Database Develop

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.
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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".
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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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Hey, I'm just quoting from an official AOSP site

Mine shows 30 mb available under advanced task killer. What am I missing?
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@satta yeah that's what I meant and that's what I had read. Cheers
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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
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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
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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?

The Droid Bionic will be fine with just 512mb of RAM! Here's proof!

I was just looking at the other thread in this board about someone not wanting to get the Droid Bionic because it'll only come out with 512mb of ram which is supposedly not enough and can slow your phone yadda yadda yadda. Something tells me some of you don't really know how the Android OS really works.
For starters Android is NOT windows.....I repeat, Android is NOT windows. With Windows once the OS runs low on memory the performance of its computers lag heavily and so forth. That is not the case with Android. Android runs on linux and operates differently. For example, I currently own a Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile running on froyo based custom rom for TeamToxic and my memory is literally at 69/337 (free/total memory). If this was a windows os it would be running pretty damn slow and laggy but it's not. In fact its quite the opposite and is running buttery smooth. And the thing is my phone doesn't have a task killer running in the background and its running beautifully. If onesAndroid phone runs slow its not because of memory issues but something else. The link below will explain in detail what really makes ones Android phone run slow or have moments of lag! Enjoy!
Here's a link that better explains how memory management works on Android devices and also shows why I feel 512mb of ram is enough for the Droid Bionic
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6426198

TheAggression said:
I feel 512mb of ram is enough for the Droid Bionic.
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Click to collapse
Except its confirmed its coming with 1GB of RAM.
http://www.droid-life.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/droid-bionic-specs.jpg

Awesome! But I think some users really need to understand how Androids OS really works. Whether its 512 or 1gb, is cool n all but in the end, is the cpu people should worry about and thankfully dual core processors help alleviate that. Thanks though.
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DemoManMLS said:
Except its confirmed its coming with 1GB of RAM.
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Why is it that I cannot go and duplicate this image now? More specifically... why was the information on the MotoDev site available earlier and now it no longer is?

TheAggression said:
For starters Android is NOT windows.....I repeat, Android is NOT windows. With Windows once the OS runs low on memory the performance of its computers lag heavily and so forth. That is not the case with Android. Android runs on linux and operates differently. For example, I currently own a Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile running on froyo based custom rom for TeamToxic and my memory is literally at 69/337 (free/total memory). If this was a windows os it would be running pretty damn slow and laggy but it's not. In fact its quite the opposite and is running buttery smooth. And the thing is my phone doesn't have a task killer running in the background and its running beautifully. If onesAndroid phone runs slow its not because of memory issues but something else. The link below will explain in detail what really makes ones Android phone run slow or have moments of lag! Enjoy!
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Click to collapse
You're right, and you're wrong. Android, indeed, is not Windows, but perhaps I should inform you a bit on how Linux works as well:
Linux utilizes a special partition that one creates called "Swap". Ubuntu's website does a great job explaining this:
Code:
What is swap?
Swap space is the area on a hard disk which is part of the Virtual Memory of your machine, which is a combination of accessible physical memory (RAM) and the swap space. Swap space temporarily holds memory pages that are inactive. Swap space is used when your system decides that it needs physical memory for active processes and there is insufficient unused physical memory available. If the system happens to need more memory resources or space, inactive pages in physical memory are then moved to the swap space therefore freeing up that physical memory for other uses. Note that the access time for swap is slower therefore do not consider it to be a complete replacement for the physical memory. Swap space can be a dedicated swap partition (recommended), a swap file, or a combination of swap partitions and swap files.
All OSs utilize some form of virtual memory from a storage device of some sort. The difference between the OSs is exactly how much virtual memory they are going to need to utilize and at what points they'll need to utilize it.
Android is a very lightweight OS. It has had to be due to its mobile intention and the previous restrictions that Google has had to deal with due to low-spec hardware (500~ MHz / ~256 MB/Ram). Because of this, Android operates on a very low amount of Ram and quite well, in fact.
As far as a memory footprint goes, Android 2.3 has a memory footprint about that of windows 95. When memory gets low (and it indeed can), however, is where Android's biggest failure comes in, in my opinion.
Low speed SD cards are generally what are shipped with the phones. If you don't upgrade to a higher speed SD card *I recommend class 10, personally* then you'll inevitably see this at some point as the hardware needs increase due to developers utilizing higher end hardware.
As soon as the phone has to utilize a virtual memory on a slow SD card, the entire OS comes to a halt. This isn't fault of the OS, or the developers making it. It's a fault of the poor performing storage devices that are shipped with the phones to reduce manufacturing costs. With a class 10 device, there's still a noticeable slow-down when this happens, but rather than coming to a stop, the phone will still operate at a speed that is at least tolerable.
As the above poster said, this is all moot for the moment with the Droid Bionic, as it has 1GB of RAM, and I don't foresee even the greediest developers tapping that vein completely for quite some time. (It would be nice if they did so approximately 2 years from now when those of us who will be purchasing Droid Bionics are getting ready to upgrade once more.)
tl:dr If you think Android doesn't need to utilize a virtual memory source and that makes it faster, remember that windows 95 ran on about 64 MB of RAM at a snappy speed.

