Does Having More RAM in a phone like iPhone cause less battery life?

[Starfyre]

I know with hard disk space in a phone, its negligible impact on battery life, just more storage. Is it the same with RAM? Or is there a battery life cost associated with having more of it?

 

[TSloper74]

I know with hard disk space in a phone, its negligible impact on battery life, just more storage. Is it the same with RAM? Or is there a battery life cost associated with having more of it?

Yes there is a cost to adding more RAM.

 

[GoSh4rks]

Yes there is a cost to adding more RAM.

But the added drain is hardly worth mentioning.

 

[Camoxide]

Not really.

 

[Dmaynard83]

No

 

[cfedu]

I know with hard disk space in a phone, its negligible impact on battery life, just more storage. Is it the same with RAM? Or is there a battery life cost associated with having more of it?

It could also save battery life. My iPad mini (512MB) and iPhone 4S(512MB) constantly have to reload apps/webpages while multitasking. More Ram will use more power during standby and Apps reloading will also use more power.

I don't think anyone on this forum could definitively say which scenario will be more detrimental. Power aside more ram would increase user experience for heavier users, and increase performance with future versions of iOS. If the iPad air 2/Mini 2, get 2 GB of ram it will be easier to speculate how the iPhone 6 would have benefited with more ram.

 

[marine0816]

I know with hard disk space in a phone, its negligible impact on battery life, just more storage. Is it the same with RAM? Or is there a battery life cost associated with having more of it?

Apple would love this to be true. Apple is just being cheap greedy corporate Sharks by half assing the ram and acting like there doing us a favor .

 

[Starfyre]

Apple would love this to be true. Apple is just being cheap greedy corporate Sharks by half assing the ram and acting like there doing us a favor .

Yeah, I thought RAM was supposed to help, but then Apple's omission and that multiprocessing vs android video got me wondering... but I think your right, Apple is just "keeping some cards in hand" again just to get us to upgrade to the 6S... sigh

 

[cfedu]

Yeah, I thought RAM was supposed to help, but then Apple's omission and that multiprocessing vs android video got me wondering... but I think your right, Apple is just "keeping some cards in hand" again just to get us to upgrade to the 6S... sigh

This

 

[Small White Car]

But the added drain is hardly worth mentioning.

I'd love to see your source for this because I've yet to see any actual information on this subject and am honestly quite curious.

 

[scaredpoet]

Here's the info I've uncovered about RAM and power usage:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/11..._iphone_4s_motivated_by_battery_life_concerns

"While the idea that the operating system should be as efficient as possible with available RAM is certainly not new, [Microsoft's Windows lead developer Steven] Sinofsky then introduced a detailed explanation authored by Bill Karagounis, the group program manager of Microsoft's Performance team, to detail exactly why using less RAM is so critically important.

Karagounis points out that "minimizing memory usage on low-power platforms can prolong battery life," noting that "In any PC, RAM is constantly consuming power. If an OS uses a lot of memory, it can force device manufacturers to include more physical RAM. The more RAM you have on board, the more power it uses, the less battery life you get."

Apparently, there are some developers, not even affiliated with Apple, who think that more RAM = more battery drain.

 

[zorinlynx]

RAM uses power continuously. Each memory cell has to be periodically refreshed, which wastes energy. At the same process size, 2GB of RAM will use twice as much energy as 1GB.

This usage is full time. Even when the screen is off and the phone sleeps, RAM is being refreshed. Thus over a day or so between charges, memory is one of the largest power consumers in the phone.

So yes, having more RAM would reduce battery life. Probably not by very much, but it's a VERY critical load since it's a continuous one, unlike other loads (CPU, screen) that consume almost no power during sleep.

 

[ionjohn]

Apple is waiting for lpddr4 to add more RAM

 

[GoSh4rks]

I'd love to see your source for this because I've yet to see any actual information on this subject and am honestly quite curious.

This is for desktop/laptop memory
https://www.denali.com/en/whitepaper/2009/lpddr2/lpddr_marc_greenberg_article.pdf

More practically, Android devices with 2/3gb ram are still in the same ballpark in battery life when compared to similar devices with less ram