Higher-density RAM chips don’t run meaningfully hotter in thin laptops.

The difference between 16Gb and 8Gb dies is a few degrees at most, and your laptop’s cooling system is already dealing with much bigger heat sources (CPU, GPU, voltage regulators). Unless you’re running memory stress tests in a sauna, it won’t matter.

Why? Higher-density dies pack more cells per chip, but they also run at slightly lower voltages per cell in modern DDR4/DDR5 designs. The total power draw per module stays roughly the same—you’re just putting more capacity in the same physical space. Thermal output scales with power, not density alone.

And in practice, the soldered RAM on a thin laptop is usually tucked next to the CPU, often under the same heat pipe or at least near the fan airflow. The extra couple of watts from denser dies is a rounding error compared to the 15-45W the processor is trying to dump.

If you’re worried about heat, worry about the thickness of the cooling fan or the quality of the thermal paste, not the RAM density. Higher-density RAM is fine.