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

Product Information

The new Ballistix Gaming line has 3 colour options for the heatsink (Black, Red or White) with speeds that can go all the way to 3600 MHz. Today, we are testing the Crucial Ballistix Elite, which is running a new breed of Micron memory IC's. This review will focus on the 32GB DDR4-3600 CL16 kit, which seems the best option for most gamers, either using AMD or Intel platform.

We bumped the FCLK Frequency up to 1966MHz to keep the DRAM and FCLK Frequency on a 1:1 ratio to maintain the highest performance advantage. Although other options have always been available, when it comes to overclocking and performance, there is simply no competition. Crucial was founded on the belief that everyday consumers can, and should, have the ability to improve their computers through do-it-yourself memory upgrades.I see nothing but good things about the RAM sticks themselves, so I can't imagine the variance being that abysmal for my set? The Ballistix modules still get Crucial’s custom heatsink spreader, and there are multiple colors available. The heat sink design turned out to be somewhat superficial, but as our results clearly showed, overclocking was not hindered by the cooling method.

Crucial’s new Ballistix Elite DDR4 is geared as a high-performance memory product, which would be a nice upgrade for any PC. We’re taking a 1080p 50fps source, and exporting a short video with basic transitions at 720p 30fps.

Our integrated, low-profile heat spreader dissipates module heat, even in smaller PCs, allowing you to game longer and harder.

Crucial Pro Series memory boosts FPS, eliminates screen tears and improves overall responsiveness in game. F1 2019 is a well optimised DirectX 12 game that runs well even on an Athlon 3000G, and has a built-in benchmark. As the Thaiphoon Burner screenshot shows, this specific kit of memory is composed of Micron E-Die ICs.Peeking under the heatspreader, we can see the memory chips arranged in two tight clusters of four chips each. Looking at the 16GB (8 GBx2) packages, we find 3600 CL16-18-18 at the bottom of the lineup, and 4000 C18-19-19 at the top end. In practice we’re not aware of this model using anything other than Micron’s 8Gbit revision E (“E-die”).

It works fine under normal usage, but unfortunately I'm not able to achieve full rated XMP, as setting it to 3600 causes memory training to fail and reset to safe mode. Even though these variables are somewhat out of our control, they play a huge role in the overall performance and benchmark scoring. The new products include Predator DDR4 RGB and Fury DDR4 RGB kits up to 256GB and speeds up to 4600 MHz. They’re not just generous in terms of capacity, they’re also very fast, and all the benchmarks we run attest to that.The Crucial Ballistix Gaming Memory DDR4-3600 32GB comes as a kit of two 16GB modules with a low profile form factor. We sometimes see fake screws implemented for design purposes, but the Crucial Ballistix Elite uses actual screws to mount the top bar. Second, we set tRRD_S 4, tRRD_L 6 and tFAW 20 – if needed we could loosen these, but it hasn’t been needed yet. For high-end computer builders and enthusiasts, Samsung B-Die has remained the undisputed champion in recent years. According to PCMark 10, that means that our PC is better than 98% of all the personal computers in the world.