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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

[Q] RAM ISSUES with samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3100)

I own a samsung galaxy tab 2(GT p3100), which initially had 4.0.4 ICS with 687 MB RAM(but specified as 1 GB RAM, as some developers claim that it is being reserved for system). I updated my firmware to 4.1.2 and now it showed me 770 MB RAM. later i rooted my device and installed the latest CM(cyanogenmod) 10.1 (jelly bean 4.2). To my surprise this rom which has less bloatware and is smoother, it showed me 691 MB RAM, less than 770 MB as displayed by the STOCK jelly bean OS.
i would like to ask, which OS(custom/stock) displays the MAX RAM for GALAXY TAB 2 7.0(P3100)???????
as i don't ve enough internet downloading capacity(limited downloads), i can't just go on downloading all the firmwares and keep flashing everytime, SO EXPERIENCED USERS, PLEASE SUGGEST.
for more info(for my knowledge), do please tell this also--------->tab 2(my device specifies 1 GB RAM and the same does galaxy s2, but why with ICS(4.0.4) installed both the devices show different MB RAM. tab2 shows around 680 MB wheras S2 shows around 880 MB, wheras HTC one X shows 1 GB.
why is this so????? i know some developers claim that this RAM is being consumed by system or reserved for system, but why is it different for different devices, when the OS is the same?????
again if you claim that it is reserved by the android system, then WHY DO , WITH NO APPS INSTALLED TOO, I SEE AROUND 300-400 MB RAM BEING USED(300 MB WHEN I DNT USE ANY WIDGETS AND ALL, AND I STOP ALL THE PROCESSES, BY CLICKING FORCE STOP ON ALL APPS LIKE GMAIL AND EVERYTHING EXCEPT ANDROID SYSTEM AND PHONE AND SOME NECESSARY RED MARKED APPS IN THE DEFAULT TASK MANAGER).
if android process is being displayed here with this 770 MB ram, then where has the 230 MB ram gone------------>do you mean the android process consumes the hidden RAM and also a part of this RAM too???????------------------>this sounds too unpleasant, when htc one x displays all the specified RAM but my tab fails.
really disapponting

You are getting too excited about available RAM. The OS system manages available RAM so each different ROM will use it a little more or less.
The amount of free RAM has nothing to do with how many apps are stored, ONly how many apps are RUNNING. Android system efficiently manages RAM and tries to keep it about 80% full all the time. So called Bloatware (one mans bloat is another mans useful app) has nothing to do with speed , they do nothing if you don't run them.
The system RAM usage contained OS buffers, temp storage and system routines that are always loaded for speed.
1GB is a ton of RAM for android.
You do not have a RAM issue.
You can run out of SD storage space for downloaded apps if you store too many. But you have several GBs of storage so that's hard unless you are a real pack rat.

DigitalMD said:
You are getting too excited about available RAM. The OS system manages available RAM so each different ROM will use it a little more or less.
The amount of free RAM has nothing to do with how many apps are stored, ONly how many apps are RUNNING. Android system efficiently manages RAM and tries to keep it about 80% full all the time. So called Bloatware (one mans bloat is another mans useful app) has nothing to do with speed , they do nothing if you don't run them.
The system RAM usage contained OS buffers, temp storage and system routines that are always loaded for speed.
1GB is a ton of RAM for android.
You do not have a RAM issue.
You can run out of SD storage space for downloaded apps if you store too many. But you have several GBs of storage so that's hard unless you are a real pack rat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right Sir,
well, regarding storage i dont ve any issue as some data like pics and vids can be kept in ext storage card too,but i also wanted to know which ROM provides user with more RAM, so that it will be good for multitasking or if i play high end games like NFS MW

fbh59 said:
Right Sir,
well, regarding storage i dont ve any issue as some data like pics and vids can be kept in ext storage card too,but i also wanted to know which ROM provides user with more RAM, so that it will be good for multitasking or if i play high end games like NFS MW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The amount of difference between one kernel and another (which is what really matters here) isn't large enough to make any real difference in the performance of any application. The available RAM after the kernel grabs its stuff varies around 10% from one kernel to the next.
If you want to make a performance impact, make sure you minimize the number of running applications that compete for the available RAM. However, that won't make much difference as Android is very aggressive about grabbing memory back from idle applications.
Basically, you're obsessing over something that in the end will make no difference in how your tablet runs.

