Develop Bugs

How much difference does 3GB of RAM make?

The Note 3 is rumored to have 3GB of RAM. I believe that is a first for smartphones. But does it actually mean anything for real world performance or is it just for the spec sheet. Are there any use cases where 2GB is not sufficient?

Strategist said:
The Note 3 is rumored to have 3GB of RAM. I believe that is a first for smartphones. But does it actually mean anything for real world performance or is it just for the spec sheet. Are there any use cases where 2GB is not sufficient?
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You know, since we do not have any phone with 3GB we really don't know that?
But we can speculate, and 2GB did bring marked difference to the table with more apps that can stay suspended in memory so we can easily come back to them @ later time. Basically, there will be no other bonus beside better multitasking, unless someone figures a way to run 2 systems @ once (for whatever reason that may be) or we get into very advanced gaming (that GPU performance would not allow anyway) with huge framebuffers and AA. To date, I have not found any case where 2GB was not enough, no single app that would eat more than 1GB of ram - supposedly you can write an app that would use all available memory as storage for levels and textures and whatever just to increase smoothness of gameplay, but that would not make it a requirement, only an added option, since the game must be designed to run on some lowest common platform (within reason).
So in a way it will certainly mean "something" for a smoothness, just how much depends on your uses and application developers, for now I don't think you will see any difference from more memory, because it will be dwarfed by faster CPU and GPU speeds.

Strategist said:
The Note 3 is rumored to have 3GB of RAM. I believe that is a first for smartphones. But does it actually mean anything for real world performance or is it just for the spec sheet. Are there any use cases where 2GB is not sufficient?
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well ram does make little significant in multitasking and gaming but apart from it there is no much gain as of now 2gb is enough to perform all task and it works great as of now. we rather need more ram demanding games and apps to utilize the power of it, so yes as of now its a co. specs sheet to launch a new smartphone , its future proof but to catch up with it we need a more demanding android platform,games and app.

Samsung are only doing it for the sake of the specs bump. I'm probably going to wait for the Note 4 myself, maybe we will need more ram by then.
-- Sent from the mighty Note 2 --

You never needed more than 2GB of RAM because the system is optimized to leave certain ammount of free RAM thereby closing applications designated as "unused",which might not be regarded so much unused by us after all.So in my opponion a device with 3GB of RAM will be significantly faster and smoother.

I have more than 1GB of ram free in 90% of the cases so 3GB is overkill for now.

3GB won't really make a huge difference since we already have 2GB memory on our Note2...
I have no money so I guess I'll just wait for Note 5.

Nothing better, no difference !
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

When earlier everyone has 1 gb.. people use to say 2 gb wont make any difference.. bt now a days 2 gb is necessary... so i think 3 gb will soon come into action...
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

taran181 said:
When earlier everyone has 1 gb.. people use to say 2 gb wont make any difference.. bt now a days 2 gb is necessary... so i think 3 gb will soon come into action...
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
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The more the merrier!
1 gb was fine but with the s3 it did get hogged up.
2 seems good but its stretching it!
plskillme said:
3GB won't really make a huge difference since we already have 2GB memory on our Note2...
I have no money so I guess I'll just wait for Note 5.
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Watch it will make a difference. When we get 4.3 from Sammy our beloved Note 2 will seem to get slower and laggy. With each new firmware update, the files get bigger and also the apps need more memory.
If the rumors are true then I will be the first in line for the new note 3
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

taran181 said:
When earlier everyone has 1 gb.. people use to say 2 gb wont make any difference.. bt now a days 2 gb is necessary... so i think 3 gb will soon come into action...
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
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I had far lesser RAM on my DHD last year and I was contended even if the games load a tad slower compared to higher tier phones.
IMO The huge bump for the RAM is to accommodate a heavier version of any given UI.
jetbruceli said:
The more the merrier!
1 gb was fine but with the s3 it did get hogged up.
2 seems good but its stretching it!
Watch it will make a difference. When we get 4.3 from Sammy our beloved Note 2 will seem to get slower and laggy. With each new firmware update, the files get bigger and also the apps need more memory.
If the rumors are true then I will be the first in line for the new note 3
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
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I'm trying to save for a lot & house so having a new phone for me might get irrelevant for my needs in my new house. But anyways, Good luck on your future phone

I think right now 3GB of RAM is just future proofing. Nothing ever challenges the Note II's 2GB.
With that said, the more the merrier.

