Database Info

Amount of RAM

Everything I have seen on the internet (including HTC's own specs page) shows the EVO SHift having 512 MB of RAM. However, it seems as if my system only has 368 MB (as detected by V6 Supercharger and a couple hardware info apps I downloaded from the market). Does anybody know why this would be the case? My phone is newer (just got it a little over a month ago). Could HTC have lessened the amount of RAM in the new Shifts?

Also, I am running MikShifted-G v1.6 if that makes any difference.

Mine says I have 367,haha, i believe it might only show total available after all the system android stuff... I am probally wrong because I have AOSP which is so much smaller and less bloated that your sense and i have less.. Haha.. But idk... Just speculation
Sent from my Shifty Speedy using the XDA Premium App

#
mine shows,
internal 452/321 free
rom 410/91.9 free

This might help explain things better
]http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=904023[/URL]
Sent for my rooted Thrive

Thanks for the link, but I'm just talking about total RAM, not amount free. Everything indicates I have 368 MB of RAM (not internal storage or ROM or anything, but actual RAM). The Evo Shift supposedly has 512 MB, but I know the HTC Merge has 368 MB, so I was wondering if they lowered the RAM on the newer Shifts.
To check the RAM, download the app Android System Info. It is not Internal Memory, but RAM. Mine says Max 368 MB.

My mistake

trsix said:
Has anyone added more ram? Ive seen 1 gig sticks for$38. I might have to try if noone else has. Curious if it might speed the shift up.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're talking about internal memory on the phone. Are you talking about an sdcard?

Its possible the gpu has an amount dedicated to it that will not be shown. Sort of like checking the ram on a laptop will show less than the stated specs

Why does my One S have much less space than advertised

I recently bought a One S and one thing that has really been bugging me is the fact that I have much les storage than advertised. It says that you get 16 GB, but the actual amount is 12.14, and
2.21 of that is internal memory so I only actually have 9.93 to store my media. Why is this? Also it says it should have 1 GB of RAM but task manager says I only have 650 MB.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA

tjamzt said:
I recently bought a One S and one thing that has really been bugging me is the fact that I have much les storage than advertised. It says that you get 16 GB, but the actual amount is 12.14, and
2.21 of that is internal memory so I only actually have 9.93 to store my media. Why is this? Also it says it should have 1 GB of RAM but task manager says I only have 650 MB.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16 GB storage is partitioned and some RAM is reserved for the system and the GPU.

tjamzt said:
I recently bought a One S and one thing that has really been bugging me is the fact that I have much les storage than advertised. It says that you get 16 GB, but the actual amount is 12.14, and
2.21 of that is internal memory so I only actually have 9.93 to store my media. Why is this? Also it says it should have 1 GB of RAM but task manager says I only have 650 MB.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off no hdd or flash memory is ever 100% as advertise because its been formatted to run. That's why there is only 12gb instead of 16gb. And that 2gb is the space dedicated to app installs. And the remainder is for you to do with however you please. Music, videos, extra game data (like many of gameloft games where you need to dl an extra 500 MB or so) or whatever you else you want to throw on other then an app install.
When you see an app in market and you download it and install it, it goes directly to that 2gb partition. If you download an app from a third party website it first goes to the 9gb space and once it installs it, it installs on the 2gb and all you need to do is delete the original dl .apk or keep it as a back up.
Sent from my DROID X2 using XDA

The above answers covered the answer so no need to reiterate but I just want to opine that you should consider yourself lucky, HTC doesn't rape you like Motorola does. On the Razr and Bionic, they are advertised as 16gb internal but only 8 is accessible to the user. They allot 4gb for apps and 4 for the OS. Bonus for them is obviously expandable memory.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

System takes the resources
On many phones the preinstalled software takes a lot of space. I would recommend to install another ROM. I always do that to get rid of the software I don't need.

