Memory management and closing apps - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

Hello.
I'm soon getting the Desire HD, and I wanted to clear some things up, regarding to multi-tasking, and how applications run in the background. This would be like a second edition of the other thread about closing applications, but more general.
I have read some parts of this, and things seem to make sense. You press the home button, and the app gets "stored" in the RAM.
However, when comparing this management of processes with the iPhone's; Why can't you close applications on Android the same way? Wouldn't it be a smart choice of they guys behind Android to make a similar way to really close apps (and thus "remove" the program from the RAM)?
What do you guys think?

I think you answered the question of why android multitask so much better. The desire HD will have more than enough RAM(768MB I think) for it to ever slow down or need a task killer. Haven't really needed a task kisller since RAM went above 256mb I haven't used one on any of my cuter t android phones. Except to monitor programs that are causing problems. System panel is a great one for monitoring you CPU and RAM usage
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

ksizzle9 said:
I think you answered the question of why android multitask so much better. The desire HD will have more than enough RAM(768MB I think) for it to ever slow down or need a task killer. Haven't really needed a task kisller since RAM went above 256mb I haven't used one on any of my cuter t android phones. Except to monitor programs that are causing problems. System panel is a great one for monitoring you CPU and RAM usage
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Awesome. I do not doubt this system at all, and it seems to be smart. My next question would then be; How much RAM does a typical application use? Does the RAM drain more power, when things are stored into it?

nunikasi said:
Awesome. I do not doubt this system at all, and it seems to be smart. My next question would then be; How much RAM does a typical application use? Does the RAM drain more power, when things are stored into it?
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Click to collapse
The amount of RAM an application uses varies a lot, so there is no 'typical' amount, but Android has its own system of freeing up RAM as and when it needs it.
Power drain is not caused by how much RAM is in use at any one time, but by how much the CPU is used.
That is why with the DHD's generous amount of RAM you don't need to worry about task killers and freeing up RAM - instead you need to monitor things like screen use, wifi use, phone use, data uploading/downloading & syncing, GPS use, etc - the programs that use more resources will consume more power.

Related

Memory leaks?

My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?
I'd get rid of Task Killer, you don't need it.
its not leaking memory...it handles memory differently than windows of yore....stop fretting about how much memory you have available and just reboot your phone once every few days....thats not needed, but if it makes you feel better to look at useless numbers...
Yeah you need to stop looking at this as either a windows pc or an old device (think g1). Get rid of the task killer and never look at how much free ram you have again. Its not important at all. I've had this phone for months and I literally have no idea how much ram it uses on average because I have never checked or cared. My phone has been running smooth since day one. Yours will too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?
Miami_Son said:
Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?
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Click to collapse
If you look at Window 7, there is a concept called pre-fetch. This allows the OS to load the programs into memory based on past usage, and frequency of usage. This lets us open the program much faster, than fetch when requested. This info is loaded to memory, and kept there, until some other program comes in that needs more memory.
And just 'cos a program is present in RAM doesn't mean it would use CPU.
And, based on my observation of android, I see that I have close to 180 MB free when the phone boots up. But this quickly reduces to around 120-150 in less than an hour based on what I use. After like a day this I see that free RAM is about 80-120 MB. And even after 3-4 days of no reboots, the free memory is still present at the same 80-120 levels. I am not sure what kind of memory management android uses, but its very effective, and never caused any noticeable lag in the system.
And, I do not use any task killers, not free up RAM in task manager.
Your concerns are flawed in the fact that the Linux kernel handles memory different than what you are used to. Simply speaking, Linux keeps memory used by applications on need to basis. It keeps it loaded until something else needs to use it. It will take from something else at the required time. A system actually performs faster when there is less memory available because that means that applications are able to be recalled quicker. It's not like it can only load from what is left available.
You will also notice that many applications take up memory but are using 0 CPU. This speaks to the fact that it simply loaded into memory and not taking up resources required for other operations.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I got my android phone, the first thing I did was put up things like task killer, start up auditor, etc. But as weeks passed, I realized these were more of deteriorating performance, than improve it. So got rid of them. Android can handle itself.
Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It started with the combination of old versions of android (think cupcake and doughnut) and phones like the G1. Older versions didn't handle ram as well as they do in eclair and up. If you combine this with the fact that those older phones had less ram, and likely didn't use any gpu acceleration (unsure of this though), then task killers and other programs were considered necessary to get a fluid feeling experience.
They are still in the market now for 2 reasons.
1. Because some people still have those old phones and still run old versions of android. (less likely)
2. Habit. If people are used to using them and tell others they are necessary because they've always worked, why would a developer pull his money making app from the market? (much more likely)
So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?
Miami_Son said:
My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Along with what everyone else said, remember that a memory leak is a LEAK, something that is continuously draining, not a one-time thing. So, if memory goes to 80MB free and holds, that's not a leak, that's simply memory that is being used. If free memory drops to 75, then 60, then 55, 50, 45, and so on, then you have a true leak to worry about.
Well, what we Windows Mobile users often also refer to as leaks is the bad habit of some apps to not release their memory when closed. For instance, a program that carves out 25mb of RAM when started and returns less then half of that when closed.
jaju123 said:
Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Anyone else know much about "Autokiller"?
i used to use a task killer with my G1, and continued to do so with my captivate but i saw a few things like this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ and decided to get rid of my task killers and my phone seemed actually a little faster and seemed my battery life increased.
matt310 said:
So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is useful in those situations but realistically when people give that argument they are just looking for a reason to keep it. Android has the ability to kill tasks built in. If you're on 2.1 then yeah it's buried deeper in the menu but not a big deal. I can't imagine an app freezing enough to warrant having a task killer for. If you're on 2.2 it's much more easily accessible.
When we talk about task killers we're talking about people using them to kill open tasks that aren't causing issues simply to see more free ram available.

