Real, dependable, up-to-date information on the available memory size of the most common HTC Wizard operating system versions

While trying to find a Wizard ROM version that makes it possible to run the software-rendered version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 by Aspyr Media (of which I’ll soon publish a quick review) on the HTC Wizard, I’ve thoroughly scrutinized the free (dynamic) RAM/ROM size of all the known and recommended ROM versions.

This information will be essential to anyone that wants to run memory-intensive programs (mainly games) that require every single byte of the memory.

First and foremost, all the current 2.x (also known as AKU2) and the also widely used and recommended 1.5 / 1.6 series ROM version are common in that none of them offer more than 28 Mbytes of RAM to applications, not even in heavily tweaked state (after disabling all kinds of plug-ins and not installing any kind of third-party applications that would be started as a process/in the background).

There’re very slight differences between the RAM memory usage of the different HTC Wizard ROM versions. This is certainly good news in that newer ROM versions don’t consume more dynamic RAM memory than older ones (meaning you don’t need to stick with old versions if you want to run some memory-intensive apps/games).

I’ve also scrutinized the ROM usage of the different ROM versions. I was really pleased to see that new ROM versions don’t at all consume more ROM storage than old, pre-AKU2 1.x versions. The only problem with all post-1.5 ROM versions is that you can’t “unlock†(that is, access for arbitrary program/data storage as a separate drive) the Extended ROM; this way, you lose some 10 additional storage Megabytes.

The free memory size of each ROM version is as follows (in Megabytes):

ROM versionFree RAMFree storage ROM
i-mate 2.16.9.1 WWE (latest i-mate AKU2)27.7-28.0n/t
Qtek 2.17.7.2 (latest Qtek AKU2)27.5-27.744.05
Qtek 1.6.9.1 (previous Qtek version)27.4-27.543.94
Button (custom, popular ROM) 1.5.4.227.7-27.844.05 (+ the freely accessible unlocked Extended ROM)

Summary

1. If you upgrade to the newer, AKU2, 2.x ROM versions, you lose absolutely no usable memory. Therefore, upgrading is highly recommended.
2. You can’t have more than 27.9-28.0 dynamic (program) RAM memory with any HTC Wizard ROM version.