Ok. Thanks for the help. But what about the RAM? Shouldnt all of it be available?

tjamzt said:
Ok. Thanks for the help. But what about the RAM? Shouldnt all of it be available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As already said, some of the RAM is reserved for the system and GPU. For example my HD2 should have 576MB RAM but it only has 411/403 (depends on the ROM/Kernel I guess) because 128MB is for the GPU and the rest is used by the system. I never actually get that much free RAM (I never get more than 200MB free, and that's only on startup; normally I have around 130MB free) but at the same time it's never really been an issue.

Ok. I just though that everything was shown together because I always have 500 MB of RAM used even with all applications closed.

The phone will still reserve some RAM for itself, and that is not the best indicator of RAM that's actually in use.

HTC One S is a gorgeous piece of hardware. To bad they didn't add sd card support...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app

My iPad is advertised 16 gb but its 13. Is the answers here applicable to that?

larsibsen said:
On many phones the preinstalled software takes a lot of space. I would recommend to install another ROM. I always do that to get rid of the software I don't need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System software installed on separate partition usually. So removing them will not add more space to the user data.
OptimusLove said:
My iPad is advertised 16 gb but its 13. Is the answers here applicable to that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes

another RAM consumption question

I am wondering if anyone of you feel suspicious about RAM consumption on android?
Here is an example:
Galaxy tab 2 7" listed with 1GB RAM, but when viewed with stock task manager in RAM manager section, the RAM available is not 1GB, but rather on some 687MB. Furthermore, from that 687MB there is some already used by apps. Even on newly bought device with no open apps, the amount of used RAM is around 200MB, so that leaves only approx 487MB left. Even after using task killers, there is still hundreds of MB used RAM
When I search for why the RAM is not 1GB, people answer its because its reserved by android.
When I search for why there are used RAM when there is no open apps and on newly bought device, people also answer its because its used by android.
So I would categorize the problem as "the missing RAM" and "the used RAM" and ask these question:
1. If the "missing RAM" is reserved by android, then what is using the "used RAM"?
2. If the "used RAM" is used by android, then what is causing the "missing RAM"?
Does that means android double use the RAM? or is it something else?
Please enlighten me.

Great question, and I have been wondering the same thing. :thumbup:
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda premium

The problem with me is somewhat like you i found with stock rom that have alot of bloatware that i have about 680 mb after installing cm10 which do not have bloatware at all the same amount of memory is found !!!!
Sent from my GT-P5100 using xda app-developers app

It's easy in the world of IT 1gb is never 1024mb its 1,000mb in most cases(You can actually see your computers harddrive where they say 500gb = 500,000MB)(but it will probably maximum 998)Why? in the factory where these are made they cannot achieve 100% "capability" And where is the missing 300mb? its reserved for the ACTUAL Android system.In the task killers you can see that there are some apps running(samsung touchwiz,system-apps(not google) Which MAINTAIN the system ,and you can also see that the google apps and some other(fb,twitter etc which needs to check the intertnet to get notification etc are running too.Now to increase the ram you can install a custom rom/kernel to remove somethings(for e.g touchwiz) to get more RAM.
Now dont take these notes to serious I'm not working in these factories,places where they do this.But this is MY theory.

Tab2 should have 1 gb ram right
Galaxy s2 should also have 1 gb ram right
So why the hell when i install cm in both ram in s2 is 827 mb and in tab2 is 687 mb it is driving me mad !!!
Sent from my GT-P5100 using xda app-developers app

