Someone upgraded the RAM on their Nexus 5X to 4GB

15 April 2017
Another successful hardware mod over at XDA-Developers. A Nexus 5X owner upgraded the measly 2GB of RAM on the last LG-made Nexus device.

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  • AnonD-402029
  • tZk
  • 16 Apr 2017

i can live with decent chipset (support 4k cam), at least dual channel ddr3 ram (2gb is ok) and FAST internal memory

    Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017The story is only half true. Also the Dalvik Machine has be... moreThink again davlik VM is still present its just not hibrid Jit anymore, ART is ahead of time compiler. Really is it a One+ T3 so good? Because of faster SoC and more RAM? Well guess what half the RAM & slower one along with slower SoC can get you there on pair with it and all it needs is a proper tuning.
    https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71752606&postcount=30

    Best regards & happy Easter.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • 6jq
      • 15 Apr 2017

      AnonD-656673, 15 Apr 2017Op3t is NOT the only phone with 6gb of ram. But they're far... moreI just gave you a video showing day to day performance and you're still disbelieving it? That's insane, what else is it going to convince you? The whole youtube that does app launch + ram retention tests show that SoC is secondray even trietary (storage speed is also more important than SoC most probably) to day-to-day performance yet you still keep supporting the SoC?

      Only very rarely peak performance is needed on phones, why do you keep supporting it? It's mostly irrelevant (at this point) to android. Even to a test (the one that I linked) that used plenty of peak performance (video encoding) S8 is *shamed* by Oneplus 3T (7 minutes and 40 seconds as compared to 7 minutes of OnePlus). Are you disbelieving your eyes now? How do you justify that?

      If you don't believe to evidence what is it -even- that you believe? Your feelings? Does your feeling told you that SoC matter most, because neither the tests (experiments) nor the underlying architecture of android (the theory) support that.

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        • AnonD-656673
        • gMJ
        • 15 Apr 2017

        Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017No it's because of ram. It keeps more stuff in memory. It's... moreOp3t is NOT the only phone with 6gb of ram. But they're far behind the top scorers. Why you ask, because CPU matters the most, then comes the ram, and then there's different qualities of ram. 3t uses ddr4, best one available for that moment, while most others used DDR3 or similar lower spec-ed low performance rams.

          • L
          • Louis
          • ksj
          • 15 Apr 2017

          In general, we need more repair shops. We throw away too many good products because of fixable problems.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • 3SL
            • 15 Apr 2017

            AnonD-234645, 15 Apr 2017Ever since Android 5.1.1 android became very stable. The am... moreiHaters are normally people who hate on iPhone

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              • Anonymous
              • 6jq
              • 15 Apr 2017

              ZolaIII, 15 Apr 2017Think you need to learn what dalvik is & how it works r... moreThe story is only half true. Also the Dalvik Machine has been replaced by Android Runtime, so you get native code instead of Just in time compilation at this point. The stuff you said about malloc is correct though, its "expulsion" does account for why Androids are more ram hungry these days ... but that would always be the case, the more "advanced" a system is the more ram hungry it will be.

              The other half is about ram allocation on android and linux systems. Most people think that the extra ram goes to waste, it's *not* , open enough apps and see how it all goes to use. People don't *get* it. They think it's about the future, or all we need is better optimized apps.

              No all we primarily need is more ram, we'd always need more RAM, the benefits from more processing power have already entered the law of diminishing returns, RAM far less so. It's the one thing that should *always* be upgraded come newer generations. If not you get travesties like last year's cheapo (OnePlus 3T) winning this year's "flagship" (S8+) because people don't get how important RAM is and don't *demand* it by not giving their hard-earned money to companies that don't upgrade the ram.

              The same people who are now enthusiastic about the new S8 would be disappointed come August or think that their phone "grew old" because it's not that fast anymore. In fact it never was and it only got worse with time. By comparison OnePlus would be fast even a year from now...

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • 6jq
                • 15 Apr 2017

                AnonD-656673, 15 Apr 2017That's not because of the ram, I've never seen op3t phone u... moreNo it's because of ram. It keeps more stuff in memory. It's not only this phone every 6GB phone is like that. For example C4Etech checked this theory with another (random) 6GB phones. It's the *only* android that matched OnePlus 3T performance ... guess why, it *is* the ram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFxu_5dt2Es

                You're in denial, there's nothing more clear than the connection of RAM amount and performance on android phones. It's been so for ages. It pretty much the only thing that *guarantees* better performance.

                Forget "future-proofness" (there's no such thing, especially with phones), I'm talking right *now*: if you want the most performant phone buy the one with most ram, *everything* else is secondary.

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                  • 1
                  • t7X
                  • 15 Apr 2017

                  An LG V10 CPU might be used there.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • 3SL
                    • 15 Apr 2017

                    the xda-developer in this moment "it's aaaaaaaaaaaalive"

                      • H
                      • Hoffman
                      • naq
                      • 15 Apr 2017

                      Scumbag LG.

