Smartphones·1,282 discussions

Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

Locked

I see a lot of smartphones with expandable RAM features these days. Some of the devices offer as much as 5GB dynamic RAM. How useful and effective this feature is for the gamers?

[i]Mention of specific phone removed by moderator as SPAM.[/i]

Topic

Not sure……

In reply to Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

Are you referring to phones with SD Card slots to allow an increase of storage capacity ? I am in the US and never heard of a phone with expandable RAM. Every cellular phone I have seen has an option when you can purchase it with a different amount of installed memory for storage (32, 64, 128 Gb for example) but the RAM couldn’t be upgraded. Cell phones rarely have the capacity or room internally for user upgrades like RAM capacity.

It’s virtual RAM actually

In reply to Not sure……

Not increasing the ROM capacity but increasing the RAM, Many smartphones have come with a feature where you can enhance the RAM to some extent by using the internal storage of the device. This is really interesting.

Re: RAM

In reply to Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

It’s a bad idea to buy a phone with less RAM than you need and buy more later, because usually (as birdmantd said) it isn’t possible to add it, and if it is it’s more expensive.

And certainly it’s a bad idea to buy a phone with more RAM than you will need.

As for game apps, don’t use a phone with less RAM then recommended to use that game.

Re: expandable RAM

In reply to Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

After some googling, I found you use the wrong term. It’s not “expandable” or “dynamic”, it’s “virtual”. Using virtual memory is standard in Windows. It’s used to swap inactive (parts of) programs to, without closing the programs.

Now it seems smartphones (and possible tablets) are starting to use this old technique (known since the 1960’s) also. Windows hardly works without it, most currents phones work perfectly fine without it.
However, it’s up to you if a new phone, given the way you’re planning to use it, needs it.

Read more about the feature in, for example, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/what-is-virtual-ram-and-how-samsung-is-planning-to-make-phones-faster-with-ram-plus-feature/articleshow/86133383.cms .

Great, thanks

In reply to Re: expandable RAM

Yeah, virtual RAM it is. I find a lot of devices with such features.

[i]Specific maker removed by moderator as spam.[/i]

I think its great!!

In reply to Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

I personally think its a great feature. Having extra ram can always make switching between applications faster, also you have extra memory that you can share with your GPU for better FPS and performance.

It’s not like original RAM

In reply to I think its great!!

The expandable RAM is not like original RAM. I once tried this feature and it hardly makes any difference in gaming.

Re: expendable RAM

In reply to It’s not like original RAM

So you answered your own question from the top post: “How useful and effective this feature is for the gamers?”: It’s hardly useful and effective for gamers. That’s to be expected, I’d say.

Anyway, thanks for telling us. Now please stop promoting a certain chipset.

Reply To: Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

In reply to Is expandable RAM feature good enough in Smartphones?

IIs it good to expand RAM in phone?
Gaming – Virtual RAM may not directly boost the gaming performance of the device as the majority of the processing power is handled by the chipset. However, extending the RAM will allow you to keep more apps running in the background which might not reload once you open them after long gaming sessions.

[Author]

Replies