Your Android phone might have 12GB of RAM but run slower because of it — this one setting is why
You spend good money on a phone with 12GB of RAM, and within a week, apps are reloading when you switch between them. The phone gets warm and transitions stutter for no obvious reason. It doesn’t feel like a 12GB device. The reason has nothing to do with the processor or the hardware.
It’s a single setting called RAM Plus on Samsung, and Memory Extension or RAM Expansion on other Android phones. The feature is turned on by default, and on phones with plenty of RAM, it creates more problems than it solves.
Storage pretending to be memory
Two things decide whether your phone feels fast or slow: the processor and the RAM. RAM is where your phone keeps everything it’s actively working on. Open apps and browser tabs sit in RAM because it can feed data to the processor almost instantly. When RAM fills up, Android has to make choices. It may close older apps or reload something later. That reload is the pause when an app restarts instead of continuing from where you left it.
Virtual RAM is supposed to help with that. It borrows a chunk of your phone’s internal storage and lets the system use it as backup memory. On my Galaxy S25 Ultra, the setting offers allocations from 2GB up to 12GB of virtual RAM on top of the 12GB of physical RAM already inside the phone. Set it to the max, and the phone reports 24GB of total memory.
That number looks impressive, but it hides the tradeoff.
Virtual RAM is not the same as physical RAM. Your phone’s internal storage may be fast for saving apps, photos, videos, and files, but it is not built for the same kind of instant access as real RAM. Even fast UFS storage is slower than LPDDR memory, especially for the constant back-and-forth movement that active apps need.
So when RAM Plus stores app data in that slower space, bringing it back can take longer than pulling it from real RAM. The phone may technically keep more things open, but that doesn’t always mean those things feel faster when you return to them.
On a budget Android phone with 4GB or 6GB of RAM, virtual RAM can be useful. It gives the system extra breathing room when memory is tight, and that can stop apps from closing too aggressively. But on a phone with 8GB, 12GB, or more physical RAM, the benefit is much less clear. You already have enough real memory for normal multitasking, so a large virtual RAM setting can become a solution to a problem your phone does not really have.
What it costs your phone to fake it
The hidden toll on your hardware
The problem with virtual RAM is not that it always destroys performance. It is more subtle than that. Your phone may still feel fast most of the time, but certain actions take longer to perform.
With RAM Plus active, Android has a larger memory pool to manage, but part of that pool is backed by slower storage. When app data gets pushed there, bringing it back takes longer than doing so in real RAM. And at that point, the extra RAM seems more of a compromise than an upgrade.
There is also extra movement happening in the background. Virtual RAM relies on internal storage, which means more reading and writing compared to physical RAM. That extra storage activity can add heat and drain the battery during heavy multitasking. To maintain a certain temperature, the system may reduce its performance.
Internal storage has a finite lifespan, and virtual memory adds extra read and write cycles. It probably won’t matter to most people who replace their phones every two or three years. But if you keep phones longer, it is another reason not to use a large virtual RAM setting unless you actually need it.
Kill the toggle, keep the speed
Disable it and feel the difference
Disabling RAM Plus on Samsung is straightforward. Head to Settings -> Device care -> Memory -> RAM Plus. On other Android devices, look for Memory Extension, RAM Expansion, or RAM Boost under your memory or performance settings. Depending on your phone and UI version, you may see an Off option or a few size choices such as 2GB, 4GB, 6GB, 8GB, or 12GB. If your phone lets you turn RAM Plus off completely, try that first. If it doesn’t, choose the lowest available option instead. A restart is needed for the change to take effect.
Once the phone reboots, the total memory number in your settings drops. On my S25 Ultra, it went from 24GB back to the actual 12GB. That smaller number is the honest one, and the phone performs better because of it.
If you use a lower-end phone with 4GB or 6GB of RAM, you may want to leave virtual RAM on. Those phones can benefit from the extra room, especially if you keep several apps open.
Keep it off after updates
RAM Plus can turn itself back on after major software updates. Samsung’s One UI updates have done this before, and other Android brands behave the same way. Check the setting after you update your phone’s software to make sure it hasn’t re-enabled itself.
8.5/10
- SoC
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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- Display
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6.9-inch Dynamic Super AMOLED 2X
- RAM
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12 or 16 GB
- Storage
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256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
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