High RAM memory usage AC86U

[macster2075]

I just got a new AC86U and noticed it's using almost 70% of its RAM memory on a fresh installation and even after resetting to factory settings.
Is this normal?

I ask because my older AC68P router only uses about 23-25% of its RAM on a fresh installation.
Im just looking at the numbers because I thought I would be able to run more scripts on the new router due to it having more memory...but now that I see how much is left to use, I see I have less available than my older router... does that mean the older router will be able to run more scripts that the new router?

I don't have any scripts in mind per say.. Im just asking numbers wise. It's just interesting to me that they promote this AC86U as having 512 MB...but they don't tell you that the router itself uses almost 75% of its memory, leaving you very little to actually use... and you basically end up having almost the same amount you had with the older router.

Am I looking at this the wrong way?

 

[L&LD]

Please search, threads on the exact topic abound.

Short answer. Don't worry about it unless your router is actually crashing from low RAM reserves.

 

[macster2075]

Please search, threads on the exact topic abound.

Short answer. Don't worry about it unless your router is actually crashing from low RAM reserves.

I did search, but could not get an answer to my question... Yes, I found others saying "don't worry about the memory unless you are experiencing problems".. but this does not answer the question though.
I am looking at it as a consumer that's upgrading the product to a more memory capacity item, then realizes the upgrade actually has less memory available than the item they upgraded from.

 

[RMerlin]

Is this normal?

Yes, it's normal.

 

[Mr. Boniato]

I have been searching for this too because I noticed the same thing. i find this interesting as well, but I see others keep saying is normal...and it could very well be, but it feels like when it comes to money you are not getting really an "upgrade" from one router to the other based on the memory... yes the AC86U is a faster router but you end up having about the same memory on both

 

[RMerlin]

I have been searching for this too because I noticed the same thing. i find this interesting as well, but I see others keep saying is normal...and it could very well be, but it feels like when it comes to money you are not getting really an "upgrade" from one router to the other based on the memory... yes the AC86U is a faster router but you end up having about the same memory on both

Having extra unused memory is pointless, as it will just sit there doing nothing. As long the router has enough memory to run everything it needs to run, that's the only thing that matters.

 

[macster2075]

Let's ay on my old AC68P I have about 175 MB of scripts.. just a hypothetical.. this means I won't be able to run those same scripts on the AC86U because it says I only have 150 MB left.
right?

 

[macster2075]

Having extra unused memory is pointless, as it will just sit there doing nothing. As long the router has enough memory to run everything it needs to run, that's the only thing that matters.

oh ok.. so then I am looking at this the wrong way lol.
I am just looking at the numbers... so what's the difference or where do I look to see how much actual memory I have left to work with because now that I think about it.. isn't RAM just temp memory?
Where is the actual permanent memory of the router..if it has any?

 

[RMerlin]

Let's ay on my old AC68P I have about 175 MB of scripts.. just a hypothetical.. this means I won't be able to run those same scripts on the AC86U because it says I only have 150 MB left.
right?

Not necessarily. It depends how much of it is active usage, and how much is just dynamic buffering/caching.

 

[L&LD]

You're not buying this product (directly) for the memory available though. You are buying it to route.

If it isn't using the RAM, it is wasting resources. Keep reading. In those searches, people have stated exactly why it is working as it should be.

Here is a quick search for your perusal.

(1) Advanced search results | SmallNetBuilder Forums (snbforums.com)

And I'm sure not all are on topic either.

And to save others the grief for the next identical post is this enough 'info' for the 'why', for you.

AC86U high Ram usage?

Hello I am running 384.14 on my AC86U and i see a very high ram usage, at the moment i am writing the router is using 475MB. Is this normal or did i something wrong? I enabled DL Master , Media Server and Network Place. Beyond that i have a few rules in Port Forwarding and 3 Fixed Ip´s. I...

www.snbforums.com

 

[macster2075]

Thanks.. I am aware there lots of them... my question was not much of a concern with regards to "is there something wrong with the router"... just as an observation as to the high usage when compared to other routers I've used in the past... because the way I look at it is.. ok, so more RAM, more things I can run now that I have double the ram I had with the old router.

Not sure if you understand my point.
But, it is what it is.

 

[Brainstorm]

Despite all that's been said here, my new AC86U was running 82% RAM, and for the last couple of days misbehaving badly. Connections kept dropping, slow response times, occasionally slow GUI response when logged in. I read the threads here and assumed all was ok with RAM.
Lost my patience this morning after turning vpn's on and off and trying to investigate the problem, and rebooted.
RAM down to 57%, exactly the same scripts and services running, no more bad behaviour.
Whoever said here reboot weekly has probably pointed us towards the best and easiest fix.
And regards searching the forum: I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I have loads of trouble trying to find a relevant thread. Every time.