IMO, it will increase performance ..Personally, I need 3 Gb.. I have more than 400 app which all have at least one function I want. I multitask a lot. Moreover, I have more than 10 background running apps Eg. Gmd gesture control, Gmd s pen control, swipepad, swipapp, air control, control center,magic unlock, lmt pie control, ..... Blah blah.
So, if I start to run more other apps, I always got over 90 % of my 2 Gb and I sometimes feel my phone become sluggish though not always .. So 3 Gb will be perfect for me
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

Samsung might be planning for things to make use of the 3GB .. If they didn't make that much difference, it's always good to have them ^^ with hopefully the snapdragon 800 2.X GHz .. I don't know if it will be worth upgrading from note 2, we'll just wait and see.
Sent from my GT-N7100

I regularly see free RAM drop to under 200MB, though I do have quite a few apps running. I see this more as Android effectively utilising RAM than anything else.
But with RAM being so cheap, why not have more and keep more in memory? Reduce I/O delays and flash wear, reduce battery use, and with higher and higher res screens, app assets will just keep increasing in size (4.3 supports up to 600+ DPI for example).

crizolli said:
I think right now 3GB of RAM is just future proofing. Nothing ever challenges the Note II's 2GB.
With that said, the more the merrier.
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A year ago 1Gb ram was said to be enough, now 2 Gb is enough so if we are going yo run note 3 for a year then it is going to be enough cz we all know that samsung is going to put a lot of bloat in note 3.
Sent from the New S Pen

Also, from 1 to 2 it is doubling it. 2 to 3 is only 50%.
Beside this, sometimes the time will come android being a fat memory wasting pig. But this won't be happening within the next some years.
They will improve stats and will make you believe you need them, so you hang on buying the latest ****.. Over and over again. That's like modern economy works .
Sent from mobile.

crypta said:
Also, from 1 to 2 it is doubling it. 2 to 3 is only 50%.
Beside this, sometimes the time will come android being a fat memory wasting pig. But this won't be happening within the next some years.
They will improve stats and will make you believe you need them, so you hang on buying the latest ****.. Over and over again. That's like modern economy works .
Sent from mobile.
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Yeah exactly. The specs get bumped to create the impression that your current device is sub par. Even 1gb ram would be enough if Samsung didn't keep adding more and more useless features in every new device. Things like smart pause and s health are totally unnecessary for most people.
The only reason I even run TouchWiz is that the battery life is better than aosp. If it wasn't for that then I'd be totally happy with boring old vanilla Android on my note. This is the first phone I've ever had that I can feel free to use as I please and be confident that it will easily get me through the day and even well into the next.
Yeah the Note 3 may improve on that slightly but it's still not much of a reason to upgrade. Unless it has some miracle feature which significantly changes the way I use my phone, I'll wait for the Note 4 or 5. I just can't see it though. A minor spec bump and a raft of useless bloat just aren't getting me excited.
-- Sent from the mighty Note 2 --

Lol. May be the new touch wiz with Android 4.3 is going to be 2gb in itself. ?........
I was updating my brothers nexus 4...4.3 is a 160 MB OTA update.... almost the size of a full aosp rom. So may be Samsung 4.3 rom is going to be 2gb....
Note 3 will be having 3gb ram!
Sent from my GT-N5100 using Tapatalk 2

Will 2 GB RAM be enough for the Nexus 5x?

Hello. I am debating between the Nexus 5X and 6P. I come from a Galaxy S4. I prefer the size of the Nexus 5X, and I am fine with the Snapdragon 808 and 1080p display, but the 2 GB RAM worries me. I know that 2 GB RAM will be enough for today, but will it be enough 3 years from now? Will it slow down or not be able to get Android version upgrades due to having less RAM? Is Android becoming more demanding of RAM, or less demanding? Is it worth it to get the 6P for the "future proofing"? Am I being paranoid? Thank you.

It will be OK untill next year I think. Still the more ram the merrier, as always. Today 3 gb is ok for skinned oem and I think a barebone nexus takes less ram initially than ex Samsung or LG. My Z5c has two ram and you can't open very many apps before you have to reload, and Sonys ui has less bloat than many others.
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Gobbling_Monkey said:
Hello. I am debating between the Nexus 5X and 6P. I come from a Galaxy S4. I prefer the size of the Nexus 5X, and I am fine with the Snapdragon 808 and 1080p display, but the 2 GB RAM worries me. I know that 2 GB RAM will be enough for today, but will it be enough 3 years from now? Will it slow down or not be able to get Android version upgrades due to having less RAM? Is Android becoming more demanding of RAM, or less demanding? Is it worth it to get the 6P for the "future proofing"? Am I being paranoid? Thank you.
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RAM on smartphones these days is a completely different beast to just a few years ago. The OS is much better at optimizing and using what is available and works in a different manner to to desktops and laptops.
Have a read:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ram+on+phone

The Nexus 5 is still a well loved and well used device and 2GB ram is not a problem there.
I had no hesitation about the 5X and have come across no issues yet.