Question about RAM

I am running Froyo from Samsung web site.
Anyways, I know froyo was supposed to free up 512 ram. I know about 100 goes to gpu. However my phone is left with 339 ram to use (as seen in task manager). However it is always using at least 220mb, even when I close everything and restart the phone. When I open up advanced task killer it says 116m free. Why so little? How can I get more easily? without having to use ROMs or kernels?
Or is this how it is for everyone? I feel kind of cheated!
First of all, you should never need to use anything like Advanced Task Killer now that you have froyo. There are legitimate uses, but its really something you can go without. See http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/cwovf/in_light_of_all_the_discussions_right_now_about/ for a good writeup.
Your phone, just like a computer, uses an optimal amount of RAM at all times. That does not mean minimal. Android phones dynamically allocate RAM for applications and the OS. Why have 200MB of RAM free when you can instead have 100MB free and have the phone be more responsive? 2.2+ manages memory more effectively, and if you are not using an application, will close it. Its fairly difficult with any normal usage scenario to cause your phone to run out of memory.
In short, you don't really need to worry about it because its that way on all Android devices (and generally any modern computing device), and that if is not affecting the usability then its not an issue
Completely agree With first comment. Everyone is concerned about keeping as much ram free as they can but it does not speed their phone up at all. Ram its just like quadrant scores a useless numbers if the phone is response and speedy in actual use
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
U could try reading this: Android Memory Management
your ram usage does seem a little high, you may have an app that is using a lot of it. the 339mb available is normal. some kernels will show quite a bit lower than that but the never seeing more than 116 free is odd. the rom im curently on fluctuates from about 140mb used to 240mb used. i only know that because i clear ram before running benchmarks, have you tried clearing ram in the built in taskmanager? or are you only going off the task killer? because the task killer doesnt necessarily clear ram.
all i know is task killers are pretty useless unless you have an app that freezes and for that the taskmanager built in to many of the samsung roms should be enough for that though it does not show every process that is in a saved state or system processes. task killer programs do more harm than good but i cant seem to get people off them. danm verizon store sets people up with them and poeple use them religiously. i figured out in the first few days of using android on my aria that getting better speed and battery life by killing tasts was a futile effort. there are few market apps that use resorces when running in the background and if you exit the app with the back button it doesnt save the state or run in the background. not that saved state is a problem. i only found that the phone uses more battery restarting processes that are designed to be running and has more lag than when you just use the phone and ignore the running processes.
Personally the only time you should be ever worried about ram is when watching a flash video or viewing a webpage with a lot of stuff. Other than that, as said, if the phone runs smooth, who cares about ram?

