Analyzing 4GB RAM


Thanks ED for the news post. I think I’d wait for the 4GB version but if it proves to be too much of a burden to make it work well, I’d happily take a 2GB Pyra any day. Especially if there is an option to, maybe, eventually get an upgrade later with a discount!
 
Sorry, I was already on the edge of cancelling my order, thanks to the GPD Win working out so well, combined with the unwillingness to make the Pyra open hardware.
The GPD Win's biggest shortcoming so far, however, is that it has only 4 GB RAM.
So dropping Pyra to just 2 GB RAM would seal the cancellation from me.
 
Sorry, I was already on the edge of cancelling my order, thanks to the GPD Win working out so well, combined with the unwillingness to make the Pyra open hardware.
The GPD Win's biggest shortcoming so far, however, is that it has only 4 GB RAM.
So dropping Pyra to just 2 GB RAM would seal the cancellation from me.

I'm curious, why do you need the 4 GB on the Win?
Is it because of Windows and RAM hungry games or anything else?
 
....combined with the unwillingness to make the Pyra open hardware.
I don't knew where you get this.
ED always said that he will make the Pyra open after it's finised and shipped.

It would be silly to make it open in this state.
There would be the risk for clones before ED got back his investment.
You knew the new trend of chinese clones of Kickstarter before they are even finished?

Do you think you'll able to build your Pyra cheaper then ED?
I don't think so.
The only really interesting thing of an open Pyra for me is the possibility to get the connectors of the processor board well documented.
This rises the possibility of an whide spread use of the board and processor boards of other manufactors.
This would be really god for us users ;)

I'll wait for future results of the project before I decide of going 2GB / 4GB ram
 
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I'm curious, why do you need the 4 GB on the Win?
Is it because of Windows and RAM hungry games or anything else?
I run Linux on my GPD Win (with only free software, including free GPU drivers).
With 4 tabs, Chromium is using 2.1 GB RAM at the moment. It quickly grows with more windows and tabs.
Everything besides Chromium seems to have negligible RAM usage at the moment.

I don't knew where you get this.
ED always said that he will make the Pyra open after it's finised and shipped.
Citation, please.
He has made it perfectly clear that it won't be open hardware.
Note that this involves more than just publishing schematics: to be open hardware, the copyright licence needs to allow the usual freedoms.

Do you think you'll able to build your Pyra cheaper then ED?
I don't think so.
I personally wouldn't have any use for open hardware, but if Pyra were open hardware, I could at least justify supporting it for ideological reasons.
 
It will be open except for commercial usage (unless you ask us) which should be fine for everything.
You can study it, modify it, fork it, create accessories or CPU Boards (these two can be commercial, if you like) or whaatever.

You simply are not allowed to use it to produce and sell Pyras without asking first.

Sent from my XT1650-03 using Tapatalk
 
Citation, please.
He has made it perfectly clear that it won't be open hardware.
Note that this involves more than just publishing schematics: to be open hardware, the copyright licence needs to allow the usual freedoms.
I think this would solve the whole open source hardware thing:
 
I run Linux on my GPD Win (with only free software, including free GPU drivers).
With 4 tabs, Chromium is using 2.1 GB RAM at the moment. It quickly grows with more windows and tabs.
Everything besides Chromium seems to have negligible RAM usage at the moment.

As far as I know, Chromium always reserves a certain amount of memory. Even without a tab open, it uses a lot more memory than it needs. That's because it runs multiple instances at once.
You can easily run it in single-instancr mode as well as low-memory usage mode (commandline parameters)
For me, it never used more than 1GB then with over 20 tabs open, and I haven't really found any downside, everything just seems to work normally.

My desktop PC only has 4GB and I never ran out of memory (even with Plasma, Blender, Gimp, Libreoffice, Inkscape, Vivaldi, Evolution Mail running at the same time...)

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As a little compensation, I'd offer the new 4GB boards to everyone who agreed to get the 2GB version for production cost price.
I am not giving up on the 4GB just yet, but that should never risk the project. So if needed, I would be willing to switch to the 2GB unit.