I'll tell you what, my S6 edge had 3gb of RAM and the available RAM on that phone is the same as my 5X. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. But if you want to future proof your phone, find one that offers 4gb of RAM and has good development for 3rd party ROMs.

So you think you'll keep the nexus 5x for three years? Also it would get at least 2 major updates so I wouldn't be worried about ram.

One of the reasons i got a 6p and not 5x was the 2GB of ram.. And max 32GB space. My nexus 5 has 2 & 32.. I am almost out of room for files.. And my available ram is 150MB.. I think it was causing slowness i had to constantly close apps. So to answer your question YES it is an issue. I am shocked and disappointed that after 3 years they came out with a device with pretty much the same specs

Sam.Dash said:
One of the reasons i got a 6p and not 5x was the 2GB of ram.. And max 32GB space. My nexus 5 has 2 & 32.. I am almost out of room for files.. And my available ram is 150MB.. I think it was causing slowness i had to constantly close apps. So to answer your question YES it is an issue. I am shocked and disappointed that after 3 years they came out with a device with pretty much the same specs
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The storage space is a legit concern, but unused RAM is wasted RAM. If you have 150 MB free of RAM, then 2 GB is more than plenty.

I agree.. But i was starting to experience mini crashes in camera app.. And sluggishness in general.. Closing background apps helped fixed it... So i assume 150 Ram left is not enough

I would say it's fine as long as you don't play RAM hungry games and expect to multi-task (ie. your apps are still loaded after starting the game, your game is still running if you check a couple of other apps). If you do expect to multi-task like this you'll be disappointed.
That 150-300MB free is 'wasted' if you don't have anything else to do on your phone, but if you want to open a 500+ MB game on top of that then things are going to get booted and then the game will get booted if/when you open those things again.
Also even if the phone needs to dump a few small apps when things get full most things like camera or browser or reddit app reload quickly, games can take forever to load so that when I was playing one (Uprising) I was loath to switch away from it in case it would get closed and need to load again.

Superior lag when short on RAM

Hey XDA!
I recently took back my Nexus 4 just for the sake of comparing ... and it turned out being faster than my 4 years newer N5X in specific scenarios!
My main problem with the Nexus 5X is that it easily runs short on RAM (due to the x64 chip?) and Facebook + Messenger are enough to make everything lag like crazy. Not to mention Spotify and navigation together. On my Nexus 4 I used to run more than 20 apps and services in the background without any downgrade in performance. I understand the issue and I just wanted to confirm if I am by some chance the only one experiencing this.
Thanks

facebooks android apps are not really known for their great and resource friendly performances. i personally have not yet run into such problems, but that doesn't say much.
what i imagine could cause that difference in performance is the respective device specific OS version. newer/more powerful devices get features (enabled), that others don't get, which in turn lowers the difference in IRL performance. for example, as can be seen in side-by-side comparisons, the N6P takes around 10s longer to boot up than the N5X out of the box, despite having superior hardware components, so there must be a reason for that.
with your N4vsN5X case and your mention of the RAM shortage, the first word that shot into my mind was 'zRAM'. afaik marshmallow finally includes this feature, but does the OS manage it intelligently and is it even enabled on the N4 at all?

Ram Management in 2018

Hi Guys
I was wondering how is the ram management, looking at some videos and post they was all in late 2017, now with a couple of updates and stuff I was wondering how the Pixel XL 2 fares in keeping apps open.
I was thinking of getting the Pixel XL 2 because I enjoy taking photos and the camera is amazing on the Pixel 2, my only grips with it is that I'm a heavy multi-tasker as well.
I've seen videos in 2017 that it struggles to hold 10 or less apps, but I was wondering with kernels and ram tweak, how is everyone with the ram, are apps kept in or reloading?

In my experience, apps do tend to reload but the device is good at reloading back to where you were in the app for the most part.
Running Flash kernel!