(Q) Droid Charge ram 328 or 512?

Sorry if this question has been answered somewhere, but I searched and couldn't find a reliable answer. When I go to task manager, it always shows memory usage out of 328mb available. Everything I read prior to purchase indicated there was 512mb ram. If I'm going to be locked in contract for any extended period of time I definitely need more than 328. 512 is already low by today's standard, but 328mb is ridiculously bad. Anyone that knows the answer and a way to verify would be greatly appreciated as all the searches I do come up with both answers.
Thanks for the help guys.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
In addition to the above mentioned issue... I frequently have 250+ out of the available 328 used even when task manager indicates no apps running. Is there that much going on in the background? In case this helps I'm running the ED2 debloated rom so I can't imagine how bad it would be if I still had all the bloat in there.
Thanks again for the input
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
The phone has 512MB total, with some of that allocated to the system that can't be used by apps. This memory goes to thinks like the GPU to give you that stellar video performance. Sucks that it can't be changed really, but that is how it's setup. I believe that we can get a few MB back from the system, but you won't get all of it back.
imnuts said:
The phone has 512MB total, with some of that allocated to the system that can't be used by apps. This memory goes to thinks like the GPU to give you that stellar video performance. Sucks that it can't be changed really, but that is how it's setup. I believe that we can get a few MB back from the system, but you won't get all of it back.
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Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the response. Makes me a lot more comfortable with holding on to this guy. There must be some serious bacground processes going. because I've yet to see anything lower than 180mb used (about 150 available) and that's with autokiller at extreme preset, which I normally wouldn't set so high...I just wanted to see if any additional mb's would free up.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
Ok, android 101:
Android uses smart caching and background process management to keep your apps available and running smoothly. As such the more RAM you have free the more you are WASTING. This system is designed to run up to 99% RAM use before turning off any running apps/background processes.
Ever since android 2.2 it has been HIGHLY efficient at doing so. Using autokillers to keep RAM free is pointless, as most apps don't even use ANY CPU when in background, unless they perform background checks for things like is it your turn on words with friends, etc. Unless you have an app that uses too much background data like this (in which case I'd just get rid of the app...) then using killers is pointless, let the OS run the way it is designed to do. Ever since I listened to a ROM dev and stopped using task killers my battery life on my original droid has nearly tripled, and I'm overclocking it from 566 to 1200mhz!
Android is not windows 95, you don't need to hold its hand and make sure things are closed, doing so actually defeats the advanced features of the OS, decreases battery life in all but a very few cases, and increases your app startup times, keeps you from getting background updates properly, etc.
warriorprophet said:
Ok, android 101:
Android uses smart caching and background process management to keep your apps available and running smoothly. As such the more RAM you have free the more you are WASTING. This system is designed to run up to 99% RAM use before turning off any running apps/background processes.
Ever since android 2.2 it has been HIGHLY efficient at doing so. Using autokillers to keep RAM free is pointless, as most apps don't even use ANY CPU when in background, unless they perform background checks for things like is it your turn on words with friends, etc. Unless you have an app that uses too much background data like this (in which case I'd just get rid of the app...) then using killers is pointless, let the OS run the way it is designed to do. Ever since I listened to a ROM dev and stopped using task killers my battery life on my original droid has nearly tripled, and I'm overclocking it from 566 to 1200mhz!
Android is not windows 95, you don't need to hold its hand and make sure things are closed, doing so actually defeats the advanced features of the OS, decreases battery life in all but a very few cases, and increases your app startup times, keeps you from getting background updates properly, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was always of the impression that an app such as autokiller differed from a standard task killer in that it modified the values at which android natively kills off processes vs me going in and manually closing an app (which i never do). I too have read articles that task killers are pointless and do more harm than good, but I always thought autokiller was a different sort of "tweak" if you will. I've even seen several devs promote that they've modified androids native memory management to be more aggressive, etc...which is what I thought autokiller accomplished. Autokiller simply seemed necessary to me with the Charge because I was experiencing lag and lockups even with a debloated rom and voodoo kernel. Clearly there could be several culprits to this this and I was simply testing out different fixes and seeing what the results were. Thanks for the heads up though...learn something new every day.

