Do You really need 8,10 or even 12GB Of RAM on your Phone? RAM Architecture Explained...

The RAM Count in Mobile Phones is definitely one of the biggest features people check when choosing or comparing smart phones. Maybe After the Processor, Camera and battery. We remember when the rumours were flying that Vivo and Oppo were working on 10gb RAM Phones. Xiaomi Beat them to it and released the Mi Mix 3 with a Whooping 10(ten)Gigabytes of Ram. Then came the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT, with another large 12gb of Ram. That just pegs the question which is the title of this article, Do you really need Computer sized Ram counts in your phone? Let's explore the workings of smartphone memory processing and arrive at the final piece.

1.0: What is RAM?
RAM(Random Access Memory), is just simply memory that is used instantly to hold data and information that components use for a short period of time. Think of a CPU as a Brain. Then the Ram is it's memory. Just as you need to store facts in your memory for a short exam that's how the Ram is utilised as temporal storage.

Ram helps to hold important Data for use almost instantaneously. Internal storage might be fast but they are slower than Ram when it comes to instant processing. For example the read, write speed of the UFS (Universal Flash Storage) 2.1 is about 900Mb/second. Cool right?  But the read-write speed of a LPDDR4 Ram is about 8000Mb/second. Hence the reason why Ram is always smaller than internal storage.

2.0 Ram Mechanism:

When you click an applicant it loads up,  a Data parchment is created in the system Ram. Your operating system(be it Android or windows)  would then direct the CPU to perform any task and also display it for your viewing. The data from the parchment would then go to a smaller but even faster part of the CPU called Cache.

When you run out of Ram, the system would result to using internal storage as Ram. Since internal storage has lower read speeds, it would become more slower.

3.0 How your phone uses Ram:

Ask an average user what Ram is used for in a phone and he'll tell you it helps in multitasking. While that's true, there are other things Ram can help with in your mobile phone. Such as:

3.1: Kernel section:
The kernel is a computer program that is the core of a computer's operating system, with absolute control over the operation of the system. it is one of the first programs loaded on start-up. This is a file that is stored directly in the Ram and is loaded up during the start up process.

3.2: IMEI Information:
The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a number used to identify WCDMA and GSM smartphones. These are stored in the Non-Volatile memory called the NVRAM. Just like the Kernel section, This moves to the RAM at start up.

3.3:  Internet and Radio settings:

Similar to the IMEI information, Your internet and radio settings are also stored in your NVRAM. Support software and internal codes are also transferred along with them to the Ram at start-up.

3.4:  GPU:

The Gpu( Graphics processing Unit) uses the system Ram to work properly and deliver its functions. The Ram it uses is called VRAM or Video Ram.In Computers, They have dedicated VRAM but phones dont.

3.5:  Multi-tasking:

Apps need to be opened faster, and due to the faster speed capability of Ram it is most suitable for this function. But this is what your remaining Ram can do after the above tasks have been taken care off.

4.0: Ram and the Iphone Story:

Like most of the other features of the apple Iphone, Apple have been rather tight-lipped when it comes to the internal Ram of the Iphone. The first Iphone had about 129MB of Ram, while teardowns showed that the Iphone 8 Plus has 3GB and The Iphone XS Max has about 4GB. These are rather small figures compared to the above 6gb we find on Andoid smartphones, But do these smartphones show better efficiency more than the Iphone?

For example, The Ipad Mini 4 had 2GB of Ram, but can perform good levels of multi-tasking. Its previous generation,  The Mini 3 with 1GB Can't. Not that its impossible though, But Apple doesn't Think its well optimized to do so. The multi tasking prowess of IOS devices cannot be ignored, as it is smooth and well optimized for a positive user experience.

In Android powered smartphones, The kernel is mostly built on a version of Java(A programming language) called Java 8 and uses a trash collection activity when the Ram fills up. Ironically this process uses Ram also.

But in Iphones, it's a different matter. The IOS completely eradicates the trash process and rather suspends the application to the background. This time-out also helps in reducing battery drain and further Ram mismanagement. Wondering why Android doesn't use this method? Simple because Java 8 has its own Cleaning mechanism differnt from that of IOS.

