How much RAM are you guys using?

[Vance14]

When I go to Settings - Apps - Running, I am regularly using around 400 mb of the 700-ish total. Is that normal?

I have not noticed any lag or anything, it is just that this is much higher RAM usage than I had on my earlier Android phones.

I know I am definitely using a lot of running apps, but maybe the system just uses more as well.

 

[Phil Nickinson]

RAM: What it is, how it's used, and why you shouldn't care

 

[Vance14]

Thanks, Phil! I generally knew that stuff, but it is good to know that it really won't make a difference. When I was on the OG Droid, I would run out of RAM all the time and the phone would lag and hang, etc. While I would never use task killers, I would have to constantly monitor what memory-hogging apps I was using because, although the Droid would have to make choices, sometimes that choice was to dump the homescreens out of cache and I would have to wait for it to reload (leading to me rooting and locking that in place). So, when it is having to make those choices all the time, things get rough. Having some extra so that the phone is not having to kill a lot of things just makes for a better experience I think.

Now, this may not longer be a problem at all with 1GB RAM devices, but I am still scarred from my OG Droid problems!!

 

[hyperdude]

Thanks, Phil! I generally knew that stuff, but it is good to know that it really won't make a difference. When I was on the OG Droid, I would run out of RAM all the time and the phone would lag and hang, etc. While I would never use task killers, I would have to constantly monitor what memory-hogging apps I was using because, although the Droid would have to make choices, sometimes that choice was to dump the homescreens out of cache and I would have to wait for it to reload (leading to me rooting and locking that in place). So, when it is having to make those choices all the time, things get rough. Having some extra so that the phone is not having to kill a lot of things just makes for a better experience I think.

Now, this may not longer be a problem at all with 1GB RAM devices, but I am still scarred from my OG Droid problems!!

Well the OG Droid is a poor comparison to a phone like the GNex, especially since the OG has 256MB of RAM vs. the GN's 1GB, so we weren't able to have as much stuff running all the time then as with the Nexus.
I too am forever scarred from the fairly crappy performance of the OG (at least in the past year, trying to run Gingerbread and such), but that's why I've got some nice cold Ice Cream Sandwich.