Crucial Announces Ballistix Elite DDR4 Memory

[Cristian_25H]

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced new Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4 memory modules, which deliver the next generation of memory to high performance gaming. Designed for gamers and enthusiasts, Ballistix Elite DDR4 memory delivers introductory speeds that start at 2666 MT/s and 3000 MT/s and is expected to get faster as the technology matures.

The new modules offer nearly twice the bandwidth of mainstream DDR3 memory at up to 24 GB/s, and deliver improved system responsiveness and increased frame rates. Furthermore, Ballistix Elite DDR4 memory delivers up to 40 percent more power efficiency than standard DDR3 memory.





Designed for the ultimate gaming experience, Ballistix Elite DDR4 modules are optimized for next-generation Intel X99 platforms with support for XMP 2.0 profiles. The new modules also introduce a new design to the Ballistix line-up, featuring an aggressively styled anodized aluminum heat spreader for improved heat dissipation on a custom-designed black PCB. Supported by the Ballistix Memory Overview Display (M.O.D.) utility, an integrated thermal sensor allows for real-time temperature monitoring which aids in overclocking efforts.

"Gamers and enthusiasts push their systems to the limit and are always looking for ways to reduce bottlenecks," said Jeremy Mortenson, product marketing manager, Crucial. "With the introduction of Ballistix DDR4, the fastest memory speeds and bandwidths are now more accessible. Along with making peak performance attainable, Ballistix DDR4 also sets up gamers and enthusiasts for the next wave of performance that will only be possible with newer platforms using DDR4."

Available in 4 GB and 8 GB modules, as well as 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB kits, Ballistix Elite DDR4 memory will be available for purchase from crucial.com and through select global partners in August 2014. Crucial DDR4 desktop memory will also be available in August in four channel kits up to 32 GB with introductory speeds of 2133MT/s. All Crucial memory is backed by a limited lifetime warranty.* For more information about Crucial DDR4 memory, visit www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory-ddr4-info.

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[Wastedslayer]

So can we expect to see Haswell-E roughly in August?

 

[MikeMurphy]

So can we expect to see Haswell-E roughly in August?

I'm blown away that there is still use for XMP (now 2.0) rather than a standard SPD mechanism for ram speed and timings.

BRAND NEW STANDARD IS MISSING PROPER SPD TABLES??! wtf

 

[a111087]

something wrong with the picture or are there indeed longer contacts in the middle?

 

[Patriot]

something wrong with the picture or are there indeed longer contacts in the middle?

Nope... they are indeed longer. I noticed that in a picture a few months back... so I grabbed a dimm and examined it.

Here... you Aren't crazy. http://i.imgur.com/zZAg0O5.jpg

 

[jihadjoe]

So can we expect to see Haswell-E roughly in August?

Probably. And this also likely confirms that X99 will indeed use DDR4.

 

[Ed_1]

Latency is very high with these new DDR4 , C15/16

 

[Prima.Vera]

Latency is very high with these new DDR4 , C15/16

Irrelevant. The higher the freq, the faster the RAMs are. Also the faster RAMs have bigger transfer rare. Here, this is the formula:
(CAS / Frequency (MHz)) × 1000 = X ns


Personally I will be waiting as long as possible for true DDR4 modules, the ones starting from
4GHz and above.

 

[TheHunter]

Looks very nice!

 

[Ed_1]

Irrelevant. The higher the freq, the faster the RAMs are. Also the faster RAMs have bigger transfer rare. Here, this is the formula:
(CAS / Frequency (MHz)) × 1000 = X ns


Personally I will be waiting as long as possible for true DDR4 modules, the ones starting from
4GHz and above.

sure but compared to DDR3 its high , DDR3 can do as high if not faster with tighter timings , not that Intel CPU even get much out of faster ram, once your past 2133

 

[Aquinus]

Irrelevant. The higher the freq, the faster the RAMs are. Also the faster RAMs have bigger transfer rare. Here, this is the formula:
(CAS / Frequency (MHz)) × 1000 = X ns


Personally I will be waiting as long as possible for true DDR4 modules, the ones starting from
4GHz and above.

Sure, but it's just like DDR1 to DDR2 and DDR2 to DDR3 and now DDR3 to DDR4. For servers its nice because you have ECC and Registered DIMMs running at 2133Mhz which has advantages with certain kinds of workloads. Either way, jumping the DDR3 for DDR4 right off the bat would just be unwise. Let's just sit tight and see what comes out of it.

It's that 1.2v thing. Just wait until low voltage DDR4 comes out that runs at what... 1.05v? Improvements are being made in the right places. It's not like CPUs are struggling because of memory bottlenecks.

 

[alwayssts]

Personally I will be waiting as long as possible for true DDR4 modules, the ones starting from
4GHz and above.

Concur. I imagine it's a pretty quick trip to ~4500mhz (or rather probably 4266).

