Are we sure it's a bad thing when RAM usage goes up?

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by krohnjw

Well, if the app is polling on any sort of interval for hardware status or other info then it will use resources (the amount of resources used will obviously depend on the hardware being queried). If it is truly sitting idle and only operating on its own data set or info then it shouldn't be using any additional resources by merely being open.

Exactly and any programmer worth their salt would not have their software polling unless it actually needed to do so; off hand I can't think of many apps sans email, IM and automatically-updating data programs that would need to do this.

But browsers, file explorer, RSS readers that aren't updating, Twitter apps that aren't auto-updating, Outlook, Netflix, etc. don't do this as far as I know. In fact it should seem obvious which apps do truly "run" in the background and those that don't do anything.

Edit: Here's a good example direct from MS on coding of Widgets, battery life and what they strongly suggest to preserve power; this is why I think modern programs on a moder OS don't impact battery life when idle.

• Only consume network resources when your widget is active.
• Minimize animations when the widget is idle.
• Cache data locally as aggressively as possible, use the widget persistent storage as a repository since it will be preserved across runs (and even upgrades).
• Be aware of the current battery level and minimize network operations when the battery is running low.
• Always (and by that I really mean always!!) use asynchronous network requests.

[redd214]

malatesta you are on point with the technical info. u back up your opinions with actual facts i love that!! thanks for the info man!

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by redd214

malatesta you are on point with the technical info. u back up your opinions with actual facts i love that!! thanks for the info man!

lol, it's my academic background

Heck, I even enjoy when folks prove me wrong or teach me something I don't know (which is often), so if people can enlighten me on these issues I'm all for it!

[i360]

Your giving too much credence to MS and some random developers personally. MS operating systems are constantly running tasks even on an idle machine. Once these programs aren't in the que they won't have the ability to run. So I'm glad you think we are wasting our time and whatnot. I know what works in my own expierence since i'm the one doing it. Justify the means and go have a coke and a smile.....

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by i360

Your giving too much credence to MS and some random developers personally. MS operating systems are constantly running tasks even on an idle machine. Once these programs aren't in the que they won't have the ability to run. So I'm glad you think we are wasting our time and whatnot. I know what works in my own expierence since i'm the one doing it. Justify the means and go have a coke and a smile.....

What processes and tasks? I'm looking for specifics not generalities. And giving too much credence to the developers of the operating system as opposed to joe-schmo in a forum with zero credentials (no offense of course, even I can be lumped into that category)? Hmmm...

I just see lots of claims being made but little actual arguments to support them. I've seen these sort of urban myths passed on in forums and I just see them as inaccurate, hence why I'm looking for someone to explain it.

This reminds me of the "turn off beam" to save battery life meme.

[Dragon2]

Originally Posted by Malatesta

lol, it's my academic background

Heck, I even enjoy when folks prove me wrong or teach me something I don't know (which is often), so if people can enlighten me on these issues I'm all for it!

now thats a good attitude that we should all go by...... You da man Malatesta.....

[kern417]

all i know is with my verizon tp i couldn't multi task at all until i flashed an ssk rom that allowed lower ram usage. i couldn't open multiple tabs in opera and it was extrememly slow. i have no problems with my phone but don't see why i would want to let it get that high again.

[ajac]

Originally Posted by kirstein

I'm reading lots of people trying to figure out how to keep RAM usage down. What I'm wondering is if that's really productive. Seems to me that as long as the OS properly manages it, it should be OK if RAM usage get into the 90% range.

If the OS is using RAM to cache commonly used chunks of code, and if it has a decent routine for freeing up RAM as needed, what's the problem. It could actually slow things down to keep purging RAM.

I'll admit I don't know much about what's going on in the kernel or exactly why RAM usage grows over time. Is there anyone who has dug deep enough into the system to know for sure what's going on in there?

whenever I see more ram used it also means more processor used.. and I wish we had somethign showing how much processor is being used like on windows vista/7

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by ajac

whenever I see more ram used it also means more processor used.. and I wish we had somethign showing how much processor is being used like on windows vista/7

Get an app like MemMaid to show CPU cycles.

There's no direct correlation between amount of RAM available and CPU usage. Just because RAM is occupied doesn't mean the CPU is doing any work, there's just no direct connection.

[Edwood]

It's definitely NOT a good thing.

WinMo leaks memory like a colander leaks water. I soft reset every day, and run a memory cleaning app all the time, otherwise I don't have enough memory to run memory hungry programs like iGO8.