The Surface needed 4GB RAM

[drg]

Thought I'd start a thread after commenting on the "Disappointed but hopeful" thread about the lag issues in some apps, particularly the Mail app. I love the device and around the home it's fought over by me, wife and 3 year old daughter and it's replaced the laptop we had laying around for when ever we wanted to surf the Internet anywhere in the house.

I have noticed as others have noticed some apps lag, but I've noticed it happens once you have a few apps open and also when my wife is signed in with her account as well. So what I do is kill some apps, log my wife's account off and things start to improve. But I just wish MS had put 4GB of RAM in the Surface as this would've tidied up the device a fair bit. Maybe an update can improve things and how they are stored in the background but 4GB either way would have been good. But like I said still love the device and just wondering how others are dealing when you have multiple apps opened and even a second account signed in.

Also I have had a least 2 times where I couldn't turn the Surface back on after it went to sleep and I've had to hold the power button down for 10 seconds and then hit it a couple extra times to get it turn on again. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of battery although once the battery was a little low but I hadn't yet received a battery low warning, but I'm wondering if this is kind of a crash from low memory. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[inteller]

4Gb isn't needed. not had any of the issues you speak of, and the tab won't crash because of low battery, it shuts down in a fast manner before the battery gets too low.

 

[Dos101]

Are you sure this is a RAM issue? If you notice lag and check Task Manager, how much RAM/CPU/Disk is being used?

 

[stephen_az]

4Gb isn't needed. not had any of the issues you speak of, and the tab won't crash because of low battery, it shuts down in a fast manner before the battery gets too low.

I agree. I also have not had any issues described. Yes, the mail program is a work in progress but it has already been updated multiple times over the Windows 8 development cycle and I am sure it will have another feature update soon. It also already easier to use and no slower than the stock mail program in Android. Two weeks out and not perfect is not the end of the world. There is no need for 4gb of RAM. Personally the only reason in see the need for 2gb so far is Office and the fact the Windows RT OS has a robust desktop. If people have lag issues or problems with crashes, they stop assuming they are things everyone experiences and check for other issuers, and/or try a reset or reinstall. Quite frankly, given forums are a place people come to complain, the volume of complaints is remarkably low for a new device.

 

[shn'g]

I agree. I also have not had any issues described. Yes, the mail program is a work in progress but it has already been updated multiple times over the Windows 8 development cycle and I am sure it will have another feature update soon. It also already easier to use and no slower than the stock mail program in Android. Two weeks out and not perfect is not the end of the world. There is no need for 4gb of RAM. Personally the only reason in see the need for 2gb so far is Office and the fact the Windows RT OS has a robust desktop. If people have lag issues or problems with crashes, they stop assuming they are things everyone experiences and check for other issuers, and/or try a reset or reinstall. Quite frankly, given forums are a place people come to complain, the volume of complaints is remarkably low for a new device.

def this.. its hard to wait for updates to roll out especially when you see that the device is very close to being solid but I have a feeling being patient on this one wont disappoint

 

[drg]

Appreciate all the replies but just saying "I haven't had any of these issues" hasn't really helped. Could you specify if perhaps you've tried having multiple apps open and a second sign on logged in and then see if your Surface slows down? E.g. open Store, Xbox Music, Angry Birds (or something else), IE, Mail and Desktop and get someone to log in with a second account and tell me if everything still runs smoothly.

Mail isn't the only app that will lag when I do this. If I open Pictures or Bing News these things start to hesitate as well. That's the question I'm asking. If you can do that and still see it running smooth then great. Let me know and I'll call MS and ask for some help as my device or install must be dodgy. If they ask me to reinstall then I will. But if you do get these issues that I'm describing then obviously 4GB RAM would've helped my cause.

Trust me I'm a MS ****** with Xbox, Surface, WP and Laptop and PC with Windows 8 and I know it's sounding like I'm complaining when really I'm not, I'm just stating my experience and wanting to know if the issue is RAM or not. If it ends up not being RAM I'll update my original post and say RAM is actually not an issue. I bought the device as an early adopter ready to accept it's not going to perfect as MS's first device and my initial thoughts are if it had more RAM it may have performed better. But if you can prove otherwise please do.

