DO tablets like kindle fire or ipad family benefit from say like 4gbs of ram right now? It seems that 512mb of ram is the standard for tablets right now
Do tablets benefit from huge amounts of ram?
- Thread starter HFS+
- Start date
The market isn't too far away from the standard, in any category. If 512MB is the standard, seems 1GB would be an improvement. I don't see how having the same amt of RAM as a desktop though (4GB) would be cost effective.
exdeath
Lifer
- Jan 29, 2004
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Not really. Tablets don't have the processor power to run 2560 x 1600 with 1000s of MB of textures so they don't need the memory for such resources to begin with.
Tablets are for consuming content, not creating content. 512 MB is fine to view a HD video on YouTube that was created in Adobe on a workstation with 32 GB ram.
Tablets also use flash memory (read: ssd) for their primary storage and don't have to cache everything under the sun in RAM.
Tablets are for consuming content, not creating content. 512 MB is fine to view a HD video on YouTube that was created in Adobe on a workstation with 32 GB ram.
Tablets also use flash memory (read: ssd) for their primary storage and don't have to cache everything under the sun in RAM.
I'm not too familiar with tablet PCs tbh, but surely they don't use a Marvell or Sandforce device. Is that correct?
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
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Video games are not the only RAM consuming thing
I have gone above 4GB of ram used by browsers alone thanks to tabbed browsing.
I just checked my current (at this very moment) memory usage for chrome and firefox
Google Chrome - 2,498,450k
Firefox 9.0.1 - 1,352,360k
BTW, you can pull up chrome memory manager with shift+esc and then click stats for nerds. It measures mem usage of other browsers too
Flash memory is an SSD, but unless it is paired with a high quality controller it will not exhibit the performance characteristics of modern SSD drives.
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taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
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PC.
But what makes you think there is a RAM usage difference between a PC browser and a tablet browser?
Because the useage of a PC and a tablet is completely different. No-one is going to open 20+ tabs when using a tablet.
Nothinman
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- Sep 14, 2001
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I would if I could and it was my primary browsing device.
Tablets don't benefit from huge amounts of memory right now because they're effectively single tasking devices. Even with the multitasking in Android, when an app is put in the background it saves its UI state because it assumes it will need to be evicted from memory soon. PC apps assume the opposite.
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
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At one point in the future I am sure some people would like to use them on the moon. However we are nowhere near that point yet and we aren't yet at a point where someone will have 20+ tabs open on a tablet. Very few people even do that on a desktop PC.
The initial question was about whether the current tablets on the market would benefit from having 4GB RAM installed and the answer to that question is a resounding 'no'.
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
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Tabbed browing is the biggest most popular browser feature ever. There is no such thing as a browser without tabbed browsing nowadays.
Your belief that nobody would want it is unsubstantiated.
Actually its a resounding YES. There are plenty of reasons why they would benefit from more RAM, I just listed one. The fact that you personally feel that you personally would never makes use of it does not mean nobody else would, and if others would then there is a need for it. Simple.
At what point did I say that nobody would want tabbed browsing?
Have you ever actually used a tablet? Do you have any idea who the target market is and the type of people who generally buy them is?
Those people would not benefit from having 4GB of RAM on their tablets.
taltamir
Lifer
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"Those people"?... It might shock you that not all tablet users can be pigeon holed.
Tablets have a target market. Who do you think the market leader is and what type of user they target?
Nothinman
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exdeath
Lifer
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4GB to browse the web = result of bloated software practices. We need to ask why we are loading up 150 MB of flash ads just to read a 3 kilobyte paragraph of text... and PAYING for the bandwidth to load someone elses crap. The web is getting out of hand in that regard.
I honestly had a more pleasurable time browsing the web on dial up back in the day. It may have only been 3 kbps but pages loaded rather quickly when they weren't freezing and crippling the browser while downloading and starting playback of 500 MB of flash videos and add banners and generally trying to load everything in the world EXCEPT the article content you are actually interested in, stealing focus, getting in the way, etc.
I honestly had a more pleasurable time browsing the web on dial up back in the day. It may have only been 3 kbps but pages loaded rather quickly when they weren't freezing and crippling the browser while downloading and starting playback of 500 MB of flash videos and add banners and generally trying to load everything in the world EXCEPT the article content you are actually interested in, stealing focus, getting in the way, etc.
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Nothinman
Elite Member
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You were probably giving him the same inane replies that make the conversation pointless.
exdeath said:
That's what adblock and flashblock are for. Although it would be nicer if they weren't needed in the first place.
ram needs will grow with these devices as the hardware and OS code changes to allow the greater multitasking ability. Simple as that.
My kids Toshiba thrive uses 1 gig as do most other higher end models.
My kids Toshiba thrive uses 1 gig as do most other higher end models.
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
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While I agree with you on principle, I don't see adobe flash and video ads going away any time soon. So a device with crippled amounts of ram is just gonna have a crippled experience. Not cause a fundamental change in the internet.
it should also be mentioned that the ram requirement for a W7 based tablet would be far different than one with iOS or Android.
So, although the Windows version tablet would have to be slightly recoded to the particular divices hardware limitations that it would be used on(to not be so ram intensive/cachable as a PC would)?.. it's still going to depend on how the hardware/OS leverages that available ram.
I bought and tested(and returned) an Acer Iconia W500 and due to the W7 OS alone.. I got the impression that ram was running low(maybe was the processor loads though too) as I tried to push the system harder in multitasking. The Toshiba thrive simply closes/standby's those apps/browser tabs as you move to the next task which frees up resources as you need to access something different. I assume it must cache that data into the space of the internal drive itself since 1 gig would surely not be enough to hold it all when there's a lot going on in the background like that. Which of course makes them feel slower/slightly laggy the more you do on them.
So with those considerations.. I think it comes down to the hardware and OS used along with the intended usage level.
General rule is that those who want greater preformance and functionality would be better spent to get a small form factor laptop. Which has more full fledged caching ability and the ram required to make use of it.
So, although the Windows version tablet would have to be slightly recoded to the particular divices hardware limitations that it would be used on(to not be so ram intensive/cachable as a PC would)?.. it's still going to depend on how the hardware/OS leverages that available ram.
I bought and tested(and returned) an Acer Iconia W500 and due to the W7 OS alone.. I got the impression that ram was running low(maybe was the processor loads though too) as I tried to push the system harder in multitasking. The Toshiba thrive simply closes/standby's those apps/browser tabs as you move to the next task which frees up resources as you need to access something different. I assume it must cache that data into the space of the internal drive itself since 1 gig would surely not be enough to hold it all when there's a lot going on in the background like that. Which of course makes them feel slower/slightly laggy the more you do on them.
So with those considerations.. I think it comes down to the hardware and OS used along with the intended usage level.
General rule is that those who want greater preformance and functionality would be better spent to get a small form factor laptop. Which has more full fledged caching ability and the ram required to make use of it.
More RAM is always better and will let you do more with your computer. With a tablet, everything could reside in memory and open up instantaneously (in theory).
I have 1gb of ram on my playbook and it multitasks very nicely. OSes other than Windows tend to be much less memory hungry. The Linux OS on a lot of these tablets probably use up 200mb of ram tops, and the apps themselves don't take up much (maybe 50mb each at the most).
I have 1gb of ram on my playbook and it multitasks very nicely. OSes other than Windows tend to be much less memory hungry. The Linux OS on a lot of these tablets probably use up 200mb of ram tops, and the apps themselves don't take up much (maybe 50mb each at the most).
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