As far as I'm concerned, I've not experienced any slowdowns or multitasking issues with my device considering it has "only" 4GB of RAM.
You'll notice app reloads here and there from time to time, but that's not a dealbreaker. The same also occurs on 6GB devices, and even more frequently on an iPhone.
The phone feels very fast anyway, thanks to the very lightweight and bloat-free stock Google firmware. Less bloat = less wasted RAM for useless crap

There's no change, I'm on P and it reloads like hell , ok it opens really fast but it's kinda annoying. On ram management Samsung experience they did a really good job this year, the s8 that I have holds a lot of applications

lima002 said:
There's no change, I'm on P and it reloads like hell , ok it opens really fast but it's kinda annoying. On ram management Samsung experience they did a really good job this year, the s8 that I have holds a lot of applications
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Shame, I'm on the OnePlus 5T so apps don't even reload after 20 apps open. Tested it just now. Includes 2 games.
But the camera just seems so good on the pixel...

I had ip5t too , really good performance. But no stereo speakers , and the camera are deal breaker to me.

Overall speed

Would you say that the Samsung Galaxy A51 is "fast" in day-to-day use? A higher rating indicates that you think the Samsung Galaxy A51 exhibits fantastic performance. Like, is it as fast as your tears when you watch The Titanic?
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

I'm currently using Samsung Galaxy A51 with Feb 2020 Patch, performance is very sluggish and slow compared to other 6gb ram devices that I used last year, you can "Feel" the delay of animation from fingerprint, opening, and closing apps, I am totally disappointed with the performance of this device, hopefully Samsung can find a way to optimize its software with its hardware capability.

It's a little all over the place for me, but ultimately disappointing. I don't know if it's a problem with my device, but it seems like my phone just ****s the bed during random intervals. There are times when I'll be using my phone and it will be surprisingly smooth considering the hardware, and other times where the animations feel very choppy and unpleasant. I've been running a lot of AnTuTu benchmarks, and I've got scores up to 180,000 when it's doing good, and down to almost 130,000 when ****s going on. And that's not just AnTuTu, these are differences I can feel in normal operations. So it's weird. I'm not sure if it's some kind of hardware bug or I've got some background process eating away performance that I'm unaware of, or something else. It's a real shame, because there's a lot I love about this phone.
But that's my experience. For the record, I have the Latin American variant with 4gb of ram. I still have yet to get any updates on it. It seems I'm stuck with the December security patch (I'm not sure what's up with that).

Alfalfalaffa said:
It's a little all over the place for me, but ultimately disappointing. I don't know if it's a problem with my device, but it seems like my phone just ****s the bed during random intervals. There are times when I'll be using my phone and it will be surprisingly smooth considering the hardware, and other times where the animations feel very choppy and unpleasant. I've been running a lot of AnTuTu benchmarks, and I've got scores up to 180,000 when it's doing good, and down to almost 130,000 when ****s going on. And that's not just AnTuTu, these are differences I can feel in normal operations. So it's weird. I'm not sure if it's some kind of hardware bug or I've got some background process eating away performance that I'm unaware of, or something else. It's a real shame, because there's a lot I love about this phone.
But that's my experience. For the record, I have the Latin American variant with 4gb of ram. I still have yet to get any updates on it. It seems I'm stuck with the December security patch (I'm not sure what's up with that).
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Think I am having a similar experience, much choppier then I would have expected. Hangs a lot when opening or switching apps. Battery life disappointing as well. I am also on December security patch.

Takes a second for home screen to refresh and load folders etc when going from an app to the home screen, not ideal.

Slow performance
Samsung A51 became slower after the new updates..

Good my variant is the SM-A515F (Panama), I am in with the firmware A515FXXU3ATC5 with security 2020-03-13. It is super fast and very stable, it does not have to be root, just apply disinfestation of garbage apk, through the ADB method, and the phone has shown very good behavior, getting 34 to 36 hours of battery, and in games this Super fast. I recommend you to update your official bases and remove garbage apk, with the ADB method.

[email protected] said:
Good my variant is the SM-A515F (Panama), I am in with the firmware A515FXXU3ATC5 with security 2020-03-13. It is super fast and very stable, it does not have to be root, just apply disinfestation of garbage apk, through the ADB method, and the phone has shown very good behavior, getting 34 to 36 hours of battery, and in games this Super fast. I recommend you to update your official bases and remove garbage apk, with the ADB method.
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Hello,
Good.
What is the packages to uninstal ?
Thanks you

I wanted to chime in here. I just got this device via Sprint so US model not the international one. I was a bit fearful coming from a pixel 4 based on the performance comments. I like plastic phones that have good specs and can be replaced if I drop it and crack the screen (refuse to use cases).
My experience with performance has been pleasantly surprising. Is it as fast as my pixel 4 was, heck no but for day to day use do i really notice enough that makes me regret the switch? Nope, not one bit. Most are probably aware but there is a good YouTube guide to speed this device up. A lot of it is common knowledge via Developer options but some of the other tips are good ones to apply if you aren't familiar with Samsung phones specifically.
How to enable Beast Mode on Galaxy A51: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0Lkax0QSs&t=331s
Now if we can get a good ADB bloatware removal guide for this device we should see even further improvements.

