

The difference between DDR3 and DDR4 RAM for the average gamer isn’t just found in performance. Your PC will be future-proofed, your games will have all the memory they could want for generations to come, and you can open up multiple applications on your computer while gaming without sacrificing performance. Or, if you’re using an accelerated processing unit (APU), which draws virtual memory from your system’s RAM, you’ll get a nice increase in performance until upgrading to a dedicated CPU/GPU rig. This will ensure that the only thing bottlenecking your PC’s performance in any game is your CPU or GPU. As a side note, DDR3 and DDR4 DIMMs aren’t compatible neither.So what does all of this mean? It means you should grab two 8GB sticks of DDR4 RAM, look up how to take advantage of dual-channel support on your respective DDR4-enabled motherboard, slot those bad boys in your PC, and forget about them for the next decade.

SODIMM only means they are small memory modules commonly used in laptops and some small form factor PCs, as opposed to physically much bigger DIMM memory used in traditional desktop computers. Note: If you see “SODIMM” in specs of both DDR3 and DDR4 laptop memory, that doesn’t mean they are compatible. It is more power efficient and generally faster, but doesn’t noticeably improve overall performance nor battery life of notebooks. DDR3 uses a voltage of 1.5V (or 1.35V for DDR3L variant). So, a DDR3 memory module won’t fit in a DDR4 slot…Īnd a DDR4 stick is incompatible with a DDR3 slot…īesides the physical differences, DDR3 and DDR4 RAM differ in voltages. Finally, DDR3 memory is a bit shorter than DDR4 – 2.66 versus 2.74 inches. A DDR3 laptop memory module has 204 pins, whereas DDR4 has 260. The same applies to corresponding bumps in the RAM slots on notebook’s motherboards. Notches on the connectors of memory sticks are on different places. DDR3 and DDR4 laptop memory are not compatible / interchangeable.įirst of all, a DDR3 laptop RAM module can’t physically fit into a DDR4 laptop RAM slot and vice versa. For instance, you bought a new laptop with DDR4 RAM and want to add more memory to it by inserting a DDR3 RAM module from your older laptop. Are DDR3 and DDR4 laptop memory (RAM) compatible? That’s a common question when it comes to memory upgrades.