I do wonder, any indication of how much the 4GB boards at production cost price would set us back?
 
Good to hear from ED again. It's not a voting time yet, but I'll join the fun - yeah 2GB is fine for me too.

And since we are discussing web browsing on slow computers...

WARNING: PURELY SUBJECTIVE RANT ABOUT SPEED, LOW SPEC COMPUTERS AND WEB BROWSING BELOW

I use these for web browsing for different purposes. It would be fair to mention that I'm the type of person who don't use > 3 tabs because I get disoriented, but even with only 1 tab open browsing on all three of these except MacBook is far from productive web use for me.

1. Hewlett Packard NX6320 laptop (Core 2 Duo T7600 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 1024x768 screen)
I installed Debian on my 2006 Hewlett Packard laptop to see how it fares as a web browsing computer and get used to Debian before Pyra hits the store. I upgraded WiFi to a more recent module for speed and security (AC7260 WiFi module). I found that this machine is not enough for comfy web browsing for me at all. Scrolling is slow, tabbing between tabs is painful, animations are sluggish, page rendering is hit or miss depending on a webpage, but mostly miss. I can actually see how browser redraws pages when I tab through them. Mozilla Thunderbird workflow is counterproductive because of major speed issues as well.

2. Prestigio Visconte V Windows 10 tablet (Intel Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz, 2GB RAM, 1280x800 screen)
Browsing on Prestigio Visconte V Windows 10 tablet is indistinguishable to my Debian HP to me personally except the fact that higher resolution helps a little. Both these computers are very slow for modern web. This tablet is closest I can get to GPD Win which has Z8700 or Z8750 CPU plus 4GB of RAM so you may be probably have a better experience with web browsing than this tablet on a GPD Win.

3. New Nintendo 3DS (ARM11 MPCore 0.8GHz, 256MB RAM, 800x240 screen + 320x240 screen)
Sometimes I also check Gmail messages and Twitter on my New Nintendo 3DS. It's almost the same level of experience for me as the above - just sift through one page of data for a couple mins then close browser for good, otherwise I get nervous because of how slow page loading, scrolling and animations are. I also tend to switch mobile mode on and it improves the situation slightly.

4. iPhone 5S (ARMv8-A 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 1136x640 screen)
Mobile web pages are almost bearable on my iPhone 5S provided they don't have much JavaScript interactions, otherwise it's quite painful. I have no other 4G devices for web on the go at the moment so I have to cope.

5. Late 2013 MacBook Pro (Core i7 4750HQ 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 2880x1800 screen)
I can browse comfortably on this one which at the moment is my fastest computer. 4 years were not enough to even slightly outdate a 2013 machine for web browsing.

END OF WARNING

My final thought is that so maybe I'll force Pyra to use mobile browser user agent string and be a happy camper in a mobile web world with around 3 tabs on 2GB.
 
Joining my voice to the choir.
Getting my Pyra sooner being the best 'little compensation' I can imagine.

The sooner Pyras are spread across the world, the better.
This little thing should be its best advertising.
First massproduktion, then mass orderings.
 
@EvilDragon You shouldn't just ask the preorderers, if they are willing to switch, but rather give options like:
- Yes, I switch
- I switch, unless you don't need me to
- I stick to 4GB, unless you really need me to switch
- No, I stick with 4GB

Or ask for a number on a scale from 1 (sticky) to 10 (switchy). That would give you more control over the amount of people switching - making it fit batch sizes better - while taking into account their willingness to switch.

And of course, you should ask, if they'd want to buy the 4GB board later in case of switching, and, if they'd rather settle with 2GB or with a refund in case 4GB doesn't work out. That be usefull knowledge.

If anyone must know right now, I'd go with "stick, unless switch needed", "4GB board later, in case of switch", and "2GB over refund".

In case of switching I'd be willing to pay production costs, shipping, and some processing fee for my 4GB board - unless the switch wouldn't change the article price (then the 4GB's production costs will do). Point is, I don't want ED to pay for my stuff, neither in money nor in extra working hours for extra processing. So my suggestions are subject to asjustment, if I missed something.
 
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