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I'm thinking about buying a laptop and interested in future ungradability. In particular I'm looking into Thinkpad t480s. E.g. here Reddit a person claims to upgrade T480s with i7-8650U to 40Gb RAM (put 32Gb in one available slot + soldered 8). Intel said: Arc Intel

Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 32 GB

I guess the reason for this is that when the processor was designed, max size of one memory module was 16Gb. Or what "(dependent on memory type)" could mean? Wiki pages and web search do not promplly answer my question.

Anyway, I'm interested what is the limit RAM of one SODIMM DDR4 slot of that particular laptop model (what specifics except a processor are important?) and one module? Like 1Tb possible?

Edit: practical questions:

  1. Given physical laws and size of the module: 128, 256Gb possible?
  2. How likely that a laptop with same processor with 2 memory slots would support twice max DRAM than with one slot?
Martian2020
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  • Why are you looking at a (older) T480 AND be concerned about future upgrade-ability at the same time? The T480 is already 3 generations old. They are very nice laptops, but if you intend to upgrade later to extend the laptops usable lifespan, it makes a lot more sense to start with something quite new (like a T14). By the time you want to upgrade in the future a newer model laptop won't be that far back behind the times, making parts availability a lot easier (and usually cheaper too). – Tonny Oct 07 '21 at 12:14
  • @Tonny, do you think for T14 RAM and SSD would be cheaper than for T480s? Why? I expect both have DDR4 and M.2 supporting NVMe. – Martian2020 Oct 07 '21 at 15:49

2 Answers2

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The DDR4 standard allows memory modules up to 64GB.

Whether anyone has ever made a module that large or a memory controller that can support that large modules is another thing - as these may have not existed in the year the CPU was released so they may have only verified it works up to a certain size, but it might unofficially support anything you can fit into the slot, if the module has a supported timing and memory organization (e.g. single/dual rank).

The CPU also supports both DDR4 and LPDDR3 types of memory and this type will define the maximum memory amount, as DDR3 allows for smaller modules than DDR4.

Justme
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  • I thought 260 pins SO-DIMMS are all compatible, so I need to check rank? Just to be sure, never faced that problem before with LPDDR3 and have not used DDR4 yet. – Martian2020 Oct 07 '21 at 07:34
  • 64Gb I found after your answer in Wiki myself, my now found 128gb old news: https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-starts-mass-producing-industrys-first-128-gigabyte-ddr4-modules-for-enterprise-servers – Martian2020 Oct 07 '21 at 07:58
  • The rank might make a difference, or then it doesn't, and it might depend on the type/rank of integrated memory. – Justme Oct 07 '21 at 08:05
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I currently have T480S i7, 40GB RAM (8GBintegrated and 32GB in slot, 1TB NVMe Samsung Evo Pro 970 , second disk WDC 512GB I WWAN Port.

Szymon Nowak
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    As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Dec 13 '21 at 16:15
  • Do you have second disk in WWAN port? What disks does this port support? – Martian2020 Dec 23 '21 at 14:52