Using the debloat guide for the A50 works just fine. The phone looks and works great for me and it's the 4GB version. Fingerprint unlock also works reasonably well and reliably after applying the tips listed on these pages.

It's pretty bad, yeah. My Nokia 7 Plus is faster and a better phone.

Seconded, trick is to remove all the bloatware
[email protected] said:
Good my variant is the SM-A515F (Panama), I am in with the firmware A515FXXU3ATC5 with security 2020-03-13. It is super fast and very stable, it does not have to be root, just apply disinfestation of garbage apk, through the ADB method, and the phone has shown very good behavior, getting 34 to 36 hours of battery, and in games this Super fast. I recommend you to update your official bases and remove garbage apk, with the ADB method.
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Click to collapse
I'll second this. Once I removed all of the bloatware (or technically, disabled, via the well known ADB method) and changed launchers (Lawnchair), this device runs like a dream. Hell, Asphalt plays w/o issue and is smooth and fast.
My only gripe so far is that I have been unable to find a working Gcam, the camera software leaves much to be desired.

dosangst said:
I'll second this. Once I removed all of the bloatware (or technically, disabled, via the well known APK method) and changed launchers (Lawnchair), this device runs like a dream. Hell, Asphalt plays w/o issue and is smooth and fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
I desabled some apk.
Do you have a list of the apk you desabled ?
Thanks

Why is turning the screen horizontally or vertically so slow? I've never had a phone where it takes 3 seconds for the screen to rotate after I turn my phone until a51.

Wikhatib said:
It's pretty bad, yeah. My Nokia 7 Plus is faster and a better phone.
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I was considering a galaxy a51 as replacement for my nokia 7 plus, because of its infamous hardware issue are starting to bother me (display brightness, loose usb port).
I take it from your comment this phone isn't a good replacement

had it for a little over a week now, not a heavy user but moderate (mostly taking photos or using social media).
It's not bad, ofc it can't be compared to a flagship, but for simple daily tasks it's more than enough at this point
opening the camera takes quite long sometimes and apps tend to take a second or two to start, but then they're pretty fast and snappy
paid 280 € for it and that seems absolutely reasonable to me

Shizuwi said:
I'm currently using Samsung Galaxy A51 with Feb 2020 Patch, performance is very sluggish and slow compared to other 6gb ram devices that I used last year, you can "Feel" the delay of animation from fingerprint, opening, and closing apps, I am totally disappointed with the performance of this device, hopefully Samsung can find a way to optimize its software with its hardware capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The cure for lag is simple, I've used it on every Samsung device since the S2:
Uninstall or disable all the bloatware you can. Install another launcher (I use Nova) - set all animations to the fastest.
For good measure, disable all animations in settings -> developer options.
Lag gone.
CAVEAT I don't do gaming (life is too short) so can't comment on that.

Shizuwi said:
I'm currently using Samsung Galaxy A51 with Feb 2020 Patch, performance is very sluggish and slow compared to other 6gb ram devices that I used last year, you can "Feel" the delay of animation from fingerprint, opening, and closing apps, I am totally disappointed with the performance of this device, hopefully Samsung can find a way to optimize its software with its hardware capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably due the low end processor Samsung put on it, sadly it has its limits

I've setup several A51's for people and it is hands down the slowest budget phone I've used in awhile. If you have Verizon, I strongly recommend the A51 5G UW or the S20 FE instead. The Snapdragon 765G and 865 are much faster and seem more stable. Given that the 5G models are also affordable, I cannot recommend the regular A51 to anyone.

Guyinlaca said:
I've setup several A51's for people and it is hands down the slowest budget phone I've used in awhile. If you have Verizon, I strongly recommend the A51 5G UW or the S20 FE instead. The Snapdragon 765G and 865 are much faster and seem more stable. Given that the 5G models are also affordable, I cannot recommend the regular A51 to anyone.
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Yes, perhaps. But...My wife and I both have the A51 and I have recommended it to my brother. He and his wife now have the A51. None of the 4 of us play games, and we all are between 70 and 80 years old. For us, it's the best phone we've ever had and I sold my S8 to buy the A51. At my age, the S8 was just too small and had a good but limited Camera. The A51 is perfect for all our needs.
It's a great phone for the $279 we each paid IF you don't do any heavy gaming. It's plenty fast enough for us old folks.
OldBob