a simple question of free RAM

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10-03-12, 06:39 PM
chlbrn

a simple question of free RAM

I just got my playbook minutes ago, I found only 500MB free ram left and total ram is 1GB.
it was my pb's first start up without any app running, but about 500MB ram has already been taken. 500MB free ram seems enough, ipad 2 only has 512 ram totally. But thinking of that i did nothing and 500 MB ram was gone or eaten by OS( i'm not sure about that), it still makes me worry about the ram. Windows xp only takes about 200-300MB based on my experience, i don't think a tablet os should take 500MB ram. so, do you guys think 500MB free left is enough for apps? and any advice on freeing more RAM? btw, my PB is 32G model
OS ver. is 2.1.0.1032.
10-03-12, 07:37 PM
diegonei

Idle devices will have 500-600mb free. It's normal.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy the PlayBook!
10-03-12, 07:57 PM
chlbrn

Originally Posted by diegonei

Idle devices will have 500-600mb free. It's normal.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy the PlayBook!

thank you for telling me it is normal, my PB works perfectly with no delay, but I'm still wondering if there is a ram cleaner for playbook.:p
10-03-12, 08:13 PM
diegonei

The OS does that on its own. And should it get to a point it needs ram, it will close running apps to make room.

If I were the project manager for the Playbook project, it would have shipped with 1536mb of RAM. 1.5gb, so we could have a whole giga to play with.

Still, 1gb gets the job done. Look at this:

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGoBZ6eR8VY[/YT]

Can it multitask or what?
10-03-12, 10:20 PM
chlbrn

Originally Posted by diegonei

The OS does that on its own. And should it get to a point it needs ram, it will close running apps to make room.

If I were the project manager for the Playbook project, it would have shipped with 1536mb of RAM. 1.5gb, so we could have a whole giga to play with.

Still, 1gb gets the job done. Look at this:

Click to view quoted video

Can it multitask or what?

wow, thanks again, my PB now works fine and i just want more clean room that would make me feel safe lol, moreover, the rams are cheap, aren't they? leaving 1GB free would make us happier not just me i think:D
10-03-12, 10:32 PM
esk369

Yes you definitely won't have any problems running multiple apps at the same time in showcase mode your apps run even when you minimize the app I've had 5 or six open apps with no problems.
Enjoy your new pb op:D
10-03-12, 11:43 PM
z_scorpio_z

I think QNX operates/reports memory like linux. In linux, you would see that free memory is low and you would think that you are running out of ram, however that is not the case. Linux will cache everything in memory (it operates on the principle since memory isn't needed by anything yet so I will keep caching everything I can). If some process needs memory it can be used from cache. So "available" memory is basically free+cache. If the server was truly running out of memory you would see swap showing some usage (it is at zero below).

Here is an example from one of my linux server. Total 8GB, and it shows used almost 8GB and only 43MB free, but you can see it has cached 7623MB. If I put 8GB more in the server, the result will be same showing only 40-50MB free (and cache being closer to ~16GB).

[root@server1 ~]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7985 7941 43 0 1 7623
-/+ buffers/cache: 316 7669
Swap: 9983 0 9983
10-04-12, 02:00 AM
stackberry369

I think my 4Gb went to bing maps.
10-04-12, 07:36 AM
esk369

Originally Posted by diegonei

The OS does that on its own. And should it get to a point it needs ram, it will close running apps to make room.

If I were the project manager for the Playbook project, it would have shipped with 1536mb of RAM. 1.5gb, so we could have a whole giga to play with.

Still, 1gb gets the job done. Look at this:

Click to view quoted video

Can it multitask or what?

Perfect demo on the pb multitasking capabilities.
This should have its own stickie nice demo:D
10-04-12, 08:50 AM
KermEd

Look for Overload in the AppWorld

It will force clean your ram in seconds in most cases and reinits your libraries such as Android :)

I also have a free older version kicking around on the forum somewhere if you want to sideload it.