                        • D
                        • AnonD-656673
                        • gMJ
                        • 15 Apr 2017

                        Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017I'm not going theoretical! There are myriad online videos s... moreThat's not because of the ram, I've never seen op3t phone using more than 4gb of ram. Op3t usually wins speed or performance test not because of the but because of the clean software. And with your logic my s3 neo should give me same performance as my A1, given both have 1gb of ram, but no, A1 is faster. Opx should give same performance as rn3, both have 3gb ram, but rn3 blows away opx.
                        But still I personally prefer devices with more ram, because they're future proof, and gives enough space to do multitasking.

                          • D
                          • AnonD-661909
                          • M}e
                          • 15 Apr 2017

                          gab, 15 Apr 2017the only good thing that came out of LG not fixing their bo... moreSeems like it was a good idea to buy the 5X on Amazon. They just took it back after I got the bootloop problem.

                            Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017One more windows user dons us with his wisdom . Thankfully ... moreThink you need to learn what dalvik is & how it works regarding individual per process & per maximum chunk. Even most OEM's still don't configure it as it should be configured. So leave the Linux memory management out of this as it never whose intended to be used with huge number of idiotic tasks that we have on Android. The thing is the larger the complete dalvik VM chunk is it will run slower as garbage collecting simple takes more time but I am still for optimal increase of it as it gains on large processes & number of processes. Thing is every reclaim is very costly so it needs to be configured optimal for as less reclaims as possible with special attention that when needed reclaims happen on time and are done as efficiently as possible so that there are no stalls. The dalvik VM size increases performance penalty can be partially compensated with (a bit) lower VM cache pressure. Third most important part is a memory allocator & generally they are divided to continues ones (used in driver's for smaller amounts... ) & non continues one's (used in user space) as malloc. From Android 5.0 we have a switch to the jemalloc which is generally much faster (less fragmented) than malloc but it also uses considerable more RAM and it's not really good with handling the rather small allocations nor running on sub per available CPU core's. This is a main reason why 2GB or RAM hardly fits purpose now day's along with colourful looker trendy apps & a "new" Google design strategy (which all eats additional RAM providing zero more real functionality).
                            Reference to the memory allocators:
                            https://locklessinc.com/benchmarks_allocator.shtml
                            At the end regardless of the platform we will always need more, faster and with less latencies RAM especially in multi accelerators HSA SoC era we are entering in.

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                              • Anonymous
                              • 6jq
                              • 15 Apr 2017

                              AnonD-656673, 15 Apr 2017I don't go theoretical, I prefer practice cases. On my canv... moreI'm not going theoretical! There are myriad online videos showing just that. Here's one more that actually compares modern phones to last year's 3T.

                              Apart from iphone (which is a class of its own), then it's 3T that crashed those pathetic 4GB phones , even S8. With a total time of 7 minutes. You can't go more practical than this, a test that stretches phones to their limits. *Still* the higher ram phone wins. 6GB phones are *always* faster, people are wasting their money buying expensive SoCs with low ram.

                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX4JucpvbJM

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                                • Anonymous
                                • Nu7
                                • 15 Apr 2017

                                Where on earth did he get the spare part?. I wish I was like this guy.

                                  if i was making phone id make square crap
                                  with best camera from samsung and big big battery and midrange cpu
                                  with these 3 parts replaceable !!!
                                  its sooo easy i feel like i dont even use phones camera anymore
                                  i dont use any feature anymore its just call and photo making device
                                  WHAT ELSE screens getting bigger expensiver ... useles if i break my s5 screen would cost me more to repair than sell it second hand

                                    ALL WE NEED IS !!!
                                    new cpu and better camera thats all thanks we want to but them separately
                                    the hell ppl draining billions money for a bit faster cpu a bit better camera
                                    and bigger screen resolution FOR NO REASON what im gonna do with 4k resolution
                                    watch pixels with microscope ?

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-656673
                                      • gMJ
                                      • 15 Apr 2017

                                      Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017Ram on android and Linux has little to do with multitasking... moreHe's new to the platform. Let him jump around for some time

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-656673
                                        • gMJ
                                        • 15 Apr 2017

                                        Anonymous, 15 Apr 2017One more windows user dons us with his wisdom . Thankfully ... moreI don't go theoretical, I prefer practice cases. On my canvas A1 (Android one, vanilla Android) with 1 GB ram I can use 3-4 simultaneously, same goes for Chrome tabs more than 4tabs resets the tabs. but doesn't lags on Norm use cases, like playing music, watching videos etc.
                                        On my Redmi note 3 (aosp/lineage/miui) with 3gb of ram multitasking is a breeze. Can run more than 15 apps without resetting. Same on Chrome (CAF chromium). No lag. Slight framedrops on big games.
                                        On OnePlus 3t with 6gb, normal usage is same as rn3, but this phone flies with everything.

                                        Pff. Windows user! Bruh, I never had a windows PC, used windows phone(Lumia 520) for some 18months. Hated the is, smooth as Nokia 1100, useless as Nokia 1100.

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