because of the android system)
512MB ram is not that small, and there is no app that needs more than 512MB.
I'm using Optimus 2X, but 512MB RAM was okay
pokerfake said:
I would not mind 512MB RAM(Actually, you can use only 372MB of ram because of the android system)
512MB ram is not that small, and there is no app that needs more than 512MB.
I'm using Optimus 2X, but 512MB RAM was okay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'Okay' doesn't sound too convincing. Could you tell us about the phone in general? Are you satisfied, how is the battery life etc?
Battery time is simuliar with Samsung Galaxy
LG home sometimes reset after I play some heavy 3D game. I think that its because of RAM, but this problem does not happen if you change your home program
Sent from my LG-SU660 using XDA App
pokerfake said:
Battery time is simuliar with Samsung Galaxy
LG home sometimes reset after I play some heavy 3D game. I think that its because of RAM, but this problem does not happen if you change your home program
Sent from my LG-SU660 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about gps ?
GPS is waaay better than Samsung Galaxy S
Sent from my LG-SU660 using XDA App
pokerfake said:
Battery time is simuliar with Samsung Galaxy
LG home sometimes reset after I play some heavy 3D game. I think that its because of RAM, but this problem does not happen if you change your home program
Sent from my LG-SU660 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LG launcher doesn't look too attractive anyway so i'll probably go for LauncherPro
pokerfake said:
GPS is waaay better than Samsung Galaxy S
Sent from my LG-SU660 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Really ? Oh, this is a great news !
1GB is better than 512MB
but....... i think 512 is enough, also
Well we now have some empirical evidence...
The +64MB RAM kernel gives back 64MB to the user and it makes a *huge* difference to performance in general day to day use for me. I no longer need to use minfreemanager and my launcher and background apps hardly ever get shut down by the system now.
I used to be of the mind that 512 was enough (=372) but with +64 (=436) there's a world of difference.
So, in my experience 512 is a constraint.
Its not the 512mb itself being the limit here, its the way these 512mb are used and how Android is configured to manage the memory by the manufacturer - but yes more ram to work with are allways a benefit.
512mb is plenty in the HTC Desire which default has about 440mb for the user, while the LG only has 372mb (more ram allocated for video than the Desire perhaps ?)
Furthermore the default minfree setting in the Desire is configured to allways leave 140mb free, while the LG is default configured to only leave around 80mb free.
This cause the LG to run low on memory, needing the system to free up memory by shutting down apps that are preloaded, faster and more often than on the Desire.
The extra 64mb you free with the other Kernel can be configured either as more ram for preloadet apps or as just free ram - depending on how agressive you set the minfree setting. The result you get will be a combination of this - if minfree are still set to 80mb then the 64mb are just used to preload more apps, which you will feel as a benefit if switching to one of these preloaded apps, but wont feel as a benefit if you need to run an app that use up more than the free 80mb and which hasnt been preloaded. On the other hand you could divide it and set the minfree setting to 110 and let the rest 34mb be used to preload apps in, that way a running app could use more ram before it would need to shutdown preloaded apps.
I cant say which setting would be the best overall - but for certain the configuration of the memory works better in the Desire than the one in the LG - despite both having 512mb ram