@Dos101 Don't have Surface with me at the moment. Will check Task Manager when I do.

 

[Dewg]

I seem to recall that suspended apps are closed to free up RAM as needed by the OS.

 

[kane4fire]

Check your task manager. It's not a RAM shortage issues. I have loaded up 15 apps, including all of Office and it's using 1.4gb of RAM only with 350mb of swap.

The processor load when switching between apps peaks at 68%. Playing Jetpack got it up to 45% CPU usage only. So it's not the lack of processor either. I am guessing that the apps and OS don't efficiently utilize all the cores and rely heavily on just one or two out of the 4 and that's what causes the lag. Maybe if the processes were better spread among all available cores, this issue would go away.

 

[Coreldan]

I havnt had issues personally.

 

[weepatc]

To all those people saying they have no issues with lag, try one of the twitter apps & try vertical scrolling. At times the scrolling is unresponsive then picks up again & scrolls fine then lags again. This has happened on all the Twitter apps & the devs have acknowledged this fact. This is not right & the Surface should perform better. It reminds me of the 3rd party apps problems on my HD7 when it was first released. I live with it but the performance issues waste the experience a tad.

 

[crystal_planet]

To all those people saying they have no issues with lag, try one of the twitter apps & try vertical scrolling. At times the scrolling is unresponsive then picks up again & scrolls fine then lags again. This has happened on all the Twitter apps & the devs have acknowledged this fact. This is not right & the Surface should perform better. It reminds me of the 3rd party apps problems on my HD7 when it was first released. I live with it but the performance issues waste the experience a tad.

So how is it the Surface's problem when a third party app slows it down and the developers themselves acknowledge the problem? If you put diesel in a Ferrari, would you blame the car for ****ty performance?

 

[Coreldan]

I've done just about all the things mentioned except have any game heavier than Wordament on at the same time. My Surface is most of the time having 2 users active cos my fiancee steals it at every point possible

Most lag I've encountered is usually in some specific app, which IMO refers more to the app being ****ty rather than Surface. Generally speaking my experience has been very lag free.

 

[Highdefjunkie]

Thought I'd start a thread after commenting on the "Disappointed but hopeful" thread about the lag issues in some apps, particularly the Mail app. I love the device and around the home it's fought over by me, wife and 3 year old daughter and it's replaced the laptop we had laying around for when ever we wanted to surf the Internet anywhere in the house.

I have noticed as others have noticed some apps lag, but I've noticed it happens once you have a few apps open and also when my wife is signed in with her account as well. So what I do is kill some apps, log my wife's account off and things start to improve. But I just wish MS had put 4GB of RAM in the Surface as this would've tidied up the device a fair bit. Maybe an update can improve things and how they are stored in the background but 4GB either way would have been good. But like I said still love the device and just wondering how others are dealing when you have multiple apps opened and even a second account signed in.

Also I have had a least 2 times where I couldn't turn the Surface back on after it went to sleep and I've had to hold the power button down for 10 seconds and then hit it a couple extra times to get it turn on again. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of battery although once the battery was a little low but I hadn't yet received a battery low warning, but I'm wondering if this is kind of a crash from low memory. Anyone else had this issue?

I've had zero issues. It's been smooth as butter for me. Is your system updated?

 

[jonldevries]

I do agree that there are issues with vertical scrolling in apps. I have sent emails to some about it.

They can easily fix it but it involves some pretty complicated coding, one thing is for twitter they download the avatar picture so that is going to be slow as you scroll. They shouldnt download it until you stop scrolling.

MS has released code to fix this issue in WP7 maybe that code doesnt work in WIN 8 but people devs should research it

 

[Pete]

I do agree that there are issues with vertical scrolling in apps. I have sent emails to some about it.

They can easily fix it but it involves some pretty complicated coding, one thing is for twitter they download the avatar picture so that is going to be slow as you scroll. They shouldnt download it until you stop scrolling.

MS has released code to fix this issue in WP7 maybe that code doesnt work in WIN 8 but people devs should research it

I've had a few cases where YouTube videos have played at half speed with no audio. After some fiddling, I found that closing down a few open applications cleared the issue.

I guess there's some memory management issues in a few apps.