 

[AntonK]

Despite all that's been said here, my new AC86U was running 82% RAM, and for the last couple of days misbehaving badly. Connections kept dropping, slow response times, occasionally slow GUI response when logged in. I read the threads here and assumed all was ok with RAM.
Lost my patience this morning after turning vpn's on and off and trying to investigate the problem, and rebooted.
RAM down to 57%, exactly the same scripts and services running, no more bad behaviour.
Whoever said here reboot weekly has probably pointed us towards the best and easiest fix.
And regards searching the forum: I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I have loads of trouble trying to find a relevant thread. Every time.

Using Google's Site tool usually improves my chances of getting relevant hits. For example, in the Google search box enter: site:https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asuswrt-merlin.42/ memory usage

Play around with the keywords and see what you get!

 

[cmkelley]

oh ok.. so then I am looking at this the wrong way lol.
I am just looking at the numbers... so what's the difference or where do I look to see how much actual memory I have left to work with because now that I think about it.. isn't RAM just temp memory?
Where is the actual permanent memory of the router..if it has any?

I think maybe you're asking how much flash memory your router has, not how much ram it has.

Once you've ssh'd into your router, type 'df -h' - your scripts (and some other stuff) are stored in the /jffs mount point; for instance, on my router, I have:

# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
ubi:rootfs_ubifs         77.2M     64.6M     12.6M  84% /
devtmpfs                214.9M         0    214.9M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /var
tmpfs                   215.0M      1.8M    213.2M   1% /tmp/mnt
mtd:bootfs                4.4M      3.3M      1.1M  75% /bootfs
tmpfs                   215.0M      1.8M    213.2M   1% /tmp/mnt
mtd:data                  8.0M    588.0K      7.4M   7% /data
tmpfs                   215.0M      1.8M    213.2M   1% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock9           47.0M      7.6M     39.4M  16% /jffs
/dev/mtdblock9           47.0M      7.6M     39.4M  16% /www/Main_LogStatus_Content.asp
tmpfs                   215.0M      1.8M    213.2M   1% /www/index_style.css
tmpfs                   215.0M      1.8M    213.2M   1% /www/require/modules/menuTree.js
#

So in my case, for my AC86U, my /jffs mount point (flash memory) is 47M in size, I'm using 7.6M and I have 38.4M free. The other responses in the previously linked to threads can explain the difference between "actually used" memory and "marked as used but easily made free" memory, both of which show up as "used" memory.

 

[cmkelley]

Despite all that's been said here, my new AC86U was running 82% RAM, and for the last couple of days misbehaving badly. Connections kept dropping, slow response times, occasionally slow GUI response when logged in. I read the threads here and assumed all was ok with RAM.
Lost my patience this morning after turning vpn's on and off and trying to investigate the problem, and rebooted.
RAM down to 57%, exactly the same scripts and services running, no more bad behaviour.
Whoever said here reboot weekly has probably pointed us towards the best and easiest fix.
And regards searching the forum: I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I have loads of trouble trying to find a relevant thread. Every time.

My AC86U runs ~94% "used" memory constantly, and I almost never reboot between Merlin releases, and I have none of the problems you're having. I know I've had uptimes well in excess of a month. If I do reboot between Merlin releases, I can't remember the last time I did for any reason other than I was shutting my entire network down to move stuff around or we were leaving the house for an extended period of time (i.e. longer than a week).

 

[Brainstorm]

I hear you, cmkelly, and bow to your seniority and experience. And I'm not sure that it was a ram problem causing my issues. I've had no problems up to a couple of days ago with my AC86U, so it may have been something else that my reboot fixed.
However, I can see this morning that ram usage is creeping up, although nothing has changed. Following reboot it was a steady 57%, this morning it's up to 68%. Something's going on.

 

[Brainstorm]

And thanks to AntonK for the search pointers. I'll give it a try...

 

[elorimer]

Also, comparing the memory usage of a 68 to an 86 is apples and oranges to start with. They are on different kernels, for one. Also, the programs invoked by some of the scripts set themselves up with different amounts of memory: syslog-ng, for one, will take over a lot more memory on an 86 than it does on my 56 but runs fine on both.

 

[Curve Planet]

Hello, I have the AX-86S and I see that when I have AiProtection activated the ram memory reaches between 80 and 90% of use, I do not notice that it causes problems but I did think about whether that is good or it could be problematic, in fact I thought to replace it with the PRO version that has double the ram.

 

[Tech9]

This is normal for AX86S model and the router is working properly. You don't need to do anything.