PX7 said:
It's easy in the world of IT 1gb is never 1024mb its 1,000mb in most cases(You can actually see your computers harddrive where they say 500gb = 500,000MB)(but it will probably maximum 998)Why? in the factory where these are made they cannot achieve 100% "capability" And where is the missing 300mb? its reserved for the ACTUAL Android system.In the task killers you can see that there are some apps running(samsung touchwiz,system-apps(not google) Which MAINTAIN the system ,and you can also see that the google apps and some other(fb,twitter etc which needs to check the intertnet to get notification etc are running too.Now to increase the ram you can install a custom rom/kernel to remove somethings(for e.g touchwiz) to get more RAM.
Now dont take these notes to serious I'm not working in these factories,places where they do this.But this is MY theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do realize 1GB is not 1024MB, but at least task manager should show something around 900MB like you said.
For the Touchwiz theory, I also think that it might be the culprit of the "used RAM", but i don't think it would be that much, but that's because I'm not including google apps on that. So i think your theory might be right.
Selim already answer the "missing RAM" part, it is the same amount on custom ROM, which means they DO reserved by android. And that leads to how much is the "used RAM" part, is it more "sensible" without the bloatware running around?
Mohamedselim said:
The problem with me is somewhat like you i found with stock rom that have alot of bloatware that i have about 680 mb after installing cm10 which do not have bloatware at all the same amount of memory is found !!!!
Tab2 should have 1 gb ram right
Galaxy s2 should also have 1 gb ram right
So why the hell when i install cm in both ram in s2 is 827 mb and in tab2 is 687 mb it is driving me mad !!!
Sent from my GT-P5100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[URL="http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care"]Read this and chill out
[/URL]
There are settings (in Android we call them "minfree" settings) to tell the system how much RAM to leave free and available, but the rest is designed to fill up as fast as possible and stay that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

For most android devices, the true available RAM is always less than the stated figure, like GT2 has only 687MB, HTC One X has 976MB even both devices has 1GB RAM
Those missing RAM are not stolen, instead they are reserved by the kernel for hardware of the devices. Don't blame anyone for this, this is crucial.
Sent from my GT-P3110

Sean_Seany said:
Read this and chill out
Note: link removed due to low post count
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an interesting concept of memory management.
FYI, I'm not freaked out, just wondering where the memory goes, is it effectively used or eaten by some "rouge" apps.
Thanks anyway

However my Galaxy Tab plus with ics had about 800 mb ram in the task manager. Now (yes, my gtab plus has been stolen... grr) I have the tab 2 and I see only 687. Really strange, don't you think?
Sent from my GT-P3100 using xda app-developers app

RAM HELP
can someone who has well experienced with different ROMS for tab2 7.0(p3100) help me??
i originally had ICS 4.0.4 which displayed around 680 MB ram, then upgraded it to 4.1.2 jelly bean which displayed me 770 MB RAM.
i though as custom ROMS have seldom bloatwares, atleast they should display more memory, but to my surprise i found 691 MB RAM on the latest nightly build of Cyanogenmod 10.1(jelly bean 4.2). I ve not used the AOKP jelly bean ROM due to limited internet(downloading) at my place.
as i am having a LIMITED FREE INTERNET USAGE, i am not dowloading more ROMS until some one finally helps me with the fact that
"WHICH ROM DISPLAYS MORE MEMORY FOR TAB 2 P3100??????" so that i can download it the next month or via some other network

I don't think you for it, the missing ram is the system. The tab has 1 gig to start, but whennyou fire it up, the system has to use resources. The same way a computer says it has 2 gigs, but if you check, it is lower. The reason this changes from rom to rom is because each system has its own ram management. Does this help?
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Post your RAM here!

So, I would like to compare other people RAM USAGE
Is mine normal? I dont have 100s of Apps, i Disable junk i dont need and keep mydevice well running.
Well, Do Post ! and Offer Advice!
Has anyone rooted and got rid of the MOTO things in RAM, ??? Like Moto care etc image 1

So here is my ram usage. Not rooted or anything.
And my storage
Gesendet von meinem XT1032 mit Tapatalk

sbtm1337 said:
So here is my ram usage. Not rooted or anything.
Gesendet von meinem XT1032 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Image 1 ? Whats - Whatsapp2date?? What on earth is that?

