Is DDR3 backwards compatible with DDR2?

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guitarxe

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Sep 22, 2007
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I'm a little confused if motherboards that support DDR3 are backwards compatible with earlier RAM? I have DDR2 memory and I want to use it in a motherboard that supports DDR3 (model is H81M-P33). Or do I have to buy DDR3 memory for this board?
 
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saywhut
You will have to buy DDR3 memory. They are not backwards compatible. However, there are some motherboards that support both standars, but have different memory slolts for the respective memory type.

That specific motherboard does not have slots for DDR2 RAM.
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saywhut

saywhut

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Sep 11, 2014
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You will have to buy DDR3 memory. They are not backwards compatible. However, there are some motherboards that support both standars, but have different memory slolts for the respective memory type.

That specific motherboard does not have slots for DDR2 RAM.
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Over a decade ago in the pc100 and pc133 days ram was backwards compatible.

Memory chips have not been backwards compatible since early 2000s when they came out with DDR1. Thus DDR1/DDR2/DDR3/DDR4 all have different pin counts/locations making them physically incompatibale.
 
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Pinhedd

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Aug 7, 2007
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PC-100 and PC-133 are both SDRAM, and are logically identical. PC-133 is simply capable of running at a higher clock rate.

The same is true for every generation of SDRAM, subject to controller and firmware constraints of course.
 
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