alright i just got the p30 pro (6 GB) and I ran my own speed test where I load a bunch of my commonly used apps (starbucks, uber, whatsapp, chrome, etc.)
sure, when i re-open these apps immediately after loading them (like 15 total), they're all still in memory, but I find that over time, they need to be reloaded even tho I'm not really opening new apps. just seems to be like these speed tests are stupid because the OS, over time, closes inactive apps.
yes, I disabled Huawei's aggressive app killing by going to "battery:" -> "app launch" and disabled "manage all automatically"
OR is it because I "only" have 6 GB of RAM? Would getting the s10 Plus with 8 GB of RAM (or p30 pro 8 GB) make a difference? i mention Samsung cause I read soemwhere it has better RAM management than huawei.
Related
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!
Sometimes comes the time I have 5 - 12 apps open. I switch the one of the apps initially opened earliest and they're cleared out of my RAM so there is a delay as the device attempts to reload my current position.
Sometimes when the browser is opened the web page refreshes.
I always have 300mb free RAM when I check the app manager.
Device: SGS3 international (1GB RAM)
ROM/Kernel: cm10/cm10
Zram disabled, allow purging disabled
Does this happen with your device? Any way to somehow lock apps in RAM?
23Six said:
Sometimes comes the time I have 5 - 12 apps open. I switch the one of the apps initially opened earliest and they're cleared out of my RAM so there is a delay as the device attempts to reload my current position.
Sometimes when the browser is opened the web page refreshes.
I always have 300mb free RAM when I check the app manager.
Device: SGS3 international (1GB RAM)
ROM/Kernel: cm10/cm10
Zram disabled, allow purging disabled
Does this happen with your device? Any way to somehow lock apps in RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would also love to know this. The experience so far is much less enjoyable than what I read on line....
23Six said:
Sometimes comes the time I have 5 - 12 apps open. I switch the one of the apps initially opened earliest and they're cleared out of my RAM so there is a delay as the device attempts to reload my current position.
Sometimes when the browser is opened the web page refreshes.
I always have 300mb free RAM when I check the app manager.
Device: SGS3 international (1GB RAM)
ROM/Kernel: cm10/cm10
Zram disabled, allow purging disabled
Does this happen with your device? Any way to somehow lock apps in RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it happens ... if your device needs more memory for a particular process ...it'll swap out the existing process...
of late, I have noticed my SGR has become very slow. first I thought it could be due to only 500MB free on internal SD card. So moved some pics to external SD. But still it was slow. I noticed that facebook app was taking around 90MB of ram, so uninstalled it and installed Tin Foil for facebook (wrapper for facebook mobile web interface). Now the phone seems bit faster (also the facebook opens faster!)
I believe our phone has relatively fast CPU, but is slow to open apps since it has to swap out apps from memory to make place for new app. So I have installed greenify to hibernate few apps that hog RAM (like Chrome, ES file manager & candy crush Saga)
Have you also noticed SGR getting slow (3 to 4 second delay while opening whatsapp / contacts)
What does the portion of the used ram (before the ones taken by apps) represent. it keeps varying as in the following 2 screenshots
Also in the first image, the RAM usage reported by omniswitch and the running apps tab are different - why is this?
Edit: Does kitkat use zram ? is it due to this that the device feels slow when RAM is full (CPU has to compress data in RAM)
My Samsung Galaxy S5 is 1 week old, and it's using a lot of RAM. It has a total of 1.75 GB of RAM, and when I'm running no apps, it's using around 1.2 GB of RAM. Is this normal for Galaxy S5?
same problem to me
..
Same here not S5 thought
My galaxy note n7000 alway use 400-500 mb while it idle
(Seem normal for note) (Dirty unicorn rom)
Now i got galaxy mega 2 it's alway use 0.9-1 GB ram
No apps running
Why would samsung need that much ram for system?
Okay i found a reason
"RAM, either full or empty, consumes the same amount of electricity, unlike RAM in computers.
The CPU copies data from storage to RAM and then runs the app. If the app is already in RAM, the CPU won't reopen it, it'll directly use it.
So making the RAM full of opened apps helps the CPU. The phone becomes faster, and the need of electricity running through the CPU to open the app is now nonexistent."