It's an app that searches for the newest wa version on the wa server and you can download it. Sometimes new versions are on the server for weeks before they are found in the play store
Gesendet von meinem XT1032 mit Tapatalk

Do not worry about the RAM usage. RAM is there to be used. There is no point in the system keeping lots of RAM free, this makes the system perform worse. The idea is that as apps are used (either started by the user or automatically started when an app is woken etc) they are of course using RAM, the system keeps them in RAM so they can quickly be accessed next time they are required.
If the system closed all apps etc to free RAM you basically end up with more free RAM, but for what purpose. No use it sitting there empty - may as well go and buy a phone with 128MB rather than 1024MB if you dont want to use much RAM
If you start an app that needs a lot of RAM (more than is currently free) the system just removes older apps from RAM to free up the RAM required.
It is not worth comparing your phone's normal RAM usage to another phone, each person has different apps and uses the phone in different ways. It makes no sense at all to compare two phones where RAM is concerned.
Obviously there is the possibility that an app has a memory leak and starts to eat all the RAM up, but you would then most lilkely notice something was up with the phone, eg it slows down, things stop working etc. At that point you would reboot and note the RAM, then use the phone and monitor RAM every so often, at some point you may noitce RAM use going up and up to 100% - hopefully you are using a monitoring too to tell whats eating all the RAM and you then delete the app.
If your phone is running fine and you have some free RAM, even if just a smallish amount, then most likely things are running just as they should.
I am a UNIX sys admin and we have AIX (IBM's UNIX) servers with huge amounts of RAM, eg one Im looking at now has 130GB of RAM and its 98.7% used. Thats a good thing as we are making good use of the expensive RAM, if it was 50% used we'd be wasting 65GB of RAM which costs money.

are moto g with kitkat doing better in managing ram?since its a feature in 4.4.

scott_doyland said:
Do not worry about the RAM usage. RAM is tither started by the user or automatically started when an app is woken etc) they are of course
I am a UNIX sys admin and we have AIX (IBM's UNIX) servers with huge amounts of RAM, eg one Im looking at now has 130GB of RAM and its 98.7% used. Thats a good thing as we are making good use of the expensive RAM, if it was 50% used we'd be wasting 65GB of RAM which costs money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! Thanks you very much for replying and giving this infomation, helps alot! You learn something new each day! Yes!
and wow! 130GB RAM and yeah it makes sense now True Say! i understand it better now :good:

nickchk said:
are moto g with kitkat doing better in managing ram?since its a feature in 4.4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean "better"? Are you implying that Moto G in JB does "bad"? JB manages the RAM well enough for everyone as far as I've heard. If you want to have a lot of open apps, then you're going to run out of RAM, that's for sure, doesn't matter what version you are using.

theArchitektas said:
What do you mean "better"? Are you implying that Moto G in JB does "bad"? JB manages the RAM well enough for everyone as far as I've heard. If you want to have a lot of open apps, then you're going to run out of RAM, that's for sure, doesn't matter what version you are using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow,hold on brother~thats not what i meant,the benefit of kitkat as u all know is better management in ram,eg device with 512mb ram,i wanna know whatever ram management are bttr in kitkat compare to jellybean for moto g user out there.
don't be so piss next time,do some research on kitkat 1st,peace

I know what's new on KitKat, don't be afraid
What I wanted to say is that Moto G doesn't have any problems with RAM management, so you shouldn't expect anything much to change.
If you are desperate about the numbers, someone posted before that it decreased by ~20-30MB when idle. And if you want to see the changes with specific apps open, you would have to do a thorough inspection with 4.3 first, then compare it after the update. You wouldn't notice anything from the point of a user using the phone.

Thanks
scott_doyland said:
Do not worry about the RAM usage. RAM is there to be used. There is no point in the system keeping lots of RAM free, this makes the system perform worse. The idea is that as apps are used (either started by the user or automatically started when an app is woken etc) they are of course using RAM, the system keeps them in RAM so they can quickly be accessed next time they are required.
If the system closed all apps etc to free RAM you basically end up with more free RAM, but for what purpose. No use it sitting there empty - may as well go and buy a phone with 128MB rather than 1024MB if you dont want to use much RAM
If you start an app that needs a lot of RAM (more than is currently free) the system just removes older apps from RAM to free up the RAM required.
It is not worth comparing your phone's normal RAM usage to another phone, each person has different apps and uses the phone in different ways. It makes no sense at all to compare two phones where RAM is concerned.
Obviously there is the possibility that an app has a memory leak and starts to eat all the RAM up, but you would then most lilkely notice something was up with the phone, eg it slows down, things stop working etc. At that point you would reboot and note the RAM, then use the phone and monitor RAM every so often, at some point you may noitce RAM use going up and up to 100% - hopefully you are using a monitoring too to tell whats eating all the RAM and you then delete the app.
If your phone is running fine and you have some free RAM, even if just a smallish amount, then most likely things are running just as they should.
I am a UNIX sys admin and we have AIX (IBM's UNIX) servers with huge amounts of RAM, eg one Im looking at now has 130GB of RAM and its 98.7% used. Thats a good thing as we are making good use of the expensive RAM, if it was 50% used we'd be wasting 65GB of RAM which costs money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks buddy. You made this thread closed. Thumbs up :good:

