Google's new Pixel 9 Pro models reserve part of their 16GB RAM exclusively for AI features. I figured out how much.
  • RobotToaster@mander.xyzEnglish
    703·
    2 months ago

    How did google manage to make a version of linux more bloated than windows? It’s almost impressive.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      64·
      2 months ago

      They have 16GB of RAM physically, 3GB is reserved for AI. So yeah, only 13GB is usable by regular apps, even if you don’t care about any of the AI stuff.

        • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
          341·
          2 months ago

          So then why does it have 16GB?

          Have you noticed how expensive these things have gotten? Doesn’t it seems like charging you for more RAM than it necessary and then locking 20% of it away for “features” no one wants is a bad thing?

            • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
              6·
              2 months ago

              I think it’s likely you would have access to all of it because the testing in the article clearly shows the kernel can see the memory. Thus, the graphene kernel should be able to use it.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          251·
          2 months ago

          It’s not about a single app, it’s about multitasking without having to reload apps.

          At various times I’ve juggled between 4 apps at once on my phone. Say something like Messaging, Firefox, maybe a lemmy app, and Bitwarden for logging into something.

        • seang96@spgrn.comEnglish
          19·
          2 months ago

          Adding to what others said it is beneficial to load an app from RAM.

          1. Loads faster for user convenience
          2. Lower power usage so you’ll have better battery life
          3. More RAM reduces disk writes for cache / temporary files / from cold started apps that could write to storage.
          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            6·
            2 months ago

            Yeah but… I have a Pixel 6 with 8gb RAM. I just checked the memory usage. Over the past day, average usage has been about 4gb. And the biggest user is Android itself at 1.8gb. The next biggest is Instagram at 285mb, and that’s with me scrolling videos when I’m bored.

            Adding hardware just for the sake of it just means it’s costing people for features they almost certainly won’t use.

          • cron@feddit.orgEnglish
            5·
            2 months ago

            When Android uses this larger page size, we observe an overall performance boost of 5-10% while using ~9% additional memory.

            From the linked article. So I doubt that the larger page size is the (only) reason for 16G ram. AI is the more likely reason.

            • Unreliable@lemmy.mlEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              Ooh I understand that it’s for AI, I just meant that more RAM would certainly help in this case.

          • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
            81·
            2 months ago

            Yes. Lots of people here have much less than even 13GB physical ram. My Pixel 4a has 6GB. So reading a news about how apps have “only” access to 13GB sounds just weird when that’s more than twice the total ram you have available.

  • SagXD@lemm.eeEnglish
    271·
    2 months ago

    Only? I have just 8 GB RAM on My PC.

    And Android device which I am using to comment this have just 2GB RAM.

  • auzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    251·
    2 months ago

    Not a big deal.

    Wait until you find out how much ram gets wasted in caching and algorithms designed to run faster on computers or improve productivity. Even things like indexing to speed up search or icon caching

    It’s a mobile phone. 13gb is lots, and I’d be curious to see the extent that ai improves productivity.

    The headline is designed explicitly to bait arguments

  • limerod@reddthat.comMEnglish
    82·
    2 months ago

    16GB of RAM sounded too good to be true. Granted 13GB is nothing for sneeze at still. Hopefully, they can provide an option to toggle it off. Sounds wasteful for people who would use it once a while.

      • limerod@reddthat.comMEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        Just getting the 3GB of RAM used is not the issue. There are apps which can use even more. The issue is its reserved meaning its not available to your other apps.

        An option to remove the lock while still being able to utilize the RAM (should the need arise) and AI features should be provided for flexibility should one desire.

      • Phuntis@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I bought it cause I wanted pink and I like larger phones smaller phones feel uncomfortable to hold I wish the AI stuff would get lost it’s all nonsense that does nothing to improve anything and only slows you down and is an excuse for more spyware

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    6·
    2 months ago

    At least the OS seems to know that the additional memory is there. This means root apps or custom ROMs should be able to use all 16GB.

    • baatliwala@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      On the Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 9, we note just 0.26GB (275,336KiB) of locked RAM […], a very small amount most likely used for some background tasks in the OS. However, on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, this leaps to 2.91GB (3,051,936KiB) of Unevictable and Mlocked RAM. Subtract out the Unevictable RAM from the Pixel 9, and there’s an extra 2.64GB (2,776,603KiB) reserved on the Pro models.

      • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Really interesting. I wonder what features the Pro XL has that the Pro version doesn’t to use over 10 times more RAM.

        • baatliwala@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I think when they mean “extra reserved on the Pro models”, the mean both “Pro and Pro XL” and not “Pro XL only not Pro”. It’s written a bit weirdly.