Reported RAM usage on GS-AX3000?

[dpwhite]

I am new to this router and pleased with it so far. I have 27-28 devices connected total with 22 on the 2.4Ghz channel alone.

I note that even while handling normal loads plus video streaming to my TV, the 3-core CPU doesn't seem to break a sweat. Indeed, I almost never see core 3 being used in the UI's System Status tab.

But in that tab I cannot help but note that the RAM usage is at 326M or the total 512M (64%). And this worries me a bit. I have read elsewhere (for a different model) that the values reported in this tab MAY include cached data - which is potentially free for use if needed - and so this value may not truly reflect the reality that I am concerned about.

Can anyone add anything or suggest another source for memory consumption in this router (command line, etc) so I can confirm sooner than later if I need to buy a router with 1G RAM instead?

Thanks

[jzchen]

I have 2 GB on our AXE16000, with 38 devices (most are 5 GHz) and 3 nodes, usage is 750 MB out of 2048 MB, 37%. On our AXE11000 it was around 50 - 60 % of 1 GB. At one point it was 97% for a while but I'm guessing it was a firmware issue because it went away. I notice low CPU utilization as well.

No experience with your router specifically I'm afraid. Seems like the ASUSWRT OS has somewhat high overhead...

[Murph_9000]

Although technically routers are just a special type of computer, they are quite different to general purpose computers in terms of demands on RAM. The RAM used (assuming everything is working normally) tends to stay very flat for any given set of features and configuration. There's not really anything wrong with a steady state of around 66% RAM used, and it wouldn't improve performance if that was only 33%. As long as you're not getting close to 100%, or seeing huge spikes, there's really no problem to solve; routers are not normally loading and unloading big executables as a constant thing, or suddenly finding a demand for a massive amount of working memory. My GT-AX6000 has 1GB RAM and typically sits about 66% used.

So, the big question is why you think it's a problem? Are you actually (close to) running out of memory at any point? Are you seeing any signs of memory starvation? Is there any problem you are trying to solve (beyond just the number that is reported to you)?

If it's working and performing well, and there's no specific problem, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a router sitting around 66% RAM used.

[dpwhite]

Murph_9000 wrote:
Although technically routers are just a special type of computer, they are quite different to general purpose computers in terms of demands on RAM. The RAM used (assuming everything is working normally) tends to stay very flat for any given set of features and configuration. There's not really anything wrong with a steady state of around 66% RAM used, and it wouldn't improve performance if that was only 33%. As long as you're not getting close to 100%, or seeing huge spikes, there's really no problem to solve; routers are not normally loading and unloading big executables as a constant thing, or suddenly finding a demand for a massive amount of working memory. My GT-AX6000 has 1GB RAM and typically sits about 66% used.

So, the big question is why you think it's a problem? Are you actually (close to) running out of memory at any point? Are you seeing any signs of memory starvation? Is there any problem you are trying to solve (beyond just the number that is reported to you)?

If it's working and performing well, and there's no specific problem, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a router sitting around 66% RAM used.

Thanks. I am not saying there is a problem. I recently moved to the new GS-AX3000 from a Netgear R6400 v1 (replaced by a v2 - which made no difference) that worked fine for many years. Things started going wrong as I added more IoT/Smarthome devices. It just started to loose track of/forget device connections. Nothing I tried fixed it.

So far, the new Asus GS-AX3000 is handling everything just fine. But I noticed that the amount of RAM reported as used was MORE than the total RAM in the old Netgear (320M vs 256M). I was starting to wonder/conclude that perhaps the Netgear issue was RAM-related. And if so, I was worried that even with its 512M, the new Asus GS-AX3000 might not have enough RAM to remain future-proof for a long time. I note that there are Asus routers now with 1G RAM and was trying to ascertain if I shouldn't return the GS-AX3000 to Amazon and get one of those.

But based upon what I have been reading here and elsewhere, I do not think that is necessary.