fbh59 said:
Right Sir,
well, regarding storage i dont ve any issue as some data like pics and vids can be kept in ext storage card too,but i also wanted to know which ROM provides user with more RAM, so that it will be good for multitasking or if i play high end games like NFS MW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Irrelevant. Android will clear apps from RAM if it's needed by an app with high memory usage. This isn't windows
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

well, if this is the thing, and android can kill apps automatically then why do some people prefer custom ROMs like CM or AOKP.
even for installing custom ROMs they need to root their tab/phone, and if they root and want to get rid of so called bloatwares and make their OS lightweight, they can uninstall it using root uninstaller(available for free in google play)....
but why do they prefer custom ROMS?????

fbh59 said:
well, if this is the thing, and android can kill apps automatically then why do some people prefer custom ROMs like CM or AOKP.
even for installing custom ROMs they need to root their tab/phone, and if they root and want to get rid of so called bloatwares and make their OS lightweight, they can uninstall it using root uninstaller(available for free in google play)....
but why do they prefer custom ROMS?????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More features generally. Some roms will manage the memory better than others, ie at what point it starts to kill apps to free RAM(although this can be adjusted in any rom using rom toolbox or a similar app). many custom roms include a theme engine allowing more customiza. They may make better use of resources to decrease battery usage or because it has better cpu governors which will increase performance. They may flash a custom roms because it's kernel includes modules that aren't in the stock Kernel. There are many reasons besides RAM usage, since as you say you can root and remove bloatware and change memory handling(called minfree or oomut of memory)
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

[Q] About swap space, this device and cyanogenmod

This may be a general question for all android devices or not but I was curious about adding swap space to this device. It has 1 gig of ram and many may consider that to be enough, and it might be. I have cyanogenmod 10.2 installed and tried to enable zram, 10% seems to be the best setting as anthing higher caused a game to pop up a notice saying something about low memory and defaulting to lower values. When I checked to see if zram was used however it turns out it was, about 25mb - 34mb after booting. The issue with zram is when multitasking with lecturenotes and moonreader, The tablet would reboot and my notebook that was open in lecturenotes would be missing notes I took or the settings would be greatly messed up, or both. This was with 10%.
I am thinking since it was used, it might be helpful to have an sd card for this reason, to aid in multitasking. This is important to me because I run several apps at once (I wish cyanogenmod had multi windows, and google wouldn't threaten over it). So the question is will there be a benifit to buying an sd card on ebay (class 10 of course) and using it as swap space. It seems this tablet might be on the cusp of the memory being enough. Also I am thinking this might help to future proof it a bit when updating to newer releases of gyanogenmod. The sd card I was thinking of is 4 gigs and may plan on having 1gb swap space (this tablet is for school and other work). The tablet has 32gb storage and that is more than enough for me (I am only using 3gb of space) so I wont need to add anymore storage.
I should also add that when multitasking without zram enabled, the tablet reboots less but still has done it, and so far nothing has been lost in my notebooks. I am thinking that the memory of 1gb is starting to reach its limit, with no apps running I am consuming about 600mbs of it.

vanquishedangel said:
This may be a general question for all android devices or not but I was curious about adding swap space to this device. It has 1 gig of ram and many may consider that to be enough, and it might be. I have cyanogenmod 10.2 installed and tried to enable zram, 10% seems to be the best setting as anthing higher caused a game to pop up a notice saying something about low memory and defaulting to lower values. When I checked to see if zram was used however it turns out it was, about 25mb - 34mb after booting. The issue with zram is when multitasking with lecturenotes and moonreader, The tablet would reboot and my notebook that was open in lecturenotes would be missing notes I took or the settings would be greatly messed up, or both. This was with 10%.
I am thinking since it was used, it might be helpful to have an sd card for this reason, to aid in multitasking. This is important to me because I run several apps at once (I wish cyanogenmod had multi windows, and google wouldn't threaten over it). So the question is will there be a benifit to buying an sd card on ebay (class 10 of course) and using it as swap space. It seems this tablet might be on the cusp of the memory being enough. Also I am thinking this might help to future proof it a bit when updating to newer releases of gyanogenmod. The sd card I was thinking of is 4 gigs and may plan on having 1gb swap space (this tablet is for school and other work). The tablet has 32gb storage and that is more than enough for me (I am only using 3gb of space) so I wont need to add anymore storage.
I should also add that when multitasking without zram enabled, the tablet reboots less but still has done it, and so far nothing has been lost in my notebooks. I am thinking that the memory of 1gb is starting to reach its limit, with no apps running I am consuming about 600mbs of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well in my own personal testing i could not see any benefit while extracting 700mb archives under android with 4gb swap space on a 40mbs microsd card, while under full linux desktop with a same workload, swap differently helps keep the system smooth under heavy io load. The conclusion i drew was the android platform deals to memory management differently than the typical desktop os, due to slower emmc chips used as a boot disk for the majority of android devices using this slow, already bottlenecked memory as swap space doesn't make sense (not to mention the use of 2gb swap space on a limited 16gb storage etc), so android runs almost completely in ram, with stricter memory management and allocation allows android to run fine without swap space, although because of this, androids memory management makes little uses of available swap space