scott_doyland said:
Do not worry about the RAM usage. RAM is there to be used. There is no point in the system keeping lots of RAM free, this makes the system perform worse. The idea is that as apps are used (either started by the user or automatically started when an app is woken etc) they are of course using RAM, the system keeps them in RAM so they can quickly be accessed next time they are required.
If the system closed all apps etc to free RAM you basically end up with more free RAM, but for what purpose. No use it sitting there empty - may as well go and buy a phone with 128MB rather than 1024MB if you dont want to use much RAM
If you start an app that needs a lot of RAM (more than is currently free) the system just removes older apps from RAM to free up the RAM required.
It is not worth comparing your phone's normal RAM usage to another phone, each person has different apps and uses the phone in different ways. It makes no sense at all to compare two phones where RAM is concerned.
Obviously there is the possibility that an app has a memory leak and starts to eat all the RAM up, but you would then most lilkely notice something was up with the phone, eg it slows down, things stop working etc. At that point you would reboot and note the RAM, then use the phone and monitor RAM every so often, at some point you may noitce RAM use going up and up to 100% - hopefully you are using a monitoring too to tell whats eating all the RAM and you then delete the app.
If your phone is running fine and you have some free RAM, even if just a smallish amount, then most likely things are running just as they should.
I am a UNIX sys admin and we have AIX (IBM's UNIX) servers with huge amounts of RAM, eg one Im looking at now has 130GB of RAM and its 98.7% used. Thats a good thing as we are making good use of the expensive RAM, if it was 50% used we'd be wasting 65GB of RAM which costs money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the best explainations i have ever read ... Hats off

With regards to 4.3 v 4.4. Some processes have to always be running and therefore use RAM, ie android operating system processes. Google have made kitkat use less RAM (don't know how as actual coding of OS's isn't something I know about).
The outcome is the OS itself uses less RAM which leaves more RAM for apps. It means you can potentially have more apps 'running', but in general on devices with plenty of RAM its not that relevant. For devices with less RAM it becomes more relevant really as the device will run smoother if it has more RAM spare (ie not in use by OS) to keep apps in memory, which is why 4.4 should run on lower spec devices than 4.3 can run on.
Bear in mind a PlayStation 3 has 256MB RAM and 256MB video RAM and look at the games you can run on there. Slightly different as the ps3 OS probably swaps/pages memory to disk but AFAIK android doesn't, but it gives an idea of what you can do with 1GB of memory on a phone

Theoretically KitKat utilises ram more efficiently,when Google introduced project butter in jelly bean it added bulk to android,all those jellybeans and butter made android get fat, with KitKat they introduced project svelte to minimize the bulk and make the os leaner,Google reckons KitKat can run smoothly on 512 mb of ram, whereas jellybean,but don't quote me needs at least 1 mb I think to operate smoothly.I run a lot of apps and at least 11 xposed modules and I usually have Around 200 mb of free ram.just let android do its job,although saying that I do greenify Facebook.

