It’s essential to understand that computer RAM comes in a variety of types, for example, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4. This article will walk you through the major difference between DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4 RAM.
A little bit confused about these four, let’s put it this way; The original DDR RAM works almost exactly like SDRAM ( synchronous DRAM ) but it simply doubles the speed by two.
DDR2 memory just like DDR doubles the speed of the latter by two thus multiplying the transfer speeds by twice for the same bus speed.
When it comes to the DDR3, replaces the twice clock multiplier with a four times clock multiplier, thus running at four times the memory transfer rate for the same bus speed as the DDR RAM.
All these DDR RAM types are capable of running at different voltages, for example, DDR2 RAM runs at relatively lower voltage compared to DDR RAM, same goes for DDR3 RAM which runs at
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Contents
What is DDR?
RAM is simply the short form of Random Access Memory, which stores all computer activities and tasks in current use. If a computer doesn’t necessarily have RAM, then this requires it to fetch information from hard disk which can be
This brings us to the point, if you feel that your computer is slightly slow, then give it more life by upgrading your RAM. However, capacity may simply be only one aspect, take an example, a 2GB cartilage of DDR2 800 RAM is not equally the same as the 2GB RAM chip of DDR3 1333.
Understanding the difference is essentially important because computers may accept only one type of these RAM types.
So what’s DDR?
The term refers to “Double Data Rate RAM” which implies that the RAM interface can only transfer two data per clock cycle, giving it twice the theoretical peak bandwidth of the previous SDRAM while running at the same clock speed.
DDR is capable of achieving greater bandwidth than the Single data
DDR2 Vs DDR3 Vs DDR4 RAM
DDR2
DDR2 is a double data rate RAM interface that superseded the original DDR SDRAM specifications and is also superseded by the DDR3.
On top of double pumping ( transferring data on the rising and falling edges of the bus clock signal ), DDR2 also has got a higher bus speed and requires lower power by running the internal clock at half the speed of the data bus.
When you combine all the two factors above, you produce a total of four data transfers per internal clock cycle.
Since the DDR2 internal clock runs at half the DDR external clock rate, DDR2 memory operating at the same external data bus clock rate as DDR results in DDR2 being able to provide the same bandwidth but with higher latency.
Similarly, DDR2 RAM operating at twice the external data bus clock rate as DDR may provide twice the bandwidth with the same latency.
The most popular DDR2 RAM modules are at least twice as first as the best-rated DDR memory modules.
DDR3
DDR3 stands for Double data rate type three. The dynamic RAM came into first use in 2007 and superseded the DDR2 RAM interfaces.
The RAM type is commonly known for its high bandwidth ( double data rate). It is the higher synchronous dynamic RAM to DDR and DDR2 and predecessor to the DDR4.
DDR3 SDRAM is neither forward nor backward compatible with any earlier type of random-access memory (RAM) because of different signaling voltages, timings, and other factors.
The major difference between DDR3 over its predecessor, DDR2 RAM, is
DDR3 memory reduces 40% power consumption compared to predecessor DDR2 modules, allowing for lower operating currents and voltages (1.5 V, compared to DDR2`s 1.8 V or DDR`s 2.5 V).
Similar to the increased operation frequencies, decreased heat production, and high latency and increased bandwidth, the width of the prefetch buffer is increased with each successive standard of modern DDR SDRAM modules. As the case, DDR3 is much faster than all its predecessors (DDR1 and DDR2)
DDR4 RAM
DDR4 is a short abbreviation of double data rate fourth memory interface. The DDR4 RAM supersedes all the other SDRAM interfaces ( to mention DDR1, DDR2
The DDR4 memory was first released to the market in 2014 and it’s one of the latest dynamic variants, of which some have been in existence since the
The DDR4 RAM has got a higher speed successor compared to DDR2 and DDR3 technologies. DDR4 memory is not compatible with any earlier type of random-access memory (RAM) due to different signaling voltages, physical interface, and other factors.
The main difference of the DDR4 over its predecessor, DDR3, includes higher module density and lower voltage requirements, coupled with higher data rate transfer speeds. The DDR4 standard allows for DIMMs (dual in-line memory module) of up to 64 GiB in capacity, compared to DDR3’s maximum of 16 GiB per DIMM.
Power consumption often increases with speed, the reduced voltage allows higher speed operation without unreasonable power and cooling requirements.
The DDR4 consumes minimum voltage between 1.2V and 1.4V with a frequency between 800 and 2133 MHz (DDR4-1600 through DDR4-4266) as compared to voltage requirements of 1.5V or 1.6V and frequencies between
between 400 and 1067 MHz of DDR3.
Final Verdict
To summarize all this in short;
The DDR memory can transfer data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signals, giving it twice the theoretical peak bandwidth of
DDR2 operates at twice the external data bus clock rate as DDR provides twice the bandwidth with the same latency.
DDR3 has a low power consumption as compared to the predecessors and an increased capacity to transfer data at twice the rate of DDR2.
DDR4 uses even lower power voltage consumption as compared to its predecessors and has got a faster bus speed.