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2601318
Longbottom said:
My Samsung Galaxy S5 is 1 week old, and it's using a lot of RAM. It has a total of 1.75 GB of RAM, and when I'm running no apps, it's using around 1.2 GB of RAM. Is this normal for Galaxy S5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's normal. TouchWiz is a very heavy ROM, with lots of extra features, which means lots of processes running in the background. S Voice, S View, S Finder, gesture controls, etc. And if you've purchased from a carrier on a subsidy or payment plan, that means you'll have some carrier bloat running too. Some only a handful of MB, some take more, but when you have so many running at once, it all adds up. On my Galaxy Light (a lower end device), 700-800MB of the 1GB RAM is typically taken up. On my Note 3, which I've barely done anything with yet, .9-1.5GB can be used up pretty easily without any multi-tasking. Obviously, the Note 3 has many more features, which needs more RAM. TouchWiz is very heavy, which is why most of their newer mid-end models have been coming with 1.5GB RAM instead of the "standard" 1GB - one gig just isn't enough to run TouchWiz, even though it's plenty for stock or near-stock phones like the Moto G.
What you need to understand though, is that even if 1.2GB RAM is used up, that leaves 500MB or so for all the apps you'll be wanting running in the background. Facebook, Words with Friends, the camera, music, etc. That's actually quite a lot. Also realize that "no apps running" does not mean that no apps are running. There are LOTS of apps running (every feature/function is an "app"), but they're not ones that you've loaded, but they're part of the "system", so they're already running and can't be killed. Facebook is one you've loaded. Smart Screen is not, but if you have it enabled, it's still running, and it's still taking up some RAM.
What you also need to understand is that you want these apps running in the background, taking up your RAM. And you don't want to be using a task killer like Clean Master to obsessively free up RAM pointlessly. When an app like Facebook is running in the background, it's quickly retrievable. Kill it, and next time you want to load it, it has to load from the internal storage into the RAM again, which takes time, processing power, and battery life. You can still use a task killer like Clean Master to free up some RAM if things get sluggish, but it's best to white-list the apps you use a lot so you're not constantly loading them from storage and killing your battery and wasting time. Or, if you were playing an intense game for a while, but don't plan to again for the rest of the day, by all means kill it with the task switcher. Android actually does a very good job of managing your RAM, and except in certain circumstances, it's best to just let it do what it does by itself.
If you can't help but obsess with free/used RAM, or you actually multi-task to the point of things getting frustratingly sluggish, turn off all the features you don't need or rarely/never use. Go into your app manager and disable (Turn Off) apps/features you don't use. Find a "de-bloat" guide for your phone and find out what's safe to delete or turn off. This includes Samsung crap, carrier crap, and even Google stuff as well. If you don't need Lookout, disable it. If you don't use Google Wallet, disable it. Samsung Print Service? You don't use that. Disable that crap. Some of these wouldn't be running in the background anyway, but it's easy to accidentally load them, in which case they'll needlessly be taking up RAM.
---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 PM ----------
skyhot004 said:
Same here not S5 thought
My galaxy note n7000 alway use 400-500 mb while it idle
(Seem normal for note) (Dirty unicorn rom)
Now i got galaxy mega 2 it's alway use 0.9-1 GB ram
No apps running
Why would samsung need that much ram for system?
Okay i found a reason
"RAM, either full or empty, consumes the same amount of electricity, unlike RAM in computers.
The CPU copies data from storage to RAM and then runs the app. If the app is already in RAM, the CPU won't reopen it, it'll directly use it.
So making the RAM full of opened apps helps the CPU. The phone becomes faster, and the need of electricity running through the CPU to open the app is now nonexistent."
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2601318
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cross-posted with your edit, but you've found some of the reason. As I said above, you want your apps running in the background, taking up RAM, unless you don't plan on using it again for a while. The other reason, as I said, is that heavy ROMs like TouchWiz, LG's Optimus UI, Sense, etc, have a lot of features and running processes compared to stock, near-stock, or the custom AOSP ROMs.
Given that the 8gb version seems to have vanished, I'm looking at the 6gb variety.
My huawei mate 10 has only 4gb and it kills off pretty much every app given the chance. With the zenfone, is 6gb enough to have eg gcam, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube all in memory? Or will it start purging like the pixel or my phone?
Thanks
I have a 6 GB Mate 10 and it's fine for me, although I disabled Power Genie with Titanium Backup.
huawei's OEM System is known to have some rather extreme memory and power saving systems which do indeed save power and memory, but at the cost of the user experience and functionality (Calendar alerts not firing, for example). Some of your problem might be that.
Even if you don't run out of RAM, Android will force applications to quit once you switch too many apps, because of the background limit. You might want to look into raising that. You an find it in dev options maybe. The apps themselves might close if they run int the background too long too.
Personally I'd be fine with the 6GB version. I have an 8GB phone right now and I could easily run with 3GB because I don't use soul and RAM sucking anti-social media apps.
You should profile your current phone and figure out how much you are using. Use a tool like OS Monitor.
Good luck!