The Asus ROG 5 has just been released with up to 16 GB of RAM – and if you somehow get the Ultimate limited-release model, you can hold one of the only smartphones in the world with an astonishing 18 GB of RAM. But … what does all this RAM bring you?
For years, RAM was used in conjunction with the chipset and storage space as an abbreviation for the phone’s performance. Roughly speaking, the more RAM, the more the phone can do at once: applications currently open use RAM as quickly accessible memory, with excess RAM tracking other applications in the background so you can quickly switch back and forth back. Games with a lot of graphics can also use more RAM to produce many complex effects on the screen.
The gold standard of Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy S21, packs just 8 GB of RAM, while the S21 Ultra starts with 12 GB and reaches a maximum of 16 GB. In our tests, these phones performed all the tasks that a consumer would do, from surfing the internet to excessive media and games. But they are aimed at conventional consumers.
So it comes as no surprise to us that Asus – itself a producer of gaming-focused products – is signaling to its demographic of performance enthusiasts that its new 18 GB RAM device is an extravaganza that it could, in theory, push many pixels.
Does this mean that you will instantly have better graphics in today’s games when playing on an 18 GB phone? Not really, according to the experts, since you will get almost the same performance as phones with 12 GB, as long as you are playing casual games.
But we asked a developer to explain exactly how this amount of RAM can help in their AAA mobile game as a case study.
The 18 GB question: how will this improve games now?
Kabam’s Marvel Realm of Champions features some of the brand’s most iconic heroes in team 3v3 arena combat. We asked Ethan Young of Kabam, director of game development, to explain the differences between playing on an older iPhone 6S and playing on a completely new iPhone 12 Pro – so we wanted him to take on the maximum 18 GB of RAM in the spectrum. performance.
“Having 18 GB of RAM when playing MARVEL Realm of Champions will reduce load times over long game sessions,” Young told TechRadar via email. “Since all assets are cached, the more memory is available, the game will not need to release and reload assets frequently if MARVEL Realm of Champions needs to use additional memory.”
As we noted in the previous piece, Realm of Champions works perfectly well on the iPhone 6S 2016, which has 2 GB of RAM. Young stated that Kabam ensures that its games can be played on older devices through some commitments: when playing on a phone with 3 GB of RAM, the game “will need to release and recharge assets frequently while players have fun. With more memory, more space for frontload resources, which allows for a more efficient and enjoyable game. “
Naturally, the game was designed to run on a variety of phones with different specifications, and it will be a while before 18 GB RAM devices are the norm. Playing Realm of Champions on devices with 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM is just as fun, said Young.
“The only advantage of phones with additional memory above 8 GB is if you play for several hours in an individual gaming session, although the 8 GB devices are also able to play longer,” he said.
But what 18 GB of RAM can do for tomorrow’s games – especially in mobile electronic sports – is another matter.
Games will take advantage of 18 GB of RAM … when more phones have 18 GB of RAM
Mobile games will obviously evolve to take advantage of more powerful components in phones, and we’re already seeing some with graphics rivaling PC versions – just look at Genshin Impact, suggests Jennifer McLean, vice president of industry relations at industry analyst firm Niko Partners. But it can take a few years before games are released that can really take advantage of 18 GB of RAM.
“As far as game developers taking advantage of the new devices with higher RAM – there will need to be a significant installed base before developers make games that require these specifications,” McLean told TechRadar via email.
But there are some players who can actually use 18 GB of RAM, according to McLean: “Mobile electronic sports will benefit a lot from these devices NOW”.
Mobile esports has grown, but is especially adopted in East and Southeast Asia: a Niko partner report noted that in 2018, mobile esports generated $ 15.3 billion, of which $ 5.6 billion came from China alone, compared to the $ 16.1 billion earned by PC esports. Mobile electronic sports games have higher installation rates than their PC and console equivalents, which translates into better revenue per player.
Mobile esports require high-performance phones, so consumers can naturally gravitate towards higher-spec devices like the Asus ROG 5. But it’s not just consumers who play mobile esports – professional players and streamers who need these high-performance phones they can also drive adoption.
“Niko’s data on players in Asia shows that the hardware and peripherals used by competitors and e-sports streamers influence players and fans to buy these devices as well,” said McLean. “So, as we see competitors and streamers embrace these more powerful devices, we’ll see players and fans do the same.”
With the launch of e-sports for mobile devices outside East Asia around PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile, along with upcoming titles such as the still in beta League of Legends: Wild Rift and the newly announced PUBG New State , we could see this phenomenon has become even more popular in the United States and Europe.
The magic number of RAM
The good news, then, is that you don’t need to upgrade to 18 GB this year. That amount is an aspiration – even the upper limit of today’s phones, with 12 GB of breeze on tasks.
“I don’t think there is a perfect number for the amount of RAM that a smartphone needs. This varies depending on the operating system and the application, ”says Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “For example, my [Samsung] S21 Ultra is using 75% RAM at 10 GB, which means that 12 GB seems quite reasonable to make room for the high-end models. “
This makes even 16 GB of RAM a high-profile case to be considered by consumers, says Sag, although phone configurations have had that amount of RAM since 2020, when the Samsung S20 Ultra first offered it.
Of course, the rules are different between Android and iOS. Even the iPhone 12 Pro Max has only 4 GB of RAM – and it still beats any other phone ever released in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks (4240 iPhone 12 Pro Max vs 3518 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, for GSM Arena) This is not exactly new: Apple has always done more with less in terms of RAM, thanks, of course, to its control of the entire hardware-software ecosystem on its phones.
This is very different from Android, which needs to work on devices with a lot more spec settings, like Sachin Dev Duggal, founder and CEO of Engineer.ai, explained in a 2019 First post interview.
“Android was developed for a number of devices with varying hardware specifications, so it needs more memory to run the right code for the right device,” said Duggal. “In addition, applications on Android are allowed to use the required amount of RAM, so they end up collecting more data in RAM and when it is not used, the data is cleared.”
IOS, on the other hand, has several reasons why it needs less RAM – but one of the main ones is memory management: Apple’s operating system “doesn’t depend on the Java virtual machine to run its codes and application codes run directly on the hardware, thus limiting the need for RAM to run virtual machines on iOS, ”explained Duggal.
Given that the article was written in August 2019, his aspirational questions are correspondingly picturesque from today’s perspective: Duggal noted that 6 GB of RAM is “more than enough for a future-proof device” and 8 GB will be good in the future next. 4 GB of RAM was the standard at the time and remains overrepresented in terms of global smartphone distribution: after the iPhone 7 and 8, some of the most popular phones in the world outside of China are the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9 (both of which have 4 GB of RAM), according to an April 2020 report Yahoo Finance report.
But in the intervening two years since Duggal’s estimates, Android phones have included more RAM and developers are likely to start updating their system requirements for more functionality and, in games, more advanced graphics. The high watermark for RAM will increase as original equipment manufacturers (OEM), also known as phone manufacturers, increasingly incorporate their devices.
“Android is inherently an operating system that consumes more memory, so it seems that OEMs are looking for ways to increase specifications for differentiation, but also to improve the user experience as applications consume more memory on Android,” pointed out Sag.
In short: you probably won’t need a phone with 18 GB of RAM for some time, but as always, it’s good to be ahead of the curve when developers start adapting to new cutting-edge technologies.