[Q] Is adanced task manager good for our xt720?

I've seen a lot of debates abt whether advanced task manager is good for the phone or not but im not sure if it has a positive effect on our xt720 with very little ram, so does it make more sense to use advanced task manager?? Btw im talking abt the 2.1 version of xt720 not the dexter's froyo or anything else. any help would be appreciated!
Advanced task manager is an app and task killer. Although discussion is varied it is safe to say a majority of very computer literate people tend to think task killers are bad for your phone and actually cause more battery drain in the end.
It is important to know how android handles memory. When you open an app for example the browser, and then move to gmail android puts the browser in an idle state. If after that you open say google maps and your phone has no more free memory android will kill your first process the browser to make space. The apps which are idle take no memory resources and just sit there. Killing idle apps, which usually reappear as soon as they are killed drain more juice, and are slow to launch.
A better app to use is the Autokiller memory optimizer. It uses a script to change androids own parameters at boot. So you can specify at what ram you want android to kill the idle apps. It does not involve killing apps and lets android handle everything. Ive been using it for quite some time and my phone is snappy fast and has around 60-70MB ram free all the time. I use the strict settings anything about that free's too much ram. Ofcourse your phone needs to be rooted for this to work.
sohrab.naushad said:
Advanced task manager is an app and task killer. Although discussion is varied it is safe to say a majority of very computer literate people tend to think task killers are bad for your phone and actually cause more battery drain in the end.
It is important to know how android handles memory. When you open an app for example the browser, and then move to gmail android puts the browser in an idle state. If after that you open say google maps and your phone has no more free memory android will kill your first process the browser to make space. The apps which are idle take no memory resources and just sit there. Killing idle apps, which usually reappear as soon as they are killed drain more juice, and are slow to launch.
A better app to use is the Autokiller memory optimizer. It uses a script to change androids own parameters at boot. So you can specify at what ram you want android to kill the idle apps. It does not involve killing apps and lets android handle everything. Ive been using it for quite some time and my phone is snappy fast and has around 60-70MB ram free all the time. I use the strict settings anything about that free's too much ram. Ofcourse your phone needs to be rooted for this to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im trying the app now so far so good. After i put it in strict level, there is nothing else that i should be doing with the app rite? i can just continue with the normal use of my phone rite? thx a lot! oh and i already uninstalled advanced task manager.
Nopes, just use your phone as you would Use the lowest settings that make your phone feel fast. How much free memory are you getting now? Also reboot your phone once. I've used the strict settings makes my phone feel great lemme know how it works out for you.
You should also use milestone overclock to overclock your processor if you dont already. Its available on the market for free. I use 1 Ghz, 74 Vsel!
After using the memory app, I have also 60-70mb free oh and I also use milestone overclock my settings are 1ghz 62vsel. What are the advantages of increasing the vsel value?
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App
I find that having a higher vsel keeps the system more stable during memory intensive tasks. Also I found no difference in battery life thats why I use the stock presets. Before I used 56 vsel 1 ghz but when I opened up the camera or something the system would hang and reboot. Try it out, its also much faster
More vsel actually drains the battery faster. From my experiance and recomnendations I found out that 1Ghz @ 66vsel is my optimal setting.
About ATK and Autokiller memory optimizer - crap! I preffer Running service and Manage application to deal with programs if I need to, but I mostly let Android decide for himself. My phone always have around 60MB free memory and ROM is fast and very responsive.
Also you may wanna try JuceDefender. Awesome app which saves you battery and clears RAM, if you are not feeling comfortable doing it yourself.
eSu.Matix said:
More vsel actually drains the battery faster. From my experiance and recomnendations I found out that 1Ghz @ 66vsel is my optimal setting.
About ATK and Autokiller memory optimizer - crap! I preffer Running service and Manage application to deal with programs if I need to, but I mostly let Android decide for himself. My phone always have around 60MB free memory and ROM is fast and very responsive.
Also you may wanna try JuceDefender. Awesome app which saves you battery and clears RAM, if you are not feeling comfortable doing it yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm, I think you're confusing autokiller memory optimizer with the normal task killers. Look it up, it isnt a task killer but changes androids native application management parameters. Which ROM are you on?
Also ive used ultimate juice for sometime. It doesnt clear RAM, it just toggles your data and wifi according to options you set. I also noticed that without juice defender my phone works just as much so dont know how much that helps.
Battery calibration after new ROM flash has always made my battery meter more accurate and lasts longer.
I very well may and I apologize for that.
Actually I use recovery mode options to set the aggressiveness of the running service and I'm more than satisfied.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App
P.S. StealEpicBlue with some little tweaks from me (few deleted system apps).
eSu.Matix said:
I very well may and I apologize for that.
Actually I use recovery mode options to set the aggressiveness of the running service and I'm more than satisfied.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App
P.S. StealEpicBlue with some little tweaks from me (few deleted system apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do that. I am running steelblue also and can always tweak it more. Is it through Androidiani recovery that you set the aggressiveness. I might start a thread tomorrow about all the things Androidiani does and how to use them. Haven't been able to find too much on it, but I know alot of people use it.

