Let's talk RAM Plus (Virtual RAM) in Galaxy smartphones.

[Anikroyale]

I am sure everyone amongst you guys have heard about Virtual RAM. No? Let's understand what it is and let's see how it works in Galaxy smartphones (it is the same for all smartphones).

Virtual RAM is the RAM which is not a part of the high speed Random Access Memory (RAM). It is not a part of the DDR4, LPDDR4X or DDR5 etc. Virtual RAM is taken from your internal storage or Flash memory (UFS or eMMC) and is only taken into use when necessary. Virtual RAM has been present since 1985 and was first introduced by Intel in the 386 microprocessor family. Contrary to common belief, virtual RAM is an important part of any electronic gadget with a processing unit.

In Android, the size of virtual RAM is generally double the size of the amount of RAM present in it, and it is recommended that you set your devices' RAM Plus to the maximum amount available (RAM Plus in Samsung devices can be found under Device Care --> Memory). If your device does not have an option to select RAM Plus, then be known that the amount of virtual RAM in that device is always double the size of RAM present in the devices, because that is how Linux uses its file system and we all know that Android is based on Linux. SWAP partition is used in Linux and it is set to double the size of RAM while installing. It can be set to any size you want, but below double, you will face performance issues and above double, you will not see much difference.

The RAM in your device is insanely faster than the flash storage and hence you will see little to no performance differences in your device. But, if someone says that virtual RAM is a gimmick, let me tell you that it is not. If you remove SWAP from Linux (Android for that matter) or pagefile from Windows (both are different technologies for virtual RAM), you cannot use any of the applications you use because of insufficient memory errors. I have personally experienced this. The purpose of virtual RAM is to let you open applications, handle background tasks, so that the physical RAM can be used for other important workloads and help you have a better experience. So next time, if someone tells you that virtual RAM is unnecessary, tell them that even their devices have it and that those would be unusable without it.

So, that was today's Tech Talk, I will be back with another one really soon! Till then, take care.

[Anikroyale]

I have no idea how you can be this wrong. I was already talking about Linux distros and Android is one of them. It does not matter what device, if an operating system is built on Linux, its a Linux distro (better known as distribution). Android is an open sourced Linux distribution. And to get to the roots, Android does not have much difference with other Linux distros. The user interface and application support is where the differences come. Both Linux and Android uses ext4, SWAP. Another difference is in the bootloader where desktop Linux uses GRUB and Android uses proprietary bootloaders.

It is very true that desktop operating systems manage memory differently but the main goal these days is to keep apps open in the bakground. Android in previous years used to run on low memory, which was mainly the reason why apps randomly closed. Brands have started giving large SWAP to Android devices these days so that Android devices can do the same. Previously, SWAP used to be minimized because Android's inefficient file management used to cause lags on low storage devices. Which isn't the case anymore these days. You just said this point after contradicting it in a previous paragraph.

While I write a post, I don't keep 5 year old tech in mind and only put in the latest info. And I never said that there MUST be twice the RAM. And I never said that they have ALWAYS been present. Virtual RAM allocation is automatically done while installing Android and is set to double the size of RAM. It can then manually be stripped down. That is how the Linux kernel does memory allocation.

The last point regarding disabling pagefile is quite literally what I said. If you have more than 16 GB of RAM, it will not necessarily be a problem, although you will notice difference (you are bound to). All what I have said are from my knowledge and experience.

[VedantKalore]

Ok 👍 great i know this 👍

[Green_Grass]

Wow bhai
What an excellent explanation 😁
I really appreciate you.
I understood clearly 🙂
Please keep it up 😃

[Anikroyale]

Thanks bro! I am now at peace that I could help you understand!

[Green_Grass]

😁

[ArchLinux]

RAM Plus does not use disk swap. It uses ZRAM.