I have my Nexus S for over two weeks now, and I'm incredibly happy with it. Theming is a lot of fun, and you can do very cool stuff even without root and custom roms!
However, there is one (strange) thing I've noticed. It's about the RAM.
For your information: I use Go Launcher which has a tab in the App Drawer with running applications, and a button to close all (you can exclude certain apps). When I boot up my phone, I have 170-180 MB free RAM. The following programs (and widgets) are running in the background (I have excluded them from the close all list): Go SMS Pro (widget, notifications), WhatsApp (notifications), Lookout, Extended Controls (widget), Wiget Locker (I made it look like the MIUI lockscreen) and Clockr (widget).
There are two more apps that are on constantly, and those are the Miren Browser and PlayerPro. I don't know why Miren Browser keeps turning itself on. When I check how much MB it uses, it says 0,00 dB... As for PlayerPro, I use a widget called Phantom Music Control, a widget that hides itself when no music is being played. I also use it on my lockscreen. This widget controls PlayerPro, so that is probably why PlayerPro has to be running all the time (so that it can start up quickly when needed).
There are some Google apps that turn themselves on, like Gmail and Places, and they actually use RAM according to Go Launcher. I don't want them to be running, and synchronization is turned off with Gmail. When I want to know if I have mail, I open Gmail. It doesn't have to be running all the time. I've never used Places, and I never will use it, so I don't know why that has to be running all the time.
Every once in a while I hit Close All (with Go Launcher). However, I've noticed that over time my free memory keeps lowering. When I boot up my phone it is around 175 MB, but at the end of the day the free memory is 100 MB, 70 MB or even 50 MB, and yes, even after I've hit the 'Close All' button.
I know I don't use my phone very efficient, with programs like Go SMS, Widget Locker and that Music Control widget, and I will flash a custom rom later. My RAM memory will probably increase then (I've read something about Supercurio's kernel including a boost RAM management). It just bothers me that I don't have control over what programs are running (Gmail and Places), and that my free memory decreases over time. I haven't noticed any slow downs, I'm just worried. Or shouldn't I?
I don't know about the rest, but you shouldn't be concerned about free memory.
Android is designed in a way that all programs keep running (sleeping actually) in the background even when you don't use them at the moment. They are automatically killed when the system needs memory for something else. Any program that is sent to the background (e.g. by pressing back or home) can be killed by the system at any time and is (should be) ready for it.
Basically, the less free memory you have, the better. That means that many of the apps you use are running and you can return to them without delay.
There are some articles floating around the web about the architecture of android and process/application life cycle. They explain that better then me, and in more detail.
cgi said:
I don't know about the rest, but you shouldn't be concerned about free memory.
Android is designed in a way that all programs keep running (sleeping actually) in the background even when you don't use them at the moment. They are automatically killed when the system needs memory for something else. Any program that is sent to the background (e.g. by pressing back or home) can be killed by the system at any time and is (should be) ready for it.
Basically, the less free memory you have, the better. That means that many of the apps you use are running and you can return to them without delay.
There are some articles floating around the web about the architecture of android and process/application life cycle. They explain that better then me, and in more detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks!
So I don't have to be afraid of any slow down? And what about Gmail and Places turning themselves on every time, even if I don't use them?
And why does the free memory decrease over time, but increases again when I turn off and boot up my phone?
Androyed said:
So I don't have to be afraid of any slow down? And what about Gmail and Places turning themselves on every time, even if I don't use them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More like the opposite: your RAM is being put to good use.
When your PC get's low on RAM it will start swapping and trashing around. Your smartphone has no swap and is optimized for it. If it get's low on RAM, it will just kill some stuff in the background. All this happens without you noticing anything (if the app is programmed correctly).
I don't know about Gmail and Places. Most likely they are running because they registered broadcast receivers or something.
Androyed said:
And why does the free memory decrease over time, but increases again when I turn off and boot up my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every app is running in its own dalvik virtual machine process. Since creating a new VM process is expensive (in terms of processing time), the VM processes are reused to some degree. One app is unloaded, the new one is loaded.
There is more stuff going on behind the scenes, of course. There are likely some spare VMs sleeping in the background waiting for an app to use them.
However, the heap (dynamically allocated memory of a process) of a VM can only grow and never shrink (don't ask me why). So after a few apps or so a VM process is restarted, too.
