RAM doubts: power consumption increase from 8GB to 16GB?; performance increase from 1600 to 2133?

[bustinya]

I'm looking to buy a laptop in a $600-700 price range. The usage would be schoolwork and casual gaming/video streaming. I'm narrowing it down to 8GB laptops since it's what I need and I'm on a budget. I agree 16GB are more necessary each day that goes by, but it would be more future-proofing than being useful for my needs at the moment. However, I have indeed found computers with 16GB RAM and the other components I'm looking for in my budget. It is important to mention that I value battery duration. This brings me to the following questions.

1. I've heard 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB increases the power consumption and therefore decreases battery duration. How true is this? How much does it really affect battery life?

2. I've found computers with DDR3 RAM @1600MHz and others with DDR4 @2133MHz. How much does this difference affect performance? Does it affect battery life? Are there any other differences between DDR3 and DDR4 aside from frequency?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Mr Kagouris]

1) Doesn't affect battery life noticeably.
2) Performance is not affected much, but DDR4 is more power efficient than DDR3 which is always good in laptops. Also it's the new memory standard so it will be the cheaper one when upgrading in the future.