JoinTheRealms said:
Well in my own personal testing i could not see any benefit while extracting 700mb archives under android with 4gb swap space on a 40mbs microsd card, while under full linux desktop with a same workload, swap differently helps keep the system smooth under heavy io load.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been running my desktop without swap for the last 10 years, and as long as you have enough RAM for all your running programs, there will be no problem at all.
Extracting an archive is a mostly sequential operation (single read stream, single write stream), so it also doesn't benefit from caching, which could use the memory that is freed by swapping.

_that said:
I've been running my desktop without swap for the last 10 years, and as long as you have enough RAM for all your running programs, there will be no problem at all.
Extracting an archive is a mostly sequential operation (single read stream, single write stream), so it also doesn't benefit from caching, which could use the memory that is freed by swapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh that makes sense. I wasnt sure if swap had an effect directly on the extraction, but seem keeped the rest system more stable/ smooth duing the process in the case of GNU/Linux, with swap off similar operations such as installing packages would more oftern lock the tablet up. Might be a placebo though
I also dont set swap on my Linux desktop, as it has plenty of ram but the benitfit of swap space is somewhat more noticable due to the lack of ram on the tf700.

JoinTheRealms said:
I also dont set swap on my Linux desktop, as it has plenty of ram but the benitfit of swap space is somewhat more noticable due to the lack of ram on the tf700.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want to share my user experiences on the swap space... It does seem to improve the tf700 with swap space due to the lack of RAM (1GB)..

Thanks for all the useful posts
Thanks for all the posts, I have my sd card on the way. I will post my experience when I get my sd card but I am sure it is safe to say there will be a benefit. I use linux to at home and have 8 gigs of ram on that computer, I lessen the swap after install to about 512mb because 8 gigs is more then enough. I leave some however just incase of any issues like ram going bad. On another computer in the house that has limited ram (1.5 gigs) I have enabled zram (384 mb) and added two old flash cards (1 gig each) to a pci raid card and those were converted to swap. I then altered the fstab to reflect the order of priority I wanted them used in. The reason is that when the swap is used from the hard drive, and the hard drive is being written to, can cause a slow down. So with the 2 flash cards at 1 gig each (the swap seen as 2 gigs) it seemed to speed it up. I just posted that because of the nix users and it seemed like a good plan to run it that way.

Ok, got the sd card
So I recieved the sd card today and applied the swap space to it using root swapper (max setting is 256mb, I figured i can find a way to increase it later if I need to). The defaut location in many of the swap applications will not work on this device however, the sd card mounts at /storage/sdcard1 in my case. So it has to be entered manually (might just be cyanogenmod). Also the device was picky when insalling the card, it would only say blank sd card or cannot read filesystem. I had to install the card in the dock, format it from cwm recovery, (vfat if I remember correct, ext2 and ntfs had issues, avoided ext3 and ext4 cause journaling will cause more wear and tear).
The sd card is a scandisk ultra sdhc uhs-1 8 gigs. From my research that is the fastest this tab can handle. I also use optimising programs like greenify (epic save everything app), pimp my rom (almost every tweak applied), and some pretty efficient tweaks in the settings as well. I also have HALO))) installed and working (epic multiwindow app that works with native programs and almost any rom).
The resuts:
I tested it many ways, I rebooted to see use (none was used because swap starts after boot), I opened apps normally (browsers and things), and it showed 9kb's was used. I then put it to the tests, I open four windows in halo, these were youtube, moonreader pro with a pdf ebook, lecturenotes (awsome note and handwriting app with tons of functions), and Supernote pro (not the best note app). Constantly switched between the apps and messed with settings with them open. The max of swap used was around 10mb(keeping in mind that when I switch windows the app(s) I leave get paused making it hard to tell actual usage because I had to swith the terminal and type "free". I then ran antutu bechmark and gpubench (my tab stills score pretty well) and got a little higher swap usage but not much.
As for the feel of it, it seemed to help when opening many windows in halo, this is the primary reason for my doing this. As for other more normal uses I really didnt see too much of a difference, I did test games however and they did seem a little better (could be placebo) but I am not really sure why they would except android cached other apps to free memory. Reopening apps seemed faster. Also because of apps like greenify my memory usage is decreased so I am sure typically swap would have seen more use.
The conclusion is that at this point I really didn't notice much of a boost for any normal use, but I will definately keep the swap space on due to the boost when using halo and not to mention that I will be updating to android 4.4 soon and it might need more memory. Swap at this point seems more like a pre emptive strike, but it does help with multitasking.