Cheers

[jprock]

Just want to reopen this case again. I have a brand new GT-AX6000 Rapture. It is the first time I encountered my router consuming almost 96-97 percent of RAM. When I tried to set the media server and attached the flash drive on the USB port, then this happened. Now, I'm trying to figure out some answer. Would it be fine running on that level of RAM usage for long period of time? I also noticed the low level of CPU usage. It's kinda weird actually. Is it really just a bug on the USB application side?

[dpwhite]

jprock wrote:
Just want to reopen this case again. I have a brand new GT-AX6000 Rapture. It is the first time I encountered my router consuming almost 96-97 percent of RAM. When I tried to set the media server and attached the flash drive on the USB port, then this happened. Now, I'm trying to figure out some answer. Would it be fine running on that level of RAM usage for long period of time? I also noticed the low level of CPU usage. It's kinda weird actually. Is it really just a bug on the USB application side?

I really have no answer on this. But I did want to report that I DO have a USB thumb drive plugged in and I am running media, smb, and ftp servers. And my RAM usage has remained as reported above for this entire period.

Yesterday I was looking at a friend's old Asus RT-N12D1 that was doing next to nothing at the time. His single-core CPU was below 10% but his RAM usage was maxed out. That device has only maybe 30M RAM but he had only 5 devices connected and again, they were doing mostly nothing.

Can you enable telnet/ssh, connect with a shell, and run the free command? That will show how much of the used RAM is in cache/buffers. I understand that these can be "reclaimed" if true RAM demand gets high enough.

[jzchen]

I saw that 96-97% for about a week on our AXE11000, also super low CPU utilization. I even took a screen shot of it on the ASUS Router Android app on my phone. After that it dropped down to a more sensible 50-60%.

I added a USB HDD to the AXE16000 and 50-60% seems like the sweet spot that they chose.

[jprock]

dpwhite wrote:
I really have no answer on this. But I did want to report that I DO have a USB thumb drive plugged in and I am running media, smb, and ftp servers. And my RAM usage has remained as reported above for this entire period.

Yesterday I was looking at a friend's old Asus RT-N12D1 that was doing next to nothing at the time. His single-core CPU was below 10% but his RAM usage was maxed out. That device has only maybe 30M RAM but he had only 5 devices connected and again, they were doing mostly nothing.

Can you enable telnet/ssh, connect with a shell, and run the free command? That will show how much of the used RAM is in cache/buffers. I understand that these can be "reclaimed" if true RAM demand gets high enough.

Ok, so I went to the GUI and enabled ssh. Executed the free command and it reflects what I actually see on the GUI side. Then, I played with the settings. I changed the USB mode from 3.0 to 2.0. There you go, the memory usage went low to 63-64%. Scanned the thumb drive through the health scanner and no bad sectors found. It was clean. Probably the feature 3.0 is the culprit. It consumes too much memory but less on cpu usage. hmmm... still wondering. I want answers, hope ASUS will be able to resolve this.

[dpwhite]

jprock wrote:
Ok, so I went to the GUI and enabled ssh. Executed the free command and it reflects what I actually see on the GUI side. Then, I played with the settings. I changed the USB mode from 3.0 to 2.0. There you go, the memory usage went low to 63-64%. Scanned the thumb drive through the health scanner and no bad sectors found. It was clean. Probably the feature 3.0 is the culprit. It consumes too much memory but less on cpu usage. hmmm... still wondering. I want answers, hope ASUS will be able to resolve this.

Interesting! Just to keep the confusion level high, my USB is on the 3.x setting. Cheers!

[jprock]

dpwhite wrote:
Interesting! Just to keep the confusion level high, my USB is on the 3.x setting. Cheers!

So, to my observation, I think I should build my own separate media server and not direct use the router. The resources needed for a media is demanding. Some of my devices had trouble accessing the network and internet. It's not recommended for me. I know some of the users might have other opinions about this. But this is what I have observed. A dedicated NAS or Virtual server probably the solution for this.