5.0: How much Ram do you really need?

The first step in solving this question would be to address the issue of what amount of Ran is needed, at least in 2019. Lets start with an example;

The Mi 8 SE has 4GB of Ram. There are 13 apps loaded up and it still says 1.7GB free. The Oneplus 3 has an 8GB Variant. In The test of the 8gb, the dialy usage showed that about only 50% of the Ram was being Utilised on a dialy basis. If we try to fill up the Ram, the phone kind of gets aggressive and refreshes the apps presumably to save battery. That means that the remaining Gbs of Ram cannot be used up.

Today, about 4GB of Ram is okay for any kind of Mobile Phone. Anything above that is just overkill in our opinion. The main reason why OEM's pump more ram in their Phones is to make it seem more attractive than what others are offering. It's like Hey look, Xiaomi has a 6GB phone. Let's make ours 8GB. Think otherwise? have a look at the Iphone story. 

But 8GB might be a little bit future proof and other factors which come to play which we will discuss in 7.0.

6.0:  Does more Ram affect Performance?

No. If you have the optimal amount of Ram needed already, the extra count wont help at all and would just be a strain to your battery. Remember that Unused ram is basically useless. Even so, you might even notice Phones with 6GB of ram still refreshing apps. let's discuss that in 7.0.

7.0: Check for these specifications instead:

Instead of checking if a phone has 12Gb of Ram, Check these specs in place of that.

7.1: The OS or Skin on top:

Nowadays, instead of the traditional Stock android, Some OEM's sometimes place a heavily customized skin on android, mostly Chinese developers due to the prohibition of Google in China. Here, the skin takes on most of the functions that google would mostly perform, which includes directing applications and multitasking.Others just have it to look different and add more features not available in android. Its also a trademark software.

Xiaomi's MIUI would definitely have more Ram needs than Stock Android

That said, some skins adopt differenet approaches to Ram management. While MIUI is known to kill apps in the background to save battery, Oxygen OS emplys a radical approach to keep apps floating while clearing trash files in the phone. Also MIUI is also a heavy type of skin, while Stock android is actually a light version. Android Go is even lighter and made for phones with about 1Gb.

7.2: The Cache of the Processor:

As stated above, the cache memory is tied directly to the CPU and is used to store instructions that are frequently accessed. 

In the Snapdragon 835, this flagship processor employs a good 2MB for the high performance cores and 1MB for Low performance cores. However in the Snapdragon 845. The Performance Cores are given 256 KB of L2 Cache (for each core) whereas the Efficiency Cores get 128 KB of L2 Cache (for each core). In addition to this, there is also a shared L3 cache memory of 2MB for the cores. 

  

These are Flagship SOCs(socket on chip), So you might want to do a research on your processor.

7.3: The Ram architecture:

The previous model DDR3(double data rate synchronous) Rams had about 5000MB/Second copy speeds. DDR4 had about 8000MB/Second. Checking the read-write speed of your Ram would determine the effieciency of your phone.

7.4: What you intend using it to do:

If you play heavy games on your Smartphone or run emulators you would need a good amount of ram on your phone. Even more if you watch VR(Virtual reality) movies and play VR games.

If you're a developer, Unlocking the boot loader of your devices might give options to explore in order to maximise your phones full potential.

But if you're a casual user less ram would be all right in our perspective.

7.5: How long you would be using it:

A phone with more ram than normal would be more future proof. For example, I Updated an Infinix Hot 4 Lite to android 7.0 Nougat from 6.0 Marshmello. The phone had only 1GB ram and often struggled to load quickly. If you purchase a 6GB Mobile, it is most likely to survive a major update than others with 2GB.

Tip 1.0: More ram does not affect performance positively. 

Tip 2.0: Cleaning apps is not recommended as it just drains battery. idle ram is mostly bad at this point.

So that wraps up the article. what are your thoughts on Ram architecture and count? Please share a comment below and have nice weekend!