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All other things being equal, _if_ unused RAM used less power: yes.

Unused RAM doesn’t use less power, though. Writing and reading it do, but afaik, all current systems happily refresh the memory content of all RAM, including unused RAM, and that’s what eats the power in an idling system.

Installing less RAM will help, though. I think that’s one reason why Apple ships iPhones with less RAM than flagship Android devices.

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> Unused RAM doesn’t use less power, though.

Interesting, I thought it would. Just like a written hard drives weights more, than an empty one:

https://www.ellipsix.net/blog/2009/04/how-much-does-data-wei...

I don’t think that calculation is entirely correct. Hard disks use error-correction schemes and codes to prevent long sequences of identical bits, so writing logical zero bits doesn’t imply writing “magnetic zeroes” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_coded_recording, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_frequency_modulation).

DRAM = tiny capacitors, so keeping more of them discharged would mean needing less leakage and thus less energy to top them up, though, so some gains could be made there.

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