about swap
://androidforums.com/boost-mobile-warp-all-things-root/610449-ram-swapping-without-swapper2.html I actually followed a guide on android central and redid the swap file to 1 gig to swap instead of using a program, this worked better. (add http in front), when i disabled swap it was noticeable that there was a boost. then reenabled it this method.

Do you wish you have bigger ram?

Im on xt1033 (no external sd). Im satisfied with the performance on my moto g but i hate it when i switch app (browser) sometimes it reloads the whole page as if it closes the browser because it doesnt have enough ram. I watched a couple of vids in yt about adding ram thru sd card, sadly ours dont have external sd card. I know we can partition our internal storage, right? Anyone here have done this? So we can add it as ram? I have 16gb model and i still have 7.5gb of free storage i have my phone for 8months now so im pretty sure im not needing more storage anytime soon. Anyone wanna try to experiment on this? So we can add another 500mb or a gig of ram?

Use a different ROM which has a little different policy of managing RAM... I too was frustrated by this problem but I have tried many ROMs but to no avail...Then I tried nexus 5 experience ROM and that has fixed the problem for me...So basically just use a custom ROM
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Hi, thanks for the suggestion but I'm not open to try any custom rom as of the moment. As long as the stock is the current version. I will still go with the stock.

kiko321 said:
Hi, thanks for the suggestion but I'm not open to try any custom rom as of the moment. As long as the stock is the current version. I will still go with the stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a 150 dollars device... it's even too much good for its price. My average ram consumption with the phone just rebooted is around 500mb, you need to check which apps use too much ram (like 30mb+) and close them or, with root, you can prevent them from boot. Anyway, apps that require big amount of ram will always reload if you leave them in background.

As said above, you can't expect much more of such a cheap device as the Moto G.
On the other hand, 1GB RAM is still quite good amount to run you off pretty much everything. You can have insufficient RAM only if you use your phone as a computer replacement, which is very bad idea.
In that case you should get for example Xperia Z, which is way more suitable for that purpose or Note2. This will cost you significantly more cash of course.
Also you can't increase your RAM off the storage of the device, being it sd or emmc. You can't repartition the emmc either, this will most likely hard brick the device.
Swap is not a substitute for RAM and it never have been.

Thanks, i already have the boot manager via xposed module but still im experiencing it. anyway it was just an idea. Coz i have a lot of space in my internal.
I just noticed that even if i still have 100+ mb of free ram background app still reloads when reopen.

kiko321 said:
Thanks, i already have the boot manager via xposed module but still im experiencing it. anyway it was just an idea. Coz i have a lot of space in my internal.
I just noticed that even if i still have 100+ mb of free ram background app still reloads when reopen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend the Android Assistant app, it has a lot of features including a boot manager and also an easy button to free up RAM. There is ads tho unless you use Adaway.
My biggest gripe with the lack of ram on the G is when I'm trying to stream Pandora while using the navigation...I usually end up driving in silence until the annoying lady tells me where to go

The best way to prevent your problem is fine tuning minfree controls...I use trickster mod to make these settings...Do go through this link...It gives you details on how to fine tune them to solve your problem...
http://m.androidcentral.com/fine-tuning-minfree-settings-improving-androids-multi-tasking
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Hit the thanks button if I helped you 8)
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Best optimization hack in my experience: RAMEXPANDER

TL;DR Ramexpander set at 4gb swap file makes all the difference for this tablet
A little background: I've been modifying my phones since the galaxy nexus. I've tried greenify, amplify, debloating, kernels, overclocking, cleaning, l-speed, etc. I like to run a lot of apps, and all of my phones and devices, including the Nexus 6p (until the Pixel XL) lagged. RamExpander has been the solution every time, and the fire hd is no different. This one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swapit.expander.de&hl=en .
Use the free version here to check if your device is compatible: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.roehsoft.meminfo&hl=en but I know a rooted 2017 Hd 10 running 5.6 is compatible.
Maybe your device runs perfectly already and/or you're using less apps. That's great! But I have seen a few threads about trying to optimize performance. IF your device lags, this app will make an immediate night and day difference.

