this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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On a phone the additional power draw of larger modules can be an issue - plus phones are designed to freeze background apps to conserve memory, so you can get away with less.
I currently have 6GB in my phone, which mostly is fine. In a few situations I'd have preferred having 8, though. 4 or less hasn't made sense for a few years now.
Not sure how much of a difference would that make to power draw. There are already some phones with 12GB of RAM, and most of the power still goes to lighting up the screen.
My main gripe is that they all come paired with some fancy cameras which drive up the costs. I'd rather have a basic camera and even a lower resolution screen, with a ton of RAM, than the other way around.
I guess it depends on how you are using your phone. If you're mostly using it between charges (possibly replacing other devices) it indeed doesn't matter. If you care about standby time, or use it as music player or similar tasks more than active use it does matter.
RAM can also enter a low power mode:
DDR5 uses about 20% less power, so for 16GB you're looking at less than 0.3W... likey way less, since a Samsung S24 Ultra with 12GB of RAM claims up to 95 hours "while listening to music". That's on a 5000mAh battery, or 18Wh, meaning less than 0.2W for "CPU + 12GB RAM + Bluetooth + storage".