Is the memory usage always so high?

Hey guys i have been enjoying my rooted sensation with ARHD 6.6.4 rom and its working perfect but i only have one issue.
Is the memory usage always so high?
I used this app called Memory Booster Lite and it shows used memory 75% and free only 23 or 25% always no matter how many apps or services i close.
Is this normal and is there any way to improve free ram memory?.
Thanks
Anything above 150 MB free memory is considered good in my books.
Most custom ROMs will get you between 200-250 MB free memory, which is normal.
You don't need to improve the amount of Free RAM you have at any given time. And your memory booster app is probably counter productive to achiving improved performance.
When you load an Android App, it will stay in RAM until something else needs that memory. It's not supposed to get dumped out of RAM just because you close the app.
If you have 100mb of RAM (using easy to work with numbers here) and an app takes 50 MB of RAM and anothe rapp takes 25MB of RAM, both apps will stay loaded in RAM so make them load quicker if you go to use them again. This saves load time and battery as the phone doesn't have to spend energy to transfer the app from storage back into RAM.
So in this scenario you'll have 25MB of RAM left.
Now say you want to load a 3rd app that takes 50MB of RAM. Obviously you don't have enough RAM to load it, so the system will now dump the other 50MB RAM user so it has room to load the new 50MB into RAM.
The system does it all for you natively so you don't need memory improvement apps. All they do it use up RAM permently (since they keep themselves in active memory and won't let themselves be killed) and use up extra battery power because they perform a task that will be performed again by the system later.
Android is very efficient at dumping apps form RAM when not in active use.
Over the course of a battery cycle you'll find that you use the same apps multiple times in a row. The phone app, text app, web browser app, etc are all things that you will use over and over and over. So rather than dumping these out of memory it keeps them so they load faster the next time. And it works VERY well. And it custom tailors itself to the user. If you never use the text app, but use Angry Birds all the time, Angry Birds will stick in RAM.
Sense is a RAM hog. If you want more RAM use AOSP. Having said that, free RAM is wasted RAM.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium
Skipjacks said:
You don't need to improve the amount of Free RAM you have at any given time. And your memory booster app is probably counter productive to achiving improved performance.
When you load an Android App, it will stay in RAM until something else needs that memory. It's not supposed to get dumped out of RAM just because you close the app.
If you have 100mb of RAM (using easy to work with numbers here) and an app takes 50 MB of RAM and anothe rapp takes 25MB of RAM, both apps will stay loaded in RAM so make them load quicker if you go to use them again. This saves load time and battery as the phone doesn't have to spend energy to transfer the app from storage back into RAM.
So in this scenario you'll have 25MB of RAM left.
Now say you want to load a 3rd app that takes 50MB of RAM. Obviously you don't have enough RAM to load it, so the system will now dump the other 50MB RAM user so it has room to load the new 50MB into RAM.
The system does it all for you natively so you don't need memory improvement apps. All they do it use up RAM permently (since they keep themselves in active memory and won't let themselves be killed) and use up extra battery power because they perform a task that will be performed again by the system later.
Android is very efficient at dumping apps form RAM when not in active use.
Over the course of a battery cycle you'll find that you use the same apps multiple times in a row. The phone app, text app, web browser app, etc are all things that you will use over and over and over. So rather than dumping these out of memory it keeps them so they load faster the next time. And it works VERY well. And it custom tailors itself to the user. If you never use the text app, but use Angry Birds all the time, Angry Birds will stick in RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of this. Every bit of it. I had to explain this to someone the other day who was hellbent on achieving MAXIMUM FREE RAM.
Skipjacks said:
You don't need to improve the amount of Free RAM you have at any given time. And your memory booster app is probably counter productive to achiving improved performance.