To come back to your question: When your device boots up, only the processes needed for boot are running. That will be the launcher, some widgets and so on. So basically, this is the moment with the most free RAM. However, this is also when your device is slowest, because every new app you launch has first to be loaded into memory and executed.
While you use your device, many of the apps you used will be kept around in the background, so when you start them again, they will reappear instantly, because the whole "create vm process --> load app from storage --> execute and initialize app" chain has already happened.
"Free memory is wasted memory."
When you open an app, the system loads it into ram. When you close it, the system should not bother to remove it from ram because there is a good chance you will use that app again and having it pre-loaded makes it open significantly faster.
Just because ram is "used" doesn't mean it can't be re-allocated for something more important.
That being said, it is entirely possible that some of your apps have memory leaks. Does it get worse after two days, or three days?
d-h said:
"Free memory is wasted memory."
When you open an app, the system loads it into ram. When you close it, the system should not bother to remove it from ram because there is a good chance you will use that app again and having it pre-loaded makes it open significantly faster.
Just because ram is "used" doesn't mean it can't be re-allocated for something more important.
That being said, it is entirely possible that some of your apps have memory leaks. Does it get worse after two days, or three days?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I turn my phone off every evening, so I don't know. It's not a problem by any means, I'm just curious.
I've left my RAM alone today, and I didn't noticed any slow down. It was on 110 MB free RAM when I left it alone, and when it was at 35 MB RAM, I decided to hit the close all button (there was no slow down btw). Guess what? My RAM went back up to 140 MB! Not as much as when I boot my phone up, but it's still strange: when I hit close all when the free RAM is very low, I get more free RAM then when I hit close all when my free RAM is around 100 MB (I only get 5 or 10 MB free RAM extra then).
Thanks by the way, good first post!
Hello everyone
i have noticed something strange about the RAM available, if I go into settings-applications-services running: ram, 211 MB used 80MB free.
If you instead use Android system info I see: 37 MB free RAM
Why this? I have 2.3.4 stock
sorry my bad engish
try terminating cached programs. also, remove unnecessary apps. dont use task killers/managers etc. they are unnecessary. linux is smarter than us. dont use security services unless you frequently visit suspect sites and dl apps w/out research. see which programs are consuming ram and search for solutions. last resort, hard reset. if it persists or low ram issues arise when stock, time for a new one. good luck.
The nexus S has 345MB for the OS and apps, rest is used by the hardware (mostly by the GPU), you will never have access to it.
Your situation is perfectly fine, the biggest memory hog is the browser. I recommend auto memory manager (free on market) and set the empty application line to 80mb.
The services are killed automaticly by android, no need for task managers, but the limit is set to 80mb instead of 24mb. You will still run into memory leaks eventually, but not really at 30mb left.
Thanks to all
I do not use task killer, using linux for 4 years , i try Auto Memory Manager. see if the situation improves.
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
After reboot my phone I have more than a gigabyte free RAM. But few days after that with used some apps I have only 600-700 MB RAM free and I don't know what is using it.
I mean after I stop using some app i force stop it from the app manager because I don't want it to stay loaded in the memory but don't know why the memory doesn't release.
Is Android cache some RAM without my knowledge?
I upload a screenshoot from L Speed.
http://s33.postimg.org/8fds56t9r/Screenshot_2016_06_02_16_45_13.png
My smartphone: Lenovo K900
ROM: VIBEROM_V1.0_1403_7_ST_K900
Your OS using Your RAM. It's not normal for android to leave lot of RAM free. Thats not how android works. He load most used app so You can call them quick. You can google about that and read some article about how android menage RAM. I have 3GB RAM, in use is about 2 or 2.2! If i have 2GB of RAM than system used will use around 1 or 1.5gb. Every model have different RAM MENAGING! You don't need free RAM, if You start some app which need more RAM, system will immediately free enough RAM. All process have priorities, low priorities will be killed first to free up memory!
So don't wory about RAM in android OS! ?
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Ok thanks than.
A certain amount of RAM will automatically be taken up by the GPU, which is why your 1 gig will be 832mb or thereabouts when you look at how much you have through CPU-Z or a similar app.
in system there are alot of apps that runs in background ie.. your messages ,dialer.. we can't stop that apps.... but yeh you can use greenify or similar to force stop your downloaded apps so your phone runs smooth.. also disable some system apps you can't use . because now days new androids come with alot of apps and we only use some apps