I'll give it a try

I have L Speed and Greenify installed on all of my rooted Android devices. Could you please explain to us how RAMEXPANDER is better than L Speed/Greenify? I'm curious. I'll do anything to optimize these Fire HDs even more. I rooted them and installed Google everything on them so my parents don't have to deal with the Fire OS.

Is Ram Expander really worth $10? I wanted to try it and found an APK. The damned thing was contaminated with neverending ads appearing every 10 seconds... I had to uninstall and run Malwarebytes to get the tablet working fine again. I assume the "real" paid version has no crappy ads?
---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------
bakshi said:
I have L Speed and Greenify installed on all of my rooted Android devices. Could you please explain to us how RAMEXPANDER is better than L Speed/Greenify? I'm curious. I'll do anything to optimize these Fire HDs even more. I rooted them and installed Google everything on them so my parents don't have to deal with the Fire OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know Greenify already and use it on my tablets and cell phones. But it's the 1st time ever I hear about L Speed. Is it complicated to set up?

The 2GB memory is pretty limited, and disabling some Amazon services and avoiding apps that remain persistent in memory is highly recommended. I installed the official Google app to get Google Assistant, but found that it used too much ram. I recommended installing system monitor and monitoring the active processes, sorted by ram usage, to identify bloated user apps.

bakshi said:
I have L Speed and Greenify installed on all of my rooted Android devices. Could you please explain to us how RAMEXPANDER is better than L Speed/Greenify? I'm curious. I'll do anything to optimize these Fire HDs even more. I rooted them and installed Google everything on them so my parents don't have to deal with the Fire OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so what ram expander does is it's just a super easy way to setup a swap file (space on the internal sd card that will be used as RAM). Why is it better than all the other stuff I've tried? It's empirical, not logical. That is to say, every phone that's lagged, if RAMEXPANDER is compatible, I've installed and it's made a huge difference in performance, every single time. I've messed around with a lot of optimization tools beforehand and results have been mixed. I can improve battery life usually, but the phone will still lag, with those tools and with all the apps i run. Also, each tool is just more strain on the system.
metaleloi666 said:
Is Ram Expander really worth $10? I wanted to try it and found an APK. The damned thing was contaminated with neverending ads appearing every 10 seconds... I had to uninstall and run Malwarebytes to get the tablet working fine again. I assume the "real" paid version has no crappy ads?
---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------
I know Greenify already and use it on my tablets and cell phones. But it's the 1st time ever I hear about L Speed. Is it complicated to set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never seen an add in the app. You got a bad APK.
An alternative, I've found, though less intuitive is an app called apps2sd. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=en
It's a little less intuitive, but basically when you open the app, you get a bunch of tools to choose from. If you choose the SWAP menu, you can create a SWAP Partition on the /data partition. 4gb has been working amazingly for me. Then go to settings and check the "apply swap on boot" (after you test it for a while, and you're happy and everything's stable).
L-speed has a lot of options. It's got a few profiles, but I'm not sure that they actually work. With some messing around you can get a little improvement here and there (or maybe it's placebo). Sometimes an update of L-speed will bootloop your device, but I only use it on devices I have an nandroid ready to go on.
SWAP, through ram expander or apps2sd, makes a night and day difference compared to any other tool I've tried.

