Why is RAM usage different when viewing running services and cached processes

Question

After experiencing several out-of-memory restarts, I decided to check which applications were consuming my phone's resources.



Going to Settings > Developer Options > Running Services, I found that by switching between Running Services and Cached Processes, the RAM usage is totally different as can be seen in the pictures below



RAM used by running services

RAM used by running services



 



RAM used by cached processes

RAM used by cached processes



 



What is the cause of this disparity in the values and which of them should I use to check for memory-hogging apps?


— Alex Essilfie | Sources

Answer

Because the dark bar, light bar and white bar stand for totally different things.



A B



In Picture 1, the dark bar means "RAM used by the operating system", the light bar means "RAM used by user apps" and the white bar means "RAM available for use" (not actually "free").



In Picture 2, the dark bar means "RAM occupied by processed", the light bar means "RAM used for caching apps (for faster startup)" (can be freed for use) and the white bar means "totally unused RAM / free RAM".



That's why the size of "Free" in picture 1 roughly equals the size of both "Cached" and "Free" in picture 2.


— iBug | Sources

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