RT-AX88U: Why so much RAM usage?

[Sharpbarb]

I upgraded from the RT-AC68U. That router has 256mb of ram and would use maybe 100mb. The RT-AX88U has 1024mb and is using a little over 500mb of ram. They both have a similar interface and are being used in the same way. Why is the RAM usage in one so much higher? Is there some tangible benefit that is being provided? What would use more RAM in the router anyway?

 

[L&LD]

Non-HND vs. HND router. And with more physical resources available, it is taking advantage of them.

Even if this was at 20MB free RAM or less, (like my RT-AX88U sometimes shows with a 2GB swap file via amtm) nothing to worry about as long as your router is stable and reliable.

It knows what RAM to use and when (and which) parts of the RAM to give back to the currently running process (if needed).

 

[Sharpbarb]

Non-HND vs. HND router. And with more physical resources available, it is taking advantage of them.

Even if this was at 20MB free RAM or less, (like my RT-AX88U sometimes shows with a 2GB swap file via amtm) nothing to worry about as long as your router is stable and reliable.

It knows what RAM to use and when (and which) parts of the RAM to give back to the currently running process (if needed).

I figured there would be a logical reason. I did a quick Google and I couldn't really figure out what HND router is.

 

[Grisu]

different broadcom chipset HND (Home Networking Division) platform instead of very old MIPS based routers.

 

[RMerlin]

Broadcom preallocates a percentage of the available memory to use for internal buffers.

And the newer software stack itself also requires more memory.

 

[Mister10B]

Recently bought RT-AX88U, RAM usage with firmware was very low also compared to RT-AC88U.
After couple of days installed RMerlin 384.16 (great work) and added Diversion + Skynet 7.1.4 + scMerlin +spdMerlin, incl Swap file of 2GB. Love the AMTM functionality. RAM increased and stayed very high >99% also after reboot was functionality was still good.
Today upgraded Skynet 7.1.5 and disabled QoS and rebooted: 65%.
Could QoS impact that much on RAM?

 

[L&LD]

No, rebooting is to be 'blamed' too.

No need to worry about how much RAM is used (particularly if you have a USB drive and a swap file), it knows best how to manage itself.