[Q] Change graphics memory size

As I previously read, out of the 512 MB of our O2X's, some 128-140 MB are reserved for the Tegra chip-set, and the rest of 380 MB are available to Android and applications.
With Froyo, there were usually 180-200 MB of memory free after booting/killing all apps, and like 90-130 MB free after normal usage. I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly, in the running apps screen, the sum of the used/available memory summed up to about the previous stated 380 MB.
After applying the GB update, after booting/killing all apps there are only 140 MB free and about 60 MB after some usage. If I go to Manage Apps -> Running apps, the sum of the used and available memory is around 310-320.
My question is: why is there less memory available in GB? Has LG increased the graphics memory from 128 MB to 192 MB? If yes, is it possible to change this allocation? Or is there a ROM that uses less graphics memory?
Maybe GB reports available memory differently, but it's definitely noticeable that there's less RAM available. If switching from browser to another app, with Froyo the page loaded was kept in memory, however with GB the page always has to be reloaded even if the switch lasted like 20-30 seconds.
Edit: I'd like to use less graphics memory and have more RAM so my apps run faster.
No the Vram is the same. The phone still has 380 mb ram to use for the OS and apps. Also free ram is wasted ram since apps are not cached so they will not launch faster.
taxas said:
No the Vram is the same. The phone still has 380 mb ram to use for the OS and apps. Also free ram is wasted ram since apps are not cached in for they will launch faster.
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Click to collapse
And therefore taskplanners are also not needed ;-)
KillerbeeNL said:
And therefore taskplanners are also not needed ;-)
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Click to collapse
Not completely true. Android kills automatically unneeded processes, that's true, but sometimes it happens that an app remains in background and uses the 100% of the CPU, so i use the task killers to terminate it.
Try Super charger, very efficient and not as resources consuming than apps. Search the dedicated thread.
And I don't think there is a way to free graphical memory. I don't think it's software driven but physical...
The only thing that had been made is to free the reserved memory for OTA LG service, that leaves you some more memory, but only available in some roms.
Striatum_bdr said:
Try Super charger, very efficient and not as resources consuming than apps. Search the dedicated thread.
And I don't think there is a way to free graphical memory. I don't think it's software driven but physical...
The only thing that had been made is to free the reserved memory for OTA LG service, that leaves you some more memory, but only available in some roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its possible to give the GPU less memory, different defs have done it (i.e benee). But as far as i know most of them removed that tweak since it was causing alot of bugs.
And yes, free ram are most likely wasted ram.
Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk
If ya want to change vram look at this: https://raw.github.com/gist/1170959/73e5f41b1ad8b3bb65c8bd22d422a4fd877204a3/CarveoutMemory
It contains a little info about the things you need to change. Some skills required though
kiljacken said:
If ya want to change vram look at this: https://raw.github.com/gist/1170959/73e5f41b1ad8b3bb65c8bd22d422a4fd877204a3/CarveoutMemory
It contains a little info about the things you need to change. Some skills required though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi kiljacken !
I remember that you've made some times ago a kernel with 64mb more of ram...
Also for the stock rom...
butI can't find it anymore...
Any help?
Thanks for the replies guys!
It seems like if possible, it's very complicated to change the video memory allocation, so I'll leave it like that.
hey all!
i have question like that! im working on electronic factory and have no problems with solder out and in BGA chips even the smallest ones! now the question! if i will solder out the ram chip and solder back in 1GB ram chip of the same tipe and company(i have acces to all the part available on the market)?
oleg1981 said:
hey all!
i have question like that! im working on electronic factory and have no problems with solder out and in BGA chips even the smallest ones! now the question! if i will solder out the ram chip and solder back in 1GB ram chip of the same tipe and company(i have acces to all the part available on the market)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How small is the solder required? Would be amazing if we could upgrade.
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk
oleg1981 said:
hey all!
i have question like that! im working on electronic factory and have no problems with solder out and in BGA chips even the smallest ones! now the question! if i will solder out the ram chip and solder back in 1GB ram chip of the same tipe and company(i have acces to all the part available on the market)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very unsure. I am sure though, that both kernel and boot image changes would be needed to run with the added memory
i think it's impposible to change the graphic memory size, maybe RAM hack? if you want to free RAM just use supercharger, i already used that and my free ram about 117-130 MB
It's completely possible, it's something that's controlled by the kernel.
Such kernels already were in the spring which reduced video memory by 64 Mb
Rusty! said:
It's completely possible, it's something that's controlled by the kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so if I'm understanding correct if i will solder in new memory chip all i will need is to find how to change the ram value from 372 to 872?
oleg1981 said:
so if I'm understanding correct if i will solder in new memory chip all i will need is to find how to change the ram value from 372 to 872?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose if LG's programmers were careful enough not to hard-code any values, the phone should detect the memory like a computer detects new RAM. However ROMs which target multiple devices with different RAM, like CM, shouldn't have such issues...
I would LOVE 1GB ram! What would such ram cost?
Guys, RAM amounts are hardcoded into the kernel, so a custom kernel would be needed to use the ram. IF it's even possible to use such amounts of RAM. There migth be limitations in the bootloader, which will cause problems, but kernel changes should be enough. If you try it on your device I would be glad to provide a kernel that supports that amount of RAM, but I don't think it's doable. AFAIK the RAM is tightly packed in the device with many other components. It might even be built into the SoC making it impossible to change. But IDK, feel free to try what you want, but remember it's your device that gets destroyed if something goes wrong.
Do it OP!
Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk

How RAM are allocated in Droid 3

I know there are 512MB RAM in Droid 3, in addition to 16G internal storage. However, I don't know what go to the RAM. Are the bloatware going to take part of it, or they are simply stored in the 16G internal storage? What about the OS?
Hope I can get some insights on this. Thanks.
i dont understand. your post sounds as if you think programs are installed on the RAM. they arent. RAM is random access memory, programs arent stored on here, they use RAM to run commands. The 16gb is what your programs will be installed to
Not all 512MB will show as total memory its around 370-380 I think that is because the graphics use some of the RAM. Some bloatware will preload into the RAM as well as some of your apps. But when RAM is needed for the program you are currently running lower priority apps preloaded will close. So even if you see bloatware running in the background it cannot take away RAM when you need it.
The 16GB is flash memory for installing programs, etc. Android is not like older versions of Windows Mobile where apps were installed directly to the RAM so the 16GB of memory and the 512MB of RAM are for two totally different tasks.
Thank you.
After I posted the question, I did some research on google. Basically your replies are pretty in line with what other say. The 512MB RAM is used when running program, and OS too. Motorola says there is a 1.5 secured storage space in the phone. I guess that is where the app are stored physically. When being run, the app will be loaded into RAM.
Yes, the sum of used RAM and free is less than 512MB. I guess the difference goes to the OS and graphics. That's what I learn after posting the question. If there is anything you think might help understand these terms, please share.
Thanks for all the feedbacks.
newshook said:
Thank you.
After I posted the question, I did some research on google. Basically your replies are pretty in line with what other say. The 512MB RAM is used when running program, and OS too. Motorola says there is a 1.5 secured storage space in the phone. I guess that is where the app are stored physically. When being run, the app will be loaded into RAM.
Yes, the sum of used RAM and free is less than 512MB. I guess the difference goes to the OS and graphics. That's what I learn after posting the question. If there is anything you think might help understand these terms, please share.
Thanks for all the feedbacks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ram is memory, the internal storage (both the 16gig and the secured partition/the 1.5 gig) are hard drives

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