Moto G UK with KitKat US (rooted)
This is just the phone idle after a couple of minutes, of turning it on.
No applications open, and i did remove the Moto Care and Motorola Assist using Titanium Backup.

scott_doyland said:
I am a UNIX sys admin and we have AIX (IBM's UNIX) servers with huge amounts of RAM, eg one Im looking at now has 130GB of RAM and its 98.7% used. Thats a good thing as we are making good use of the expensive RAM, if it was 50% used we'd be wasting 65GB of RAM which costs money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm an IBM tech and repair those types of servers. I work on everything from Power 7 down to the Power 4 and disk storage and tape libraries.
Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk

alfick3 said:
I'm an IBM tech and repair those types of servers. I work on everything from Power 7 down to the Power 4 and disk storage and tape libraries.
Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Off-topic but I actually stopped being an AIX sysadmin 3 or so years ago and now Iook after IBM SVC, DS8K's V7000's, VTL, TSM etc.

Why does it say I only have 1794 mb of RaM?

When I go to Antutu or Ram Booster they say I only have 1794 mb of ram what happen to the other 250 mb?

fleen said:
When I go to Antutu or Ram Booster they say I only have 1794 mb of ram what happen to the other 250 mb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Nothing wrong, the rest is for system, GPU (in short)... Not all the RAM is available for the userspace.

Hammer_Of_The_Gods said:
Hi,
Nothing wrong, the rest is for system, GPU (in short)... Not all the RAM is available for the userspace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply, does this happen to all phones or just the nexus 5?
I feel like it should be better implemented like have 250mb of its own ram or use at it is needed not just take away from me 250 mb of ram.

fleen said:
Thanks for the quick reply, does this happen to all phones or just the nexus 5?
I feel like it should be better implemented like have 250mb of its own ram or use at it is needed not just take away from me 250 mb of ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, at least for all devices I owned, it's always the same thing (some devices with 1Gb RAM had something like 768 Mb available stock)...
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the available RAM detected from Antutu or RAM Booster or another apps.

fleen said:
Thanks for the quick reply, does this happen to all phones or just the nexus 5?
I feel like it should be better implemented like have 250mb of its own ram or use at it is needed not just take away from me 250 mb of ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is like that for absolutely everything. PCs/Notebooks, Tablets, Phones, etc. It's normal.

Just remember one thing that with a build.prop edit (by adding a line) you can fake the available RAM in Settings/About phone (like you can show some CPU info), but I don't know if some apps detect it (I think but... not sure ).
Maybe something like "ro.product.************" .
Maybe a Google search will give you the trick, just a cosmetic thing since the real available RAM is "hardcoded"

mmmmBACON said:
It is like that for absolutely everything. PCs/Notebooks, Tablets, Phones, etc. It's normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't pc graphic cards have dedicated memory?
So they don't take "my" memory

fleen said:
Don't pc graphic cards have dedicated memory?
So they don't take "my" memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but those are dedicated "add-on" cards and are generally limited to PCs and gaming notebooks. The OS would still be using the main system memory. If you had 16GB RAM, the OS and any other processes would be using it regardless. You would never have 16GB available to you. Also, even if you had dedicated memory on the graphics card some of it will also be used regardless without your knowledge.
Any SoC uses the systems main memory.
If you want the full 2GB available to you, have fun never turning on your phone. If you want 2GB only for you, then the system has nothing to run on.
Memory is there to be used. Having a separate section for the OS and 2GB only for your choosing is pointless and inefficient.

mmmmBACON said:
Yes, but those are dedicated "add-on" cards and are generally limited to PCs and gaming notebooks. The OS would still be using the main system memory. If you had 16GB RAM, the OS and any other processes would be using it regardless. You would never have 16GB available to you. Also, even if you had dedicated memory on the graphics card some of it will also be used regardless without your knowledge.
Any SoC uses the systems main memory.
If you want the full 2GB available to you, have fun never turning on your phone. If you want 2GB only for you, then the system has nothing to run on.
Memory is there to be used. Having a separate section for the OS and 2GB only for your choosing is pointless and inefficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think what the OP is trying to ask is why is the hardware only detecting 1794mb of total actual RAM? Not how much ram the OS utilizes.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