When you load an Android App, it will stay in RAM until something else needs that memory. It's not supposed to get dumped out of RAM just because you close the app.
If you have 100mb of RAM (using easy to work with numbers here) and an app takes 50 MB of RAM and anothe rapp takes 25MB of RAM, both apps will stay loaded in RAM so make them load quicker if you go to use them again. This saves load time and battery as the phone doesn't have to spend energy to transfer the app from storage back into RAM.
So in this scenario you'll have 25MB of RAM left.
Now say you want to load a 3rd app that takes 50MB of RAM. Obviously you don't have enough RAM to load it, so the system will now dump the other 50MB RAM user so it has room to load the new 50MB into RAM.
The system does it all for you natively so you don't need memory improvement apps. All they do it use up RAM permently (since they keep themselves in active memory and won't let themselves be killed) and use up extra battery power because they perform a task that will be performed again by the system later.
Android is very efficient at dumping apps form RAM when not in active use.
Over the course of a battery cycle you'll find that you use the same apps multiple times in a row. The phone app, text app, web browser app, etc are all things that you will use over and over and over. So rather than dumping these out of memory it keeps them so they load faster the next time. And it works VERY well. And it custom tailors itself to the user. If you never use the text app, but use Angry Birds all the time, Angry Birds will stick in RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks a lot for the explanation i really didnt know that.I got used to the pc ram optimizing hahahaha my bad.
so these apps android booster and memory booster shall i remove them all?
but apps running in background they dont drain ur battery?.
Like i am running music player and later i stopped it but its still there in process does it drain battery as long as its there in services?
High Always
Memory free has always been low to about 215 MB max. If you really want you can freeze sense and use a basic launcher from the play store to increase memory by about 50-70 MB.
Memory free is about 300 MB with Virtuous Inquesition 4.0.2 for me!
gamer1291 said:
Wow thanks a lot for the explanation i really didnt know that.I got used to the pc ram optimizing hahahaha my bad.
so these apps android booster and memory booster shall i remove them all?
but apps running in background they dont drain ur battery?.
Like i am running music player and later i stopped it but its still there in process does it drain battery as long as its there in services?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah get rid of all that stuff.
And no, having an app loaded in RAM doesn't mean it's using processor power, which is what uses the battery. (Nor does it mean it's forcing the screen to stay on, which is your biggest battery drain)
Think of an app you just closed as a guy on a bus. He's just sitting there taking up a seat on the bus not bothering anyone. He doesn't weigh much compared to the bus itself so he's not decreasing the fuel efficiency of the bus. And when a little old lady needs to get on and have a seat, he'll gladly give up his seat for her and get off the bus....then patiently wait on the sidewalk for the next bus.
But as long as he's sitting on the bus quietly he's primed and ready to jump into the drivers seat if you need him to do so. Once he gets off the bus, it takes a second for him to reboard so he can drive.
well, all of this is so wrong... (this maybe true if gingerbread, but not ICS)
Read here:
http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/2012/03/30/learn-about-the-technical-differences-between-gingerbread-and-ics/
http://source.android.com/compatibility/4.0/android-4.0-cdd.pdf
ICS is designed for 1GB RAM devices (eg: Galaxy Nexus),
and ICS need at least 340MB for linux user space + hardware functions (eg: camera, modem) + 64-128mb max for each running application
so ICS will need more ram than GB. that's why I think 100-150mb free ram isn't enough on Sensation-ICS, especially if you run heavy games that consume very big memory
Rotundjere said:
well, all of this is so wrong... (this maybe true if gingerbread, but not ICS)
Read here:
http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/...ical-differences-between-gingerbread-and-ics/
http://source.android.com/compatibility/4.0/android-4.0-cdd.pdf
ICS is designed for 1GB RAM devices (eg: Galaxy Nexus),
