Free RAM is wasted RAM. The first time I saw that statement it bothered me because I was using a phone with 2GB of RAM. What did they mean by free RAM is wasted RAM? What were these people on? RAM space was premium to me.
It is also very important to a lot of other people. Lots of people have complained that they have no apps in use but yet, their RAM is always occupied. Why is that? Why is the RAM not left free?
Before we begin, lemme ask you this question, do you think that your phone needs free RAM or do you think it should use up all the RAM space?
In the recent past
Checking how much RAM I had available used to be one of my favorite pastimes. I was obsessed with checking it. This was during the mid-2010s when I used phones with 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB RAM.
This was especially true for my Tecno Pouvoir 2. It usually had barely 700MB free out of the 1.8GB it had. This always annoyed me, especially if I had no apps in use. If I chose to load up a game like PUBG onto the 700MB free RAM, the game would refuse to load due to a lack of memory.
In the end, I resorted to using RAM managers and task killers just to eke out enough free space. At least 1GB or so, so that I could at least play the 2 or 3 games before it crashes. Upon which, I’ll redo the whole process all over again.
Today
Even recently, with all my apps closed, I still see information like 2.8GB/6GB and I’ll laugh and remember when I used to eke out space.
Lots of people have complained that this happens to them too. They have no apps in use yet, but their RAM is always occupied. Why is there barely any free RAM on their device? Is something wrong with their phone?
The answer is no and there’s a good reason why this happens.
Read: What is smartphone multitasking?
Preloading
There’s a phenomenon called preloading. Preloading is when your operating system loads apps into memory automatically before the user requests for it.
Android/iOS nowadays is smarter than ever and tends to take note of user patterns. It is the same user-pattern algorithms that social media giants like Meta (Facebook/IG), Snapchat, and Alphabet (YT/Google) use as well.
This is why my Facebook feed will be very different from your own. The Operating System on your phone monitors you and takes note of your most used apps. When it has gathered enough data, it then takes the liberty of starting your most used apps for you and keeping them in the RAM. This is so that as soon as you tap on that app, it opens very quickly. No lag, no fuss, and no delays.
When a lot of people scream about phone A or phone B being so fast, sometimes it is not always about the SoC on board. A phone’s Operating System may simply be very good at preloading apps into memory (RAM).
Note that this doesn’t work with big games because they occupy too much space in memory. But for other apps, they are usually kept in RAM so that they open almost immediately, and even when you exit such apps and swipe them away, Android doesn’t wipe them. It simply caches them and keeps them on the RAM, zRAM, or virtual memory.
Operating Systems and Free RAM
Most operating systems today consider free RAM to be wasted RAM. This is why most of them are programmed to make sure that the available RAM in use is distributed or allocated to all necessary apps. This is to ensure that users have a wonderful user experience (UX).
The Operating System would go out of its way to ensure that unused RAM space is allocated accordingly. The idea is that free RAM is best used to better improve user experience rather than sitting idle and unused.
Read: What is zRAM and swapping?
So is free RAM completely bad?
So with what we now know, does it mean that Android should choke the up RAM and not leave any space free? Well no. Not exactly.
Imagine this scenario, what happens if a user wants to load an app that has not been preloaded into the RAM and there’s not enough space?
Yup. That would be a problem in itself. To combat this, many Operating Systems, especially Android, are programmed to maintain a healthy balance between free RAM and occupied RAM. Many Operating Systems also quickly swap preloaded apps into zRAM or virtual memory to create more space for the user.
In order words, free RAM is not entirely wasted RAM.
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Free ram is no wasted ram.
The moment you attempt to use up your phones ram, it comes crashing right away.
Exactly! That’s why Android always leaves some free space.
how can one configure swap to make phone run smoother?
What I mean is which swappiness is better?
how much swap will actually make a difference on 1GB RAM device?
how do I prevent app stutering?
do you also know of task kiler settings that can make it run faster?
pls reply me, I follow u Nairaland
You cannot configure swap space. There’s no swappiness that is better than the other.
Swap space is just a reserve where your phone keeps apps instead of killing them. It is scam because your phone cannot run apps from swap space.
So since your phone has 1GB RAM, it’s going to perform poorly like every other 1GB RAM device, regardless of swap space.
The limitations of the 1GB remain the same. I have a YouTube video about this already where I explained this. If your phone has 1GB RAM, you should only use it for light stuff. No serious apps.
https://youtu.be/YhHxTyt_TQo