Weekly poll results: 8-12GB of RAM is the sweet spot for current smartphones

10 December 2023
Nearly half of voters would buy a phone with 8GB, around a third want more - 12GB. But few feel the need for more (and few are okay with less).

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  • 11 Dec 2023

Darth Caesium, 10 Dec 2023Wait, how is that even possible? The Nintendo Switch only h... moreEmulation can be easily explained as trying to translate something to your language, but for that you hire someone who is not efficient and does not understand well the language to translate, so he takes 2 entire pages to translate 3 paragraphs of the other language.

Back in the day you needed a kinda powerful computer to emulate 3DS because of the emulation was in early stages and the code was inefficient. Probably in the future you won't need 20GB for emulation, but it is recommended for now.

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    • 11 Dec 2023

    ashrobb, 10 Dec 2023Some games like Zelda do need 12 GB I think. I haven't... more12GB is enough for Zelda, but even with that amount you still experience some crashes if you're running more apps in the background. In my case a 16GB Oneplus 10T never experiences any FC due to low RAM.

      I wouldn't buy a new phone now with less than 16 GB of RAM. And NO, I'm not a gamer, but still need to protect my investment in purchasing a new phone. Apps are getting ridiculously large and heavy that anything less than 16 GB is risky. If I could afford it, I would've invested in a 24 GB actually...

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        • Anonymous
        • sXE
        • 10 Dec 2023

        I feel this article should have been rather a comparative Benchmark test from GSMArena than a poll. Get 3-4 flagship devices, test different memory configs and give us the answers.
        S23 with 8/12GB,
        ROG Phone 7 with 12/16GB,
        OnePlus 12 with 12/16/24GB,
        Xiaomi 14 with 8/12/16GB,

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          • 10 Dec 2023

          AnonD-512010, 10 Dec 2023Which 2023 flagship (except for iPhone) has 6GB RAMFor what reason 2023 iphone dont count as a flagship phone ?
          For next 5 years no phone need more then 6GB ram cause all apps need to run on iphone flagship of 6GB ram. Android be fine on 6GB for next 5 years too.

          To have 12-16GB ram on something Helio G99 or SD695 wont much help you in heavy hardware requirement games. But when you have something SD8+ gen 1 or D8300 then 6-8GB be enough especially when it's high clock fast ram. Less ram means there is less stone in the phone that makes heat. More ram is either larger stone or more smaller stones

            Darth Caesium, 10 Dec 2023So then does the Nintendo Switch emulator on Android actual... moreSome games like Zelda do need 12 GB I think. I haven't done Switch emulation on my end since I have the actual console, but that's the info I know. Some game assets need to be loaded on RAM so that's why the emulator requirements are quite high.

              Darth Caesium, 10 Dec 2023Wait, how is that even possible? The Nintendo Switch only h... moreIt's how Emulation work, in switch it build shaders and load it to your ram, hence increase ram usage. Yuzu needs minimum 8gb just to boot games, and totk need atleast 12GB to play, in heavy area recommended ram is 20GB with shaders. For higher ram usage it improve perfomance and reduce loading screens.

              And that just switch, pc Emulation is even worse, Box64 current best Emulator you need to take minimum ram usage of game + Vram like Cyberpunk 2077 need minimum 12GB ram + Vram for Gpu

              https://youtu.be/DG8da_IxqCE

              This isn't even high quality but ram usage is over 12GB

              When Cassia released next year 24GB probably won't be enough to run some games.

                ashrobb, 10 Dec 2023Emulation is a whole other world and sometimes requires har... moreSo then does the Nintendo Switch emulator on Android actually use 20GB of RAM for ToTK? Is the 20GB number for the Nintendo Switch itself, the Nintendo Switch emulator on Android, or both? Or neither?

                  Darth Caesium, 10 Dec 2023Wait, how is that even possible? The Nintendo Switch only h... moreEmulation is a whole other world and sometimes requires hardware many times more capable than the original system, depending how complex it was. We actually got lucky with Switch emulation, there was a lot of documentation on the Tegra X1 and the console got hacked early on.
                  Switch emulation for Android do exist, is not as advanced as on PC but it is an ongoing process. As usual.

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                    • Anonymous
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                    • 10 Dec 2023

                    Darth Caesium, 10 Dec 2023Wait, how is that even possible? The Nintendo Switch only h... moreYuzu android, egg na, skyline and upcoming strato can play any switch games at ease including totk on phones with 12gb ram

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                      • Anonymous
                      • Sr6
                      • 10 Dec 2023

                      EagleTiger, 10 Dec 2023Minimum RAM memory is 8GB is best 💙 and perfect 👌. Maximum... morewrong! maximum : unlimited

                        Hemedans, 10 Dec 2023some switch games use as much as 20GB ram with bigger shade... moreWait, how is that even possible? The Nintendo Switch only has 4GB of RAM, and using its tiny 32GB of eMMC5.1 storage as virtual RAM would slow down the entire system to a halt. The game definitely isn't slow either, so I'm not sure what you're even going on about ToTK using 20GB of RAM. I don't think there is a Nintendo Switch emulator on Android either, especially when the one that exists on PC requires good specs.

                          I wonder if the poll from asia was included. Or was there a poll in asia.
                          Because having more ram means better FPS. And here in asia. Mobile gaming is very POPULAR.

                            Minimum RAM memory is 8GB is best 💙 and perfect 👌.
                            Maximum RAM memory is 32GB.

                              I use maximum capacity of Virtual RAM.For example if I have 128GB UFS System Storage.I will use 64GB for Virtual RAM.256GB UFS 128GB for Virtual RAM.Virtual RAM in my case should be partitioned for one half of Virtual RAM for System and Apps second half only for GPU and NPU.Until GPU and NPU for Android Smartphones and Tablet PC don't get their own dedicated RAM.

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                                • User
                                • 39x
                                • 10 Dec 2023

                                Everyone will be supporting THAT amount of the RAM what they have on their current phone

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 4BT
                                  • 10 Dec 2023

                                  Old window have something called lite version turn off all tracking off if only you can modify every app in your phone with less ram required miss mb

                                    77, 10 Dec 2023Is RAM important on a smartphone? The more RAM your smartph... moreThey're still closing though. I remember with Galaxy S3 and S4 the app actually ran in background unless you closed it. Now it closes when you switch somewhere else even if just for 40 seconds and then you have to restart the app. So basically phones with 1.5 GB RAM had better use of RAM than a brand new phone with 16 GB RAM.

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                                      • dSV
                                      • 10 Dec 2023

                                      LosEstupido, 10 Dec 2023You don't need more than 8GB RAM if you're gonna ... moreIs RAM important on a smartphone? The more RAM your smartphone has the quicker you can access and switch between apps without experiencing any lag. Without RAM, apps would close when you switch to another app, causing delays and slowing your phone down.

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                                        walkman8, 10 Dec 2023Have you bothered to read the quoted part? AI is gonna be i... moreI wish I could read it, but my brain is a mush, and my attention span has been demolished by many factors.

                                        In all Seriousness, sorry for not noticing that RAM is shared between the CPU, GPU, and in some time, the NPU.

                                        RAM standards change overtime...

                                        Well hey! At least I didn't say 8GBs is better than 16GBs, unlike some fruit company.

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