In regards to Chip ram usage, I use OS 3.9 with BB4, and with the "icon to fast" option plus PeterK's icon library, I boot up in a CGX screen with 2 MB of chip ram. Opening drawer doesn't reduce the chip ram either.
Yes its CGX 4 but even so without PeterK's icon.library I would boot up with about 1.65 MB Chip, which dropped every time I opened a drawer even if icon images were suppose to be fast ram.
Just a thought.