and ICS need at least 340MB for linux user space + hardware functions (eg: camera, modem) + 64-128mb max for each running application
so ICS will need more ram than GB. that's why I think 100-150mb free ram isn't enough on Sensation-ICS, especially if you run heavy games that consume very big memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you forgot nexus s or some phone with 512MB, i use it on ics and still smooth and no problem with gaming.
Google never explain how much ram requirements to run ics they just said about STORAGE minimum is 1GB.
One of the improvement of ics is on memory management, we can call it ram management.
In eclair you have to use ram management apps to kill your background tasks in order to run heavy apps smoothly, but in gb google made some improvement on ram management so we dont need an app anymore.
In ics google improve memory management again, thats why even you playing heavy games then minimize it and open browser or something else, you dont feel laggy browsing or because system will kill the game, and you have to start from scratch if you open the game again.
And 768MB is enough for me to run shadow gun, x-plane, gta 3.
Do some research before you say something mate.
And for free ram, i can get 300MB on MIUI sense based, but i dont even care, just leave it let system do the job.
C'mon, we dont need 300MB (except for show off ) what we need is smoothness and battery efficient.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2
I thought that they did have rom management in older android versions. If all recent apps stayed open then it would crash the phone because it couldnt handle the load. And apps have different API levels which decided what apps were killed, depending on the kind of app(which you could change with an app). Ics and jb just have a better from management system. Correct me if I'm wrong
And could I hear more about the extra RAM?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium
CerealFTW said:
I thought that they did have rom management in older android versions. If all recent apps stayed open then it would crash the phone because it couldnt handle the load. And apps have different API levels which decided what apps were killed, depending on the kind of app(which you could change with an app). Ics and jb just have a better from management system. Correct me if I'm wrong
And could I hear more about the extra RAM?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what i mean, in eclair phone become laggy when opened a lot of apps, but fixed on GB and more optimized on ICS.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2
haha my bad. And is there really a 300mb ram hack in miui? This is the first I've heard of it
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium
In linux, the expression goes "free RAM is wasted RAM."
chrisund123 said:
In linux, the expression goes "free RAM is wasted RAM."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not true anymore, modern linux distro such as Fedora16 64-bit (kernel 3.x) only consume 320 MB of 8GB total RAM and 0 MB swap after start-up (no prefetch by default)
---------- Post added at 12:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 AM ----------
aimcr7 said:
Maybe you forgot nexus s or some phone with 512MB, i use it on ics and still smooth and no problem with gaming.
Google never explain how much ram requirements to run ics they just said about STORAGE minimum is 1GB.
One of the improvement of ics is on memory management, we can call it ram management.
In eclair you have to use ram management apps to kill your background tasks in order to run heavy apps smoothly, but in gb google made some improvement on ram management so we dont need an app anymore.
In ics google improve memory management again, thats why even you playing heavy games then minimize it and open browser or something else, you dont feel laggy browsing or because system will kill the game, and you have to start from scratch if you open the game again.
And 768MB is enough for me to run shadow gun, x-plane, gta 3.
Do some research before you say something mate.
And for free ram, i can get 300MB on MIUI sense based, but i dont even care, just leave it let system do the job.
C'mon, we dont need 300MB (except for show off ) what we need is smoothness and battery efficient.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes of course you can run on sensation, but the system must kill other app running on background (just like my old moto milestone with 256mb ram kill app very frequently including homescreen launcher and it's very slow to start an app).