Does Ram Expander starts automatically at each reboot or it has to be started manually each time?

mistermojorizin said:
so what ram expander does is it's just a super easy way to setup a swap file (space on the internal sd card that will be used as RAM). Why is it better than all the other stuff I've tried? It's empirical, not logical. That is to say, every phone that's lagged, if RAMEXPANDER is compatible, I've installed and it's made a huge difference in performance, every single time. I've messed around with a lot of optimization tools beforehand and results have been mixed. I can improve battery life usually, but the phone will still lag, with those tools and with all the apps i run. Also, each tool is just more strain on the system.
I've never seen an add in the app. You got a bad APK.
An alternative, I've found, though less intuitive is an app called apps2sd. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=en
It's a little less intuitive, but basically when you open the app, you get a bunch of tools to choose from. If you choose the SWAP menu, you can create a SWAP Partition on the /data partition. 4gb has been working amazingly for me. Then go to settings and check the "apply swap on boot" (after you test it for a while, and you're happy and everything's stable).
L-speed has a lot of options. It's got a few profiles, but I'm not sure that they actually work. With some messing around you can get a little improvement here and there (or maybe it's placebo). Sometimes an update of L-speed will bootloop your device, but I only use it on devices I have an nandroid ready to go on.
SWAP, through ram expander or apps2sd, makes a night and day difference compared to any other tool I've tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. Just did this with app2sd and working great!

metaleloi666 said:
Does Ram Expander starts automatically at each reboot or it has to be started manually each time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has an auto start feature

metaleloi666 said:
Is Ram Expander really worth $10? I wanted to try it and found an APK. The damned thing was contaminated with neverending ads appearing every 10 seconds... I had to uninstall and run Malwarebytes to get the tablet working fine again. I assume the "real" paid version has no crappy ads?
Here is a link for the premium: https://uplod.cc/4ogqacud4av9
If that doesn't work, check this link out: https://apk4free.net/roehsoft-ram-expander/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I keep trying to install this (the Google Play store version of ROEHSOFT RAM Expander) on a Fire HD10 with root via Kingoroot. I'm trying to install the swap disk on the SD card, and I'm getting an error message:
You have a Limited Kernel
Kernel Swapspace Limit detected! please reduce the Swapfile Size lower 1GB! and try again!
This happens no matter what size I pick for the swap file on the SD card.
If I try to use the same company's "test" app (MemoryInfo-SwapCheck), I get this error message:
Path Error
This Path is not usable for Swap!
I can verify that both apps are successfully creating the swap file on the SD card (swapfile.swp or swaptestf.swp, depending on which app I'm using).
I've tried both systems 5.5.0.0 and 5.6.0.1 and I get the same error message on either. I've tried installing it on a completely fresh install of both, with only Kingoroot, SuperSU, Google Play, and RAM Expander installed (in that order). I've also tried swapping out SD cards, and get the same error on both.
This software does work properly if I install the swap file on internal memory, but I'd prefer not to do that, since I can't replace the internal memory if I wear it out.
The weird thing is, I could swear it was working properly before (a couple of weeks ago), but nothing is getting this to work now. It's possible I was mistaken and had accidentally chosen the internal memory, but I don't think so.
Anyone have any clue about what's going on?

GamerOfRassilon said:
I keep trying to install this (the Google Play store version of ROEHSOFT RAM Expander) on a Fire HD10 with root via Kingoroot. I'm trying to install the swap disk on the SD card, and I'm getting an error message...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To respond to myself (in case anyone else has this problem in the future):
For some reason, this software doesn't work if you set the path to /storage/sdcard1 (It will create the swap file, but then it gives the error message I described).
Instead, you have to use:
/mnt/media_rw/sdcard1
Then it works totally fine.
Also, if it's useful (and saves anyone else time), here are the values that each option of this software generates on the HD10:
multitasking
SwpFile = 3000MB
Swappiness = 100
MinFreeKB = 54MB
DriveCache(KB) = 4096
balanced
SwpFile = 3000MB
Swappiness = 100
MinFreeKB = 62MB
DriveCache(KB) = 8192
gamers
SwpFile = 3000MB
Swappiness = 100
MinFreeKB = 62MB
DriveCache(KB) = 16384
net gamers
SwpFile = 3000MB
Swappiness = 100
MinFreeKB = 4MB
DriveCache(KB) = 1024
I have no idea what those options mean or do, but I went with "balanced" (since it seemed pretty middle of the road) but with SwpFile set to 4000MB instead of 3000MB.

