Crucial to End Ballistix RAM Production and Sales

[TheLostSwede]

Out of nowhere, Micron has announced that it will end production of its Ballistix RAM products that are the high-performance and gamer focused RAM products from its Crucial brand. The details available so far doesn't state a reason for the discontinuation of these products. That said, Crucial has launched a wide range of DDR5 products, but so far none under the Ballistix brand and that is obviously a permanent move now. The company said it would focus on "the development of Micron's DDR5 client and server product roadmap, along with the expansion of the Crucial memory and storage product portfolio."

Furthermore the press release mentioned that "the company will continue to support the performance compute and gaming communities with its award-winning SSD products, such as the Crucial P5 Plus Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD, Crucial P2 Gen 3 NVMe SSD, and the popular Crucial X6 and Crucial X8 portable SSDs." It seems like Micron has decided to change the focus of it's consumer focused Crucial brand yet again, as the company has done several times in the past, but it's going to remove a major player in the consumer DRAM market, which isn't a good thing, especially as Micron was one of few DRAM manufacturers to offer high-end RAM modules, since neither Samsung or SK-Hynix is in this market. That said, it looks like Crucial will at least continue to offer its standard RAM modules, but they tend to follow JEDEC spec and aren't particularly exciting.





Updated:
Teresa Kelley, Vice President and General Manager, Micron Commercial Products Group: "We remain focused on growing our NVMe and Portable SSD product categories, which both offer storage solutions for PC and console gamers. Additionally, Crucial JEDEC standard DDR5 memory provides mainstream gamers with DDR5-enabled computers with better high-speed performance, data transfers and bandwidth than previously available with Crucial Ballistix memory."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Selaya]

guess they finally realised their shitty ics arent up to speed for this kind of market

 

[TheLostSwede]

guess they finally realised their shitty ics arent up to speed for this kind of market

Your vitriol really seeps through in your comments. Do you hate everything and everyone?

 

[Chomiq]

Shame, they were good when it came to price/performance ratio and if you got lucky they could OC them pretty high.

Maybe they'll return with some other offering once the DDR5 market settles for good.

 

[AusWolf]

Damn... if Kingston hadn't come back lately with their Fury lineup, I would have bought a Ballistix kit for my rig last year. I'll miss their sleek and bling-free design.

 

[ixi]

In my life have bought them only two times. + I dont know anyone else who is using them. I guess they were going down in income.

 

[ratirt]

Going through some changes. Maybe it is competition wise and they are trying to focus on more lucrative market? Servers, signed contracts etc.

 

[han32]

sad no longer Samsung bdie alternative...........

 

[TheLostSwede]

In my life have bought them only two times. + I dont know anyone else who is using them. I guess they were going down in income.

Got two of their DDR4 3200 modules in my NAS. They used to be in my PC.

 

[The King]

This may explain why both my crucial 3600 Kits have C9BLM ICs which are suppose to be used in the 4400 MAX series. Performance is insane!!!
I even got 3667 @ CL14 Stable on my 1700X.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

That's kinda a bummer for the price they made some really good products them and Patriot Viper were my go to for budget builds at least when I couldn't source some 3200 CL14 at a reasonable price.

 

[Bwaze]

Why should they try to sell high end gaming RAM when every buyer of high end graphic card just chunks in the cheapest possible RAM, it's good enough for mining?

Another victim of our pursuit of imaginary wealth.

 

[wurschti]

Probably because of the shortage. They probably make much more money with the other categories, since the "gaming" market is very price competitive.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Probably because of the shortage. They probably make much more money with the other categories, since the "gaming" market is very price competitive.

But they're killing the Ballistix brand, it doesn't make sense, as they still sell DDR4 branded Ballistix RAM.
They also have a ton of "regular" Crucial branded DDR5 memory for sale.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Such a shame, they were always great when it comes to the price/performance ratio.

I been using Crucial memory for nearly 10 years, and with my current new PC i went with them again. Heck, even all my SSDs are Crucial.

Also liked their heatspreader size, making them Noctua NH-D15 friendly, everything else on the market is king sized these days. And there is NO WAY i'm gonna buy Corsair LPX, had my experience with Corsair already.

 

[Dragokar]

This is a sad announcement......they are my number 1 go to brand for memory.

 

[Selaya]

Your vitriol really seeps through in your comments. Do you hate everything and everyone?

i mean, is there any logical explanation to as to why crucial would kill off their premium bin memory sub-brand?

 

[b4psm4m]

I have 2 of their 64GB kits in the same PC running @ DDR 3600, CAS 14. To me that is seriously impressive. Only 1.40V too. I don't see how you can possibly say they can't compete with these kits.d

 

[Valantar]

I wonder what branding they'll be replacing this with, if any. Not complaining, though I like the brand overall I'm happy to see another "semi-vague weaponry metaphor because it's macho and cool" brand retire. Hopefully they continue their deisgn trajectory though, as their DIMMs are often among the best looking ones IMO.