Read again the official Android 4.0 Compatibility Definition document:
http://source.android.com/compatibility/4.0/android-4.0-cdd.pdf
http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/...ical-differences-between-gingerbread-and-ics/
Do some research before you say something mate.
sure, nexus s meet the android 4.0 ccd because it has more than 340 MB RAM, but it struggle just like 512 MB sony devices
128MB is a MUST for each app, but have to adjust more if needed. So next year or two, all phone manufactures will not ship devices with 512MB anymore coz it's too slow & will kill app on background frequently (just like my old milestone)
if you're not developer you won't encounter about memory hungry app, currently I make 3D games on android and <512MB devices (such as xperia mini ics) will automatically exit, because my game take to much ram and probably draw calls (but run very well on my pc), optimization is the only solution (reducing vertices/poly & texture size)
gamer1291 said:
Hey guys i have been enjoying my rooted sensation with ARHD 6.6.4 rom and its working perfect but i only have one issue.
Is the memory usage always so high?
I used this app called Memory Booster Lite and it shows used memory 75% and free only 23 or 25% always no matter how many apps or services i close.
Is this normal and is there any way to improve free ram memory?.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha.. you want more free memory? stop using a SenseUI rom...
trust me, youll get used to it. sense is nothing special after you get the full affect of an AOSP base
ALSO, just because memory is not free doesnt mean the memory isnt being allocated correctly. androids memory management is very intelligent. usually you dont need any task killers
chrisund123 said:
In linux, the expression goes "free RAM is wasted RAM."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Up to a point but beyond a certain threshold too little ram can cause lag, look in the v6 supercharger thread for more info on this
CerealFTW said:
haha my bad. And is there really a 300mb ram hack in miui? This is the first I've heard of it
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily reach 280MB free on MIUI sometimes 300MB. But c'mon, do you really need it?
Rotundjere said:
not true anymore, modern linux distro such as Fedora16 64-bit (kernel 3.x) only consume 320 MB of 8GB total RAM and 0 MB swap after start-up (no prefetch by default)
---------- Post added at 12:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 AM ----------
yes of course you can run on sensation, but the system must kill other app running on background (just like my old moto milestone with 256mb ram kill app very frequently including homescreen launcher and it's very slow to start an app).
Read again the official Android 4.0 Compatibility Definition document:
http://source.android.com/compatibility/4.0/android-4.0-cdd.pdf
http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/...ical-differences-between-gingerbread-and-ics/
Do some research before you say something mate.
sure, nexus s meet the android 4.0 ccd because it has more than 340 MB RAM, but it struggle just like 512 MB sony devices
128MB is a MUST for each app, but have to adjust more if needed. So next year or two, all phone manufactures will not ship devices with 512MB anymore coz it's too slow & will kill app on background frequently (just like my old milestone)
if you're not developer you won't encounter about memory hungry app, currently I make 3D games on android and <512MB devices (such as xperia mini ics) will automatically exit, because my game take to much ram and probably draw calls (but run very well on my pc), optimization is the only solution (reducing vertices/poly & texture size)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe 2 years later google will optimize more this beautiful os so it wont become recource hungry OS, do we really need smartphone with 4gb ram? So it will become so smooth.
Ive tried samsung GS advance and its smooth, maybe samsung do better job in term of software. but oh, i forgot GS advance still on GB
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2
And i do some research before wrote all this, i used to developed some rom for Neo.
And c'mon what SE said about ICS is ****, even their GB is laggy, too much issue, and when ics come, some people including me trying to make it smoother. But still there is an annoying issue with video recording.
Ive readed the link.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2

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