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.