Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G36C16U4W 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 16GB (8GB x2), CL16, White

Product Information

Crucial offers the Ballistix Elite at two different speeds, with a total of 6 different module configurations.

This review is shaping up to be a close fight – something that’s extremely impressive when you remember how much cheaper the Ballistix RGB DDR4-3600 kit is. This means that they are a 32 GB DDR4 kit which is composed of 16 GB per stick with an operating frequency of 3600 MHz while having a CL16 latency (16-18-18-38) at 1. With very high XMP ratings, and moderately tight timings, it promises to be a contender in this space. It seems like F1 2019 might bump into a bottleneck elsewhere around 280 FPS in our setup, with the 1080p Ultra High settings we’re using. After spending some time and getting to know this memory, we feel confident in suggesting the Crucial Ballistix Elite for your next performance-oriented Intel or AMD computer build.

This is the first kit we’ve tested that can run 1T with geardown mode off at DDR4-3733 without extra tweaking. Finding the optimal overclock for a given criterion, such as voltage, is not an exact science and requires a large degree of patience, and the right combination of equipment. Our integrated, low-profile heat spreader dissipates module heat, even in smaller PCs, allowing you to game longer and harder.

This would be nice to have here as some older systems may find DDR4-3600 a little aggressive, though the latest platforms should all be totally fine.The operating frequency was held at the XMP 3600 MHz, but the primary timings were decreased as far as possible while still maintaining relative stability.

If there doesn't appear to be a way to boot that frequency on the ram, but you can do FCLK, I would test the sticks individually. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. We are installing our RAM into an ASUS TUF GAMING X570-Plus Wi-Fi motherboard with a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU.This being said, these RAM might have extra performance that awaits to be discovered but our test system is the bottleneck in this case. Check your motherboard’s qualified vendor list for memory to make sure they’re verified working for your board. It’s because of this that our first goal is to check and see if this memory even works with the XMP profile out of the box.

This high-performance DDR4 memory clocks achieves performance values of up to 3600 MHz clock and latencies of CL 16-18-18-38 at 1. Similarly, in UserBenchmark, these Crucial memory modules managed a score of 126%, telling us that their performance is Outstanding and much better than most of the RAM ever tested by this benchmark’s users. If we had to find something to complain about it would be that Crucial’s otherwise extensive online support materials lack any clear reminder to enable XMP for full performance on Ballistix kits.We push the DRAM frequency and FCLK Frequency up maintaining a 1:1 ratio so as to not bottleneck the AMD Infinity Fabric and introduce latency with the RAM at the rated voltage, and timings of XMP/D. You can see in the CPUz, HWiNFO64, and AIDA64 information above the specifications of the RAM at default, on Auto. Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. We cannot examine the overclocking potential without at least briefly covering the new AMD memory structure. This Crucial Ballistix RGB kit, however, shows no lines whatsoever at any shutter speed our camera is capable of – even 1/6000th of a second.