Wednesday, May 17th 2023
Crucial Launches the Pro Series Memory
Last year, Crucial canned its Ballistix brand of gaming focused memory, but it seems like the company still wants to offer its customers a more premium product, as Crucial has just introduced its new Pro series of memory products. Crucial will offer its new Pro series in both DDR5 and DDR4 flavours at either DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 speeds. It should be noted that the DDR4 modules still rely on a green PCB, while the DDR5 modules get the same black PCB as Crucial's regular DDR5 modules. Beyond the heatsink, there isn't much that differs between the Pro series and Crucial's regular modules, but there is one thing that might matter to potential buyers.
Crucial has added support for AMD EXPO and Intel XMP 3.0 to its Pro series of modules. In the case of AMD EXPO this only applies to DDR5 modules, whereas the DDR4 modules support Intel XMP 2.0, in this case a feature its standard DDR4 modules lack. This should make it easier for end users to take advantage of the extra performance offered by some of these modules. That said, as Crucial has stuck to JEDEC timings, taking the Pro DDR5-5600 UDIMM kit as an example, you end up with timings of 46-46-45-45 at 1.1 Volts, where competing products have timings in the range of 36-36-36-36, although usually at 1.25 Volts or higher. Even as far as JEDEC timing goes, Crucial has chosen the middle ground for DDR5 5600, as there is a timing option from JEDEC that supports 40-40-40-40, which would make more sense for a more premium product. Price wise, a 32 GB kit with two 16 GB modules of DD5-5600 modules carries an $11 price premium over Crucials standard modules, with a retail price of US$114.99 versus US$103.99, but there are better options out there at this price point.
Source:
Crucial
Crucial has added support for AMD EXPO and Intel XMP 3.0 to its Pro series of modules. In the case of AMD EXPO this only applies to DDR5 modules, whereas the DDR4 modules support Intel XMP 2.0, in this case a feature its standard DDR4 modules lack. This should make it easier for end users to take advantage of the extra performance offered by some of these modules. That said, as Crucial has stuck to JEDEC timings, taking the Pro DDR5-5600 UDIMM kit as an example, you end up with timings of 46-46-45-45 at 1.1 Volts, where competing products have timings in the range of 36-36-36-36, although usually at 1.25 Volts or higher. Even as far as JEDEC timing goes, Crucial has chosen the middle ground for DDR5 5600, as there is a timing option from JEDEC that supports 40-40-40-40, which would make more sense for a more premium product. Price wise, a 32 GB kit with two 16 GB modules of DD5-5600 modules carries an $11 price premium over Crucials standard modules, with a retail price of US$114.99 versus US$103.99, but there are better options out there at this price point.
44 Comments on Crucial Launches the Pro Series Memory
The Pro modules have far worse timings, as Crucial doesn't seem to want to deviate from JEDEC specs, but it'll be interesting to see how these overclock.
I believe Crucial is going where the money really is since the desktop pc space is over saturated with "Gaming" This and that.
I wouldnt be surprised if they release some High End stuff on DDR5 as the market migrates from DDR4Yup I had some they were Gold Heatsink with Green and Red LED, it saddened me when I fried 1 via ESD.
Nice and clean, working flawlessly ...Maybe they'll assure better compatibility this way ?
This was specifically in the early day with some batches of LPX modules at speeds around 3200 MHz.
Sometimes it's just bad luck and the modules only do what they're sold as, it comes down to how much extra leeway the manufacturers leave in there after they've binned the chips.
Again, we're way off topic now.
G.Skill Trident Z5 DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR5-5600, CL28-34-34-89, on-die ECC - 118€, tax included
G.Skill Trident Z5 DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR5-6000, CL30-38-38-96 - 130€, tax included
Wouldn't pick these over G.Skill ones and still don't understand why they ended their BallistiX lineup.
Like olymind1, I have no idea why they made such a terrible decision. I haven't bought a single Crucial module since. There are always better deals available when I'm looking for memory it seems. Crucial gear never comes up on my radar anymore. If it does, they aren't competitive technically or fiscally. This new naming scheme doesn't seem to have changed anything significantly enough for that to change anytime soon. Shame, Ballistix were always competitive on all levels.
Just look at the white kit of cheapo Sport LT's:
White PCB, low profile, no RGB nonsense.
They later downgraded this to every color having black PCB:
This new one gets green one instead.
Corsair LPX RAM has a long history of compatibility issues, mainly with Gigabyte motherboards. They had 3 years straight issues with stability, and a lot of people were complaining around the web.
The same as some other brands, Crucial plays safe as they sell a lot of RAM anyway. I just don't get why the Pro series has exactly the same specs as the "classic" one, but they added a standard heatsink. They are using IC, which is rated at 5600 1.1V/JEDEC specs, so SPD, XMP, and EXPO are the same. XMP and EXPO logos are only for marketing purposes as it wouldn't change anything if there was only SPD.
I ended up replacing my kit with the same but without RGB.