The ROM can make a difference, but it has nothing to do with "Free RAM". I wish people would stop perpetuating this myth.
Free RAM is wasted memory on an Android device. Unless you are getting below about 50MB there is not a problem as the device is designed to use as much as it can and then swap it out automatically.
I agree about CM11 though. I'm running the latest nightly and the only problem I have is the delay in waking when you press the power button
Well I saw your posts on some of the threads and I had to address it.
The reason that you have ram on your phone/computer/etc,
Is to give the system the ability to Access the data and use it as fast as she can.
Your saying that free ram is wasted ram is only partially right,
When you see on our phone `150M free ram, it's not because everything is ok.
What the system does, is forcing some important/used apps out of ram and it make them Cached processes To be able to keep that gap of free ram (`150m) which will able the system to run properly.
But actually the system do lack of ram !!! and its messes with the performance,
Because when the system will need that Cached process it will use it while it cached (slow performance) or bring it back to ram while caching another process to keep the gap (again, the result is bad performance).
You can check in your phone and u will c that we have about 100m of cached process (depending on the amount of apps that u use)
So to keep it simple and summarize it:
If you have 1GB of ram on your phone, 150MB free ram , 0 cached processes - free ram is wasted ram
If you have 1GB of ram on your phone, 150MB free ram , >1mb cached processes –
your system needs more ram and the maker of this phone made a bad decision, maybe because he wanted to lower the price a little, but still - bad decision