Ramexpander etc.
I've paid for and been using RAMExpander for awhile now. It's a good app, and worth the money. That being said, App2SD is also an incredibly useful app, Pro or no. L-Speed is great as well. One thing to note, from what I've researched, editing your zram is also helpful as it compresses items in memory to free up space, and it is prioritized over Swap. Using the two in conjunction (having a zram file (250-500 MB seems to do the trick but you could probably go lower) and a decent sized swap file(mine is 8GB but I suspect this is massive overkill and 4 would work)) has left me with little to no lag, especially when paired with L-Speed's other exceptional tweaks. Jade Empire and Kotor run with 0 lag at top graphical settings.
Hope this helped clear up any questions.
Edit: If you use App2SD's partition manager you can set yourself up with a partition dedicated exclusively to Swap, then in Ramexpander change swap location to this partition in the settings. Ramexpander tops you out at 4GB, doing this is a good way to increase that threshold.

mistermojorizin said:
so what ram expander does is it's just a super easy way to setup a swap file (space on the internal sd card that will be used as RAM). Why is it better than all the other stuff I've tried? It's empirical, not logical. That is to say, every phone that's lagged, if RAMEXPANDER is compatible, I've installed and it's made a huge difference in performance, every single time. I've messed around with a lot of optimization tools beforehand and results have been mixed. I can improve battery life usually, but the phone will still lag, with those tools and with all the apps i run. Also, each tool is just more strain on the system.
I've never seen an add in the app. You got a bad APK.
An alternative, I've found, though less intuitive is an app called apps2sd. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=en
It's a little less intuitive, but basically when you open the app, you get a bunch of tools to choose from. If you choose the SWAP menu, you can create a SWAP Partition on the /data partition. 4gb has been working amazingly for me. Then go to settings and check the "apply swap on boot" (after you test it for a while, and you're happy and everything's stable).
L-speed has a lot of options. It's got a few profiles, but I'm not sure that they actually work. With some messing around you can get a little improvement here and there (or maybe it's placebo). Sometimes an update of L-speed will bootloop your device, but I only use it on devices I have an nandroid ready to go on.
SWAP, through ram expander or apps2sd, makes a night and day difference compared to any other tool I've tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blaiser47 said:
Thanks for this. Just did this with app2sd and working great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you set it up?

I swaped it on Sd card on my j7 & it became to freeze & became super slow...

What about using BK Disabler?

ThisCrimsonDiscordia said:
I've paid for and been using RAMExpander for awhile now. It's a good app, and worth the money. That being said, App2SD is also an incredibly useful app, Pro or no. L-Speed is great as well. One thing to note, from what I've researched, editing your zram is also helpful as it compresses items in memory to free up space, and it is prioritized over Swap. Using the two in conjunction (having a zram file (250-500 MB seems to do the trick but you could probably go lower) and a decent sized swap file(mine is 8GB but I suspect this is massive overkill and 4 would work)) has left me with little to no lag, especially when paired with L-Speed's other exceptional tweaks. Jade Empire and Kotor run with 0 lag at top graphical settings.
Hope this helped clear up any questions.
Edit: If you use App2SD's partition manager you can set yourself up with a partition dedicated exclusively to Swap, then in Ramexpander change swap location to this partition in the settings. Ramexpander tops you out at 4GB, doing this is a good way to increase that threshold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, what are your L Speed settings?

I went with App2SD and L-Speed after reading this thread, and wow, it's practically a different experience, a different tablet. If you aren't doing something similar you're purposefully using a tablet that is gimped.
Here are the settings I went with:
App2SD swap is set to 4GB and placed in /data.
L-Speed has everything turned on as it would when first installed.
RAM Manager is set to balanced, seems like more than enough and I don't want to be plugged in frequently.
zRAM Optimization is set to on.
I then went back to swap settings and set the zRAM to priority 0 and /data set to 1.
Turned improved scrolling on.
Everything else was left as is, for now.
I can't believe this is the same tablet I was using a week ago.
No need for Greenify with this combination.

What size should i set the swap partition to?
Since the swap will be on the sd card, should I go with the Samsung MicroSDXC EVO Plus which has 100/60 read/write rates or the Samsung PRO Endurance which has better reliability (designed for continuous writes) in the long run but only 100/30 read/write?

lanbladez said:
What size should i set the swap partition to?
Since the swap will be on the sd card, should I go with the Samsung MicroSDXC EVO Plus which has 100/60 read/write rates or the Samsung PRO Endurance which has better reliability (designed for continuous writes) in the long run but only 100/30 read/write?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could probably get away with 2GB, honestly. In which case, I'd really suggest putting it on internal in /data.
Just one less I/O delay (even if seemingly trivial, will cause lag) to deal with.
If you're going with putting the swap on an SD rather than internal, definitely the fastest SD you can use. :fingers-crossed:
If you must put it on the SD, at the least create a zram "swap" on internal, it only has to be ~150-300MB.