Can i use DDR3 and DDR3L together

May 27, 2018
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So i have a laptop and it has 4 gb ram ddr3, so i bought another 4 gb , i thought it was ddr3 but i is ddr3l, can i use them together? And if i can, is it safe?
 
Solution
Theoretically, it might be possible, depending on how forgiving the chipset and firmware are, but on a laptop that is generally not likely to be the case.

Generally, in short, probably not. They use entirely different voltages and the voltage required for one type to be stable will likely be too high or too low for the other set to be. On a desktop board you MIGHT be able to tweak things to the point where some kind of compatibility could be achieved but it's almost universally impossible to do that on a laptop except maybe on a handful of very much custom built models like Sager gaming notebooks. Even then, I would very much doubt it AND it wouldn't be a good idea in the first place because one of the sets of memory is going to to...
First of all you should have sold the old ram and buy a supported 2x4gb ram kit to ensure optimal configuration like dual channel. So, DDR3L is a lower voltage memory chips module which usually works fine in desktop models getting overvoltage all the time though, which is not a good thing. Will it work? Assuming the rest of the specs are identical, probably yes. Are they though?
Is it safe? Usually L ram is high efficiency silicon cut that shares the same properties with simple DDR3, so yes. But not always. Some will eventually on the long run
 
Theoretically, it might be possible, depending on how forgiving the chipset and firmware are, but on a laptop that is generally not likely to be the case.

Generally, in short, probably not. They use entirely different voltages and the voltage required for one type to be stable will likely be too high or too low for the other set to be. On a desktop board you MIGHT be able to tweak things to the point where some kind of compatibility could be achieved but it's almost universally impossible to do that on a laptop except maybe on a handful of very much custom built models like Sager gaming notebooks. Even then, I would very much doubt it AND it wouldn't be a good idea in the first place because one of the sets of memory is going to to likely be prone to errors from a lack of voltage or overheating due to too much voltage.
 
Solution