As a precursor:
In the majority of cases, free RAM is irrelevant. RAM fluctuates. It is random (pun intended) based completely on how much data is resident/loaded into memory at any given time. More RAM means more fluidity. Things animate and respond quicker with more free RAM. Your device may appear less sluggish with more free RAM. It does not affect how fast things are loaded.
What alarms me about the OPs statement is this:
"Whenever I do a power Cycle on my phone I start off with almost 200 Mb of RAM"
To which the only response is: What iPhone are you using?
Because they all have different amounts of RAM.
The iPhone 3GS has 256mb RAM, with common post-boot RAM readings for me in the 170s.
The iPhone 4 and 4S have 512MB of RAM, common post-boot RAM readings were anywhere between 200-400.
iPhone 5 has 1GB (1,000MB) of RAM, and I don't measure RAM on my iPhone 5.
Another notable point:
Keep in mind each iteration of iOS has used slightly more RAM than each previous version due in part to new features, and jailbreak tweaks / suspended iOS apps do factor in.
@Troneas:
I'd quote your entire post, but I'll refrain. "Do you really need this?" isn't an appropriate response. You may not need it, but don't knock another's usage of it just because you don't see the point, especially if you can't accurately paint said tweak as a memory offender for anything other than being there.
And,
the more apps and tweaks you have - from cydia and from the appstore, the more resources they will consume.
get 1000 apps from the appstore and see how your phone complains. so dont add stuff for the sake of it. if you can live without a front and back camera toggle in the NC best to leave it out.
This is pure misinformation. 1,000 downloaded AppStore apps don't do anything to your memory or performance. They are stored on your iPhone's flash memory "hard drive". They are not all running at once, nor will the OS let them. The OS intelligently quits out of stuff when more resources are needed.
1,000 cydia tweaks? Sure, that can and would affect performance. Tweak != app. A tweak is usually always running or otherwise resident/loaded in RAM in some manner to provide some sort of functionality, unlike an app which only runs when you open it and is only resident for as long as the OS deems is necessary.
As far as what tweaks might be be falling prey to memory leakage or erroneous CPU usage (excessive battery drain) it's anyone's best guess. @OP, try shooting for the always-on always-active always-visible tweaks first as their "always" nature leaves huge room for error. Biggest red flags to me in your list of installed tweaks?
Auto App Killer because it has a timer running for every app you open every time you open it &
Winterboard because of its bad track record and sole purpose as a perpetual theming engine. I don't use AAK, but I've used Winterboard. I now don't use Winterboard, and instead very carefully manually theme my iPhone. It isn't as easy as "choose a theme and respring" but it certainly has taken a load off my phone's RAM/CPU.
And as a final note,
It's easy to obsess over RAM. Don't. Unless you're suffering from chronic slowdowns, spontaneous app crashes or otherwise sluggish performance, RAM (in iOS at least) isn't something you should be monitoring. The unreliable readings of the various "RAM monitoring" options available to you certainly don't help. One thing may report 237 free MB, and another 276 free MB. Big whoop. It's probably somewhere in between, or nowhere at all. It's about as reliable as monitoring your battery percentage (which is a rough reading, randomly fluctuating anywhere from 1-8% or so that I've seen per reboot/respring). Monitoring RAM is a fool's game on newer (re: 1GB>=) devices while being marginally relevant on previous-gen devices if you are OCD enough to care or are legitimately noticing issues. Otherwise, don't bother.