 

[TheLostSwede]

i mean, is there any logical explanation to as to why crucial would kill off their premium bin memory sub-brand?

I guess they're not making enough profit?
The comment was more to do with the fact that you've posted very angry comments on a few of my news posts recently.

 

[Valantar]

i mean, is there any logical explanation to as to why crucial would kill off their premium bin memory sub-brand?

Yep. Marketing, specifically rebranding. Corporations do this all the time.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I wonder what branding they'll be replacing this with. Not complaining, though I like the brand overall I'm happy to see another "semi-vague weaponry metaphor because it's macho and cool" brand retire. Hopefully they continue their deisgn trajectory though, as their DIMMs are often among the best looking ones IMO.

Nothing it seems.

 

[Valantar]

Nothing it seems.

Seems like that for now reading their PR, though I wonder if that will change in a couple of years when the DDR4-DDR5 transition is over and that market has matured more. Still, flashy gaming RAM is likely not the easiest market to compete in given its highly competitive nature + commodity nature outside of very premium, high-speed kits - but traditional market logic would place Crucial at an advantage there, not a disadvantage, given their vertical integration. They definitely don't have the brand recognition of G.Skill or Corsair though, and there have been quite a few prominent up-and-comers in that market recently (KLEVV, Team, OLOy), plus more established, bigger consumer-facing brands like Thermaltake and Gigabyte also pushing in on that market.

Or maybe they've just scored a huge deal to be the OEM for all of HP's HyperX modules, but the contract has a non-compete clause

 

[olymind1]

That's kinda a bummer for the price they made some really good products them and Patriot Viper were my go to for budget builds at least when I couldn't source some 3200 CL14 at a reasonable price.

I only has bad experience with Patriot Viper DDR4 memories. I have a pair, my friend also have a pair, both kits are 2x8 GB 3400 MHz, yet they can't maintain that speed without memory errors, not in my B450 Tomahawk + Ryzen R5 3600X system and not in his Z690 + i5-12500. Both Patriot Viper uses Nanya ram chips. I will avoid the Patriot brand in the future, they're simply untrustworthy.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Seems like that for now reading their PR, though I wonder if that will change in a couple of years when the DDR4-DDR5 transition is over and that market has matured more. Still, flashy gaming RAM is likely not the easiest market to compete in given its highly competitive nature + commodity nature outside of very premium, high-speed kits - but traditional market logic would place Crucial at an advantage there, not a disadvantage, given their vertical integration. They definitely don't have the brand recognition of G.Skill or Corsair though, and there have been quite a few prominent up-and-comers in that market recently (KLEVV, Team, OLOy), plus more established, bigger consumer-facing brands like Thermaltake and Gigabyte also pushing in on that market.

Or maybe they've just scored a huge deal to be the OEM for all of HP's HyperX modules, but the contract has a non-compete clause

KLEVV is from Hong Kongnese Essencore.
Team has obviously been around quite a while, hardly an up and comer.
OLOy I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

Lots of odd brands here like Orca, Leven, v-color, anacomda (yes), AGI, Utwin and even Pioneer these days.

Apacer is apparently back in the DRAM business and somehow Geil is still in business. Lexar, the brand Micron sold to some PRC company is also doing RAM now.

Your last point makes sense, as I'm sure it's the kind of thing Micron would do if they could earn more money on it than selling their own sticks of light up RAM.

I only has bad experience with Patriot Viper DDR4 memories. I have a pair, my friend also have a pair, both kits are 2x8 GB 3400 MHz, yet they can't maintain that speed without memory errors, not in my B450 Tomahawk + Ryzen R5 3600X system and not in his Z690 + i5-12500. Both Patriot Viper uses Nanya ram chips. I will avoid the Patriot brand in the future, they're simply untrustworthy.

There's your problem, Nanya chips.
I have their 3600MHz modules with Hynix-CJR and they both run at higher clocks and tighter timings, plus I'm using four sticks.
The big problem with all the fancy heatsinked memory modules is that you are buying the pig in the bag, as you often can't tell what DRAM chips you get. When memory makers then have multiple revisions of the same modules, without letting their customers know, you can end up with all kinds of random stuff.
Did you try contacting Patriot? Their support is actually quite good. I bought one of their NVMe SSDs and the thermal pad didn't touch the controller, so it was overheating to the extent it made my system crash, even though it wasn't the OS drive. They swapped it out, no questions asked.
Got several mates that have bought higher-end Viper Steel modules than mine and everyone's happy with their RAM.
Everything over 4000MHz should be Samsung B-dies.