[Q] Can I increase the physical RAM size?

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.
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[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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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.
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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)?
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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.
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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?
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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

[Q] is there really 2 gb of memory in this phone?

Hi,
I'm a bit surprised that if I add free memory and used memory from the Settings app the total is about 1.7 gb. Ain't we supposed to get 2gb? I hope sony didn't do the hdd trick (see wikipedia page on Kibibyte, I cannot post link as a junior member) and even so 2000000/1048576 = 1.907 ... where's my ram?

Under CPU-Z that show : 1.732Mb.

Your OS doesn't need RAM to function right?

Dsteppa said:
Your OS doesn't need RAM to function right?
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Click to collapse
yes it does but I thought it will be included in the "used memory"... if the OS takes 300 mb that's ok but why I only got 900 mb free when I kill all apps? I used to have a nexus 4 and with the same amount of memory on chip there was a *LOT* more available in the settings menu.

Geolm said:
yes it does but I thought it will be included in the "used memory"... if the OS takes 300 mb that's ok but why I only got 900 mb free when I kill all apps? I used to have a nexus 4 and with the same amount of memory on chip there was a *LOT* more available in the settings menu.
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Click to collapse
That 900MB figure is about the same I normally have free. Various apps and services take up about 800MB on my phone, which seems excessive but I've turned off all background stuff that I can (some Google and Xperia services just won't go away, however). The only good news is that Android will free up memory if it's needed so that 900MB is not a finite figure (at least that's what I assume).

Hmm. I generally have no more than about 300 mb free memory at any given moment. Even just a few minutes after reboot. No weird apps or excessive widgets. Do you guys really have 900 mb free? You can check your memory on the fly using Cool Tool from Google Play.

The Z3C has 2GB of RAM, don't worry. What you are missing is used by shared graphics memory. BTW: This is exactly the reason why the Z3 has 3GB of memory (instead of 2GB) for its screen resolution is full HD opposed to "only" HD on the Z3C.
Anyhow, is it really necessary to start another thread on the same topic if there already is one?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/ram-2gb-1-69gb-t2941487

sxtester said:
The Z3C has 2GB of RAM, don't worry. What you are missing is used by shared graphics memory. BTW: This is exactly the reason why the Z3 has 3GB of memory (instead of 2GB) for its screen resolution is full HD opposed to "only" HD on the Z3C.
Anyhow, is it really necessary to start another thread on the same topic if there already is one?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/ram-2gb-1-69gb-t2941487
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never had any doubts about the two gigs. But how much free memory do you have on your Z3C after a reboot and after a few hours of typical usage? My other phones with this much ram have generally had a lot more memory available at any given moment. Not that *free* memory is of any particular use in android, but I'm still curious to see whether your Z3C's are the same.

Fruktsallad said:
I have never had any doubts about the two gigs. But how much free memory do you have on your Z3C after a reboot and after a few hours of typical usage? My other phones with this much ram have generally had a lot more memory available at any given moment. Not that *free* memory is of any particular use in android, but I'm still curious to see whether your Z3C's are the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I boot up the phone and immediatly check it shows some 800MB of free memory. About 500 to 600MB after a couple of days, fluctuating though. However, don't think these numbers have any meaning for Android keeps as much in memory as possible in order to increase responsiveness. It also depends on the Apps installed and the bloat disabled/blocked. Further, comparing it to other phones you had earlier might also be misleading since the version of Android could be a different one, hence comparing apples to apples would just not be possible.