Achievement Unlocked

Ballistix dominates the overclocking leaderboard with another high score

August 20, 2020

Overclocking world records keep coming for Crucial Ballistix

Some things never get old. For us at Crucial, resetting the overlocking world record speeds is still thrilling after smashing the record for the sixth time in 18 months.

A competitive overclocker used Crucial Ballistix MAX gaming DRAM to hit a scorching 6,666MT/s, the fastest ever for DDR4 modules.

There's a reason for Crucial's dominance on the leaderboard. We are vertically integrated with Micron, a global leader in memory and storage innovation. Unlike competitors, we design, engineer, and manufacture memory from sand to silicon to system. Our modules are designed and tested in-house, before receiving an additional round of custom-tuning at the die level from Micron engineers. No other gaming memory makes their own components or has that level of control to squeeze the most performance from their modules, said Teresa Kelley, VP and GM of Micron’s Commercial Products Group.

"Crucial Ballistix continues its string of successes with its sixth DDR4 overclocking world record set in the past 18 months," Kelley said. "We’re resetting the bar for gaming memory performance thanks to Micron’s four decades of engineering innovation, culminating in the custom-tuned Micron die used to break another overclocking world record."

The world record was set by the overclocker Bianbao XE with ASUS, who is currently ranked No. 1 among more than 2,200 competitive overclockers on hwbot.org.

Here's the full record-breaking parts list:

AMD® Ryzen 7 4700GE “Renoir” CPU
ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I Gaming motherboard
8GB Crucial Ballistix MAX memory
Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) cooling

October 29, 2019

Ballistix Elite 4000 pushes envelope to 6054.4MT/s

Previous overclocking record beat 3+ times live at Micron Insight

Much like drag racing or other competitive sports, pro overclockers are always finding new ways to push the speed envelope. Breaking our own record live at Micron Insight, the new record of 6054.4MT/s was achieved by Stavros Savvopoulos and Phil Strecker of Overclocked Gaming Systems (OGS) using:

AMD Ryzen^™ 5 3600X processor

ASUS^® X570 ROG CROSSHAIR VIII IMPACT motherboard

Ballistix Elite DDR4 4000 8GB memory

Below you'll find the timeline of the overclocking efforts (with links):

6024 (original ASUS record)
6031.6
6036
6054.4 (Verified on HWbot & CPU-Z, and current official record)
6058.8 (Unofficial)
6060 (Unofficial)

October 24, 2019

Ballistix Elite 4000 scores DDR4 world record of 6024MT/s

Ballistix^®, Micron’s gaming memory brand, leads the DDR4 6k club

With the new Ballistix^® Elite 4000 memory module, the ASUS motherboard R&D team set a record for the world’s fastest DDR4 memory frequency at 6024MT/s using liquid nitrogen (LN2). This feat was accomplished using the epic combination of:

AMD Ryzen^™ 5 3600X processor

ASUS^® X570 ROG CROSSHAIR VIII IMPACT motherboard

Ballistix Elite DDR4 4000 8GB memory

“Ballistix memory has set three overclocking world records in the span of five months, which is a testament to our world-class Micron engineering and expertise,” said Teresa Kelley, vice president and general manager of Micron Commercial Products Group. “We are committed to providing gamers and enthusiasts with high-performance memory that delivers maximum system capability and a rich experience, and our Ballistix memory is evidence of that.”

Ballistix is the only major gaming brand of memory that’s built and tested from start to finish as part of a major manufacturer. Learn more at ballistixgaming.com.

May 28, 2019

Return of the E-die

Ballistix strikes back with a new DDR4 record of 5758.8MT/s

Any speedrunner will tell you the thrill of the run comes from breaking records when the deck is stacked against you. Hard mode. 100% completion. That’s the name of the game.

Breaking records is always great, but it’s how it’s achieved that matters in the end.

Off-the-shelf Ballistix Elite 3600 DRAM? Check.

Extreme low latency CL24? Double check.

An 8th gen i7-8086K processor? Triple check.

Off-the-shelf, unmodified ASUS Maximus XI Apex motherboard and BIOS? Quad check.

Standard Antec HCP-1300 Platinum ATX power supply? Penta check!

And that’s how Overclocked Gaming Systems (OGS) played when they pushed the speed envelope, setting a new DDR4 record of 5758.8MT/s using the Ballistix Elite 3600. Cooled with liquid nitrogen (LN2), of course.

Ballistix, Micron’s gaming memory brand, is back on top with the official overclocking high score . . . for now. And as always, we’re having a blast working to push past our own score.

May 15, 2019

We did it. We hold the belt.

Ballistix, Micron’s gaming memory brand, is now the official overclocking world record holder.

Overclockers used the Ballistix Elite 3600MT/s to set a new overclocking record for the fastest DDR4 memory frequency at a blistering 5726MT/s.

That’s 79 percent faster than the max JEDEC DDR4 speed of 3200MT/s and 115 percent faster than the 2666 MT/s considered mainstream today.

**How's that for a speed run?**

Yes, this record is a big, big, (big, big) deal to us here at Ballistix. But we care just as much about how we earned the top mark. We’re proud that we were able to use the same CAS latency – CL24 – used by most of the previous record holders. In addition, we set the record using the same production module of the Ballistix Elite 3600 available to gamers today.

That’s what we care about.

The record was set May 13 by Stavros Savvopoulos and Phil Strecker from Overclocked Gaming Systems, using an Intel i7-8086K CPU, an ASUS Maximus XI Apex motherboard, as well as, of course, a liquid nitrogen cooling system.

The veteran overclockers have tested other DRAM that was more finicky, requiring lower temperatures, Savvopoulos said, but the Elite 3600 broke the record without complaint.

We were blown away by how surprisingly easy it was to overclock these Ballistix Elite DDR4 3600MT/s modules.... Other modules we’ve overclocked can be temperamental and need to train at temperatures lower than the one required for stability; but we didn’t experience that with Micron’s E-die, which scaled much better with both extreme voltages and temperatures. Overall, it was easy enough to call the whole experience plug and play!Stavros Savvopoulos

Ballistix gaming memory is engineered at the die level. The components used to create Ballistix memory are designed, built and tested in-house. Ballistix and Micron owe that degree of quality control to gamers, said Teresa Kelley, Vice President of Micron’s Commercial Products Group. That means that whether you’re using liquid nitrogen to overclock at 5000 MT/s or more, or if you’re a more cost-effective gamer using mainstream cooling at accelerated XMP profiles, the Ballistix 3600 will do the trick, straight out of the box.

Breaking this world record reinforces our commitment to the enthusiast community.... Our Ballistix product lineup provides the high-speed, low-latency and overclock headroom