Ed

Sent from my BlackBerry 9360 using Tapatalk
10-04-12, 10:55 AM
zorecati

Originally Posted by chlbrn

thank you for telling me it is normal, my PB works perfectly with no delay, but I'm still wondering if there is a ram cleaner for playbook.:p

This isn't windows 95. Unused ram is wasted ram. The os does a really good job of ram management, much better than we do. I wouldn't waste to many brain cycles on it.
10-04-12, 01:05 PM
mikeo007

Originally Posted by z_scorpio_z

I think QNX operates/reports memory like linux. In linux, you would see that free memory is low and you would think that you are running out of ram, however that is not the case. Linux will cache everything in memory (it operates on the principle since memory isn't needed by anything yet so I will keep caching everything I can). If some process needs memory it can be used from cache. So "available" memory is basically free+cache. If the server was truly running out of memory you would see swap showing some usage (it is at zero below).

Here is an example from one of my linux server. Total 8GB, and it shows used almost 8GB and only 43MB free, but you can see it has cached 7623MB. If I put 8GB more in the server, the result will be same showing only 40-50MB free (and cache being closer to ~16GB).

[root@server1 ~]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7985 7941 43 0 1 7623
-/+ buffers/cache: 316 7669
Swap: 9983 0 9983

This is correct and it is how most modern OS will report RAM usage. Most will actually give a breakdown of: free, in use, wired, and stale RAM.

However, the ~500 MB free on the Playbook is also due to the OS using 1/2 of the available system RAM (allocated to various processes and the GPU).

There will never be more than about 500mb free to applications even after a fresh reboot. I'm not sure why the PBOS uses so much RAM; the kernel is very RAM efficient, so I'd have to assume its thinks like the AIR layer that really eat up the RAM.
10-04-12, 01:37 PM
kill_9

Originally Posted by chlbrn

wow, thanks again, my PB now works fine and i just want more clean room that would make me feel safe lol, moreover, the rams are cheap, aren't they? leaving 1GB free would make us happier not just me i think:D

Research In Motion is notorious for its cheapskate allocation of RAM on every device. The BlackBerry PlayBook should have shipped with 2GB RAM considering the applications are all graphical user interface (GUI). Realistically, all manufacturers of electronic devices use the minimum components which can run the software. The BlackBerry Tablet OS should be able to run in 128MB RAM with full GUI; many a GNU/Linux distribution performs flawlessly when compiled with the correct options. BlackBerry Tablet OS has its roots deeply in QNX which itself ran nicely from a 2MB (unformatted capacity) diskette. That said, we gratefully take whatever scraps Research In Motion tosses us because when you are chained to the table leg your food selection is limited to the master's discards. LOL
10-05-12, 09:22 PM
DoctorNeutron

Re: a simple question of free RAM

RIM has called their tablet "Playbook". Don't be thinking about memory - just play!

The other day I got in my truck with my Verizon JetPack - 3g/4g in, 10 WiFi out
and my 64 GB PB. Set mode from 'paused' to 'showcase'. Got Qfolio going
to keep up with my stocks. Got Mozart going. Got googlemaps with GPS going.
Got Skylabs Compass Pro going (fail?). Got Kindle going with the Bible.
At this point I was thinking about your question and I checked my memory -
131 MB free. Duh ?!!?!?!!? Just use your PB and don't worry, QNX is great!
Doc Neutron
10-06-12, 01:35 AM
BerryClever

Re: a simple question of free RAM

Originally Posted by DoctorNeutron

RIM has called their tablet "Playbook". Don't be thinking about memory - just play!

The other day I got in my truck with my Verizon JetPack - 3g/4g in, 10 WiFi out
and my 64 GB PB. Set mode from 'paused' to 'showcase'. Got Qfolio going
to keep up with my stocks. Got Mozart going. Got googlemaps with GPS going.
Got Skylabs Compass Pro going (fail?). Got Kindle going with the Bible.
At this point I was thinking about your question and I checked my memory -
131 MB free. Duh ?!!?!?!!? Just use your PB and don't worry, QNX is great!
Doc Neutron

If you were doing all that while in your truck, it makes since you had the Bible up too! :p

You're right, the multitasking is incredible. QNX handles it extremely well. Only a few times has the OS closed unused windows on me and that was normally with intense websites or with Android apps running... mind you I had a lot of other apps open at the same time.