It's not like CPUs are struggling because of memory bottlenecks.

What's a cpu?

Is it that thing with the increasing number of compute cores bolted on to it? Because, yeah, sorry...that statement is just wrong.

 

[Patriot]

Concur. I imagine it's a pretty quick trip to ~4500mhz (or rather probably 4266).



What's a cpu?

Is it that thing with the increasing number of compute cores bolted on to it? Because, yeah, sorry...that statement is just wrong.

If you were worried about memory bandwidth you wouldn't be using 1155...

 

[rooivalk]

Ooh pretty!

 

[Aquinus]

What's a cpu?

Is it that thing with the increasing number of compute cores bolted on to it? Because, yeah, sorry...that statement is just wrong.

That's why quad-channel on a 4c or 6c Intel CPU doesn't make that much of a difference right? Gains between 1600Mhz and 2133Mhz are minimal from a CPU performance standpoint and you can see this with skt2011, 1155, and 1150. Yeah, you might get a few percentage points worth of performance, but anything tangible will probably fall within acceptable error for any test which would be unreliable to use as a measure of improvement because of how small that gain is.

The only CPUs lately that have been truly taking advantage of DRAM speeds are the iGPU side of AMD's APU.

Sorry, but my statement isn't wrong, but you presuming to know what you're talking about when you obviously don't is wrong. Do some benchmarks and find out for yourself.

 

[Patriot]

That's why quad-channel on a 4c or 6c Intel CPU doesn't make that much of a difference right? Gains between 1600Mhz and 2133Mhz are minimal from a CPU performance standpoint and you can see this with skt2011, 1155, and 1150. Yeah, you might get a few percentage points worth of performance, but anything tangible will probably fall within acceptable error for any test which would be unreliable to use as a measure of improvement because of how small that gain is.

The only CPUs lately that have been truly taking advantage of DRAM speeds are the iGPU side of AMD's APU.

Sorry, but my statement isn't wrong, but you presuming to know what you're talking about when you obviously don't is wrong. Do some benchmarks and find out for yourself.

And this is why DDR4 is not being introduced on the plebeian socket till skylake. 4 cores simply do not have enough oomph to warrant more bandwidth. Pretty much only servers need more and they already have bucketfuls.
X99 with HW-E gets DDR4 but they also are getting 8 core unlocked chips. Though I would be unsurprised if like X79 the Xeons with more cores didn't work on it.

There are plenty of applications that need more memory bandwidth than dual channel allows... but they typically also need more than 4 cores.
Gaming isn't one of them yet.

 

[SaltyFish]

Okay... so the speeds aren't very impressive. That's understandable right now from a historical perspective. However, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of higher density modules... especially since we were shown 128 GB DDR4 RAM modules a few months ago. Those modules are probably not mass-production ready, but you'd think some memory manufacturer would put out even 16 GB sticks. Make an updated version of Gigabyte's i-RAM to go along with that and those high density sticks will practically sell themselves as RAM disks and buoy the fledgling DDR4 market. Because right now, an X99 setup doesn't have much going for it in the memory department over an X79 setup.

 

[Patriot]

Okay... so the speeds aren't very impressive. That's understandable right now from a historical perspective. However, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of higher density modules... especially since we were shown 128 GB DDR4 RAM modules a few months ago. Those modules are probably not mass-production ready, but you'd think some memory manufacturer would put out even 16 GB sticks. Make an updated version of Gigabyte's i-RAM to go along with that and those high density sticks will practically sell themselves as RAM disks and buoy the fledgling DDR4 market. Because right now, an X99 setup doesn't have much going for it in the memory department over an X79 setup.

There are 32gb dimms out server side. Also keep in mind 2133 is the starting point... ddr3 scaled higher than it was ever intended to... Started at DDR3 800 all those years ago.

 

[SaltyFish]

There are 32gb dimms out server side. Also keep in mind 2133 is the starting point... ddr3 scaled higher than it was ever intended to... Started at DDR3 800 all those years ago.

And you'd think that capacity would trickle down by now, especially with a new memory standard that's debuting on the high-end Haswell-E. Yes, most people don't need that much RAM. But then again, most people also don't need an HEDT system either. However, the reasons for an HEDT system (quasi-server, workstation, enthusiast, epeen device, whatever) tend to go hand-in-hand with higher memory demands. At least there are plans for 16 GB sticks, though there's no announced date for those yet.

 

[Patriot]

And you'd think that capacity would trickle down by now, especially with a new memory standard that's debuting on the high-end Haswell-E. Yes, most people don't need that much RAM. But then again, most people also don't need an HEDT system either. However, the reasons for an HEDT system (quasi-server, workstation, enthusiast, epeen device, whatever) tend to go hand-in-hand with higher memory demands. At least there are plans for 16 GB sticks, though there's no announced date for those yet.

I think supply is definitely an issue. I don't think DDR4 is ramping as fast as they want or need it to.