mmmmBACON said:
Yes, but those are dedicated "add-on" cards and are generally limited to PCs and gaming notebooks. The OS would still be using the main system memory. If you had 16GB RAM, the OS and any other processes would be using it regardless. You would never have 16GB available to you. Also, even if you had dedicated memory on the graphics card some of it will also be used regardless without your knowledge.
Any SoC uses the systems main memory.
If you want the full 2GB available to you, have fun never turning on your phone. If you want 2GB only for you, then the system has nothing to run on.
Memory is there to be used. Having a separate section for the OS and 2GB only for your choosing is pointless and inefficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a problem (well I do but not as much) with the OS and GPU use the 2GB of ram I have available but it should be something like like 300mb out of 2048mb (300/2048) of available ram not just cut my 2Gb of ram to 1794. What if the OS only needs 200 I still would not have 1894mb my max available ram is always 1794.

fleen said:
I don't have a problem (well I do but not as much) with the OS and GPU use the 2GB of ram I have available but it should be something like like 300mb out of 2048mb (300/2048) of available ram not just cut my 2Gb of ram to 1794. What if the OS only needs 200 I still would not have 1894mb my max available ram is always 1794.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its not out of 2048MB for one
its 2GiB, not 2GB
from wikipedia
Although most manufacturers of hard disk drives and flash-memory disk devicesdefine 1 gigabyte as 1000000000bytes, software like Microsoft Windows reports size in gigabytes by dividing the total capacity in bytes by 1073741824 (230 = 1 gibibyte), while still reporting the result with the symbol "GB". This practice causes confusion, as a hard disk with an advertised capacity of, for example, "400 GB" (meaning 400000000000bytes) might be reported by the operating system as only "372 GB" (meaning 372 GiB). Other software, like Mac OS X 10.6[5] and some components of the Linux kernel[6] measure using the decimal units. The JEDEC memory standards uses the IEEE 100 nomenclatures which defines a gigabyte as 1073741824bytes (or 230 bytes).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Zepius said:
its not out of 2048MB for one
its 2GiB, not 2GB
from wikipedia
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2 GiB is 1024x1024x1024. HDD / MMC / SSD use GB (1000x1000x1000) not GiB, however this is for storage. RAM is usually binary 1024... so it most likely is out of 2048.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

fleen said:
I don't have a problem (well I do but not as much) with the OS and GPU use the 2GB of ram I have available but it should be something like like 300mb out of 2048mb (300/2048) of available ram not just cut my 2Gb of ram to 1794. What if the OS only needs 200 I still would not have 1894mb my max available ram is always 1794.
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Oh, well don't worry, you have 2GB RAM. It might just be the way it is displayed in Antutu. CPU-Z displays the total amount of RAM as 1855MB. Not exactly consistent between programs.

mmmmBACON said:
Oh, well don't worry, you have 2GB RAM. It might just be the way it is displayed in Antutu. CPU-Z displays the total amount of RAM as 1855MB. Not exactly consistent between programs.
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I will just try to ignore this and I will be happier I guess, my cpu-z still says 1794MB total ram.

The device has 2GB of RAM but you the "BIOS" or whatever controller is in there allocates some for itself and the hardware in the phone (mainly GPU) and the rest is left to the OS.
Sharing RAM is good in general but many systems require X amount of RAM whether it's actively being used or not as it's designed to be able to use it. if it were to call on that memory address and it's full the system would crash (or a STOP error).
So instead of sharing it and allocating it as needed, it's locked off totally from the OS in the event it's ever needed by the hardware.

rootSU said:
2 GiB is 1024x1024x1024. HDD / MMC / SSD use GB (1000x1000x1000) not GiB, however this is for storage. RAM is usually binary 1024... so it most likely is out of 2048.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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And that's why they make 512MB RAM modules instead of 500MB

fleen said:
Thanks for the quick reply, does this happen to all phones or just the nexus 5?
I feel like it should be better implemented like have 250mb of its own ram or use at it is needed not just take away from me 250 mb of ram.
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Happens to all phones.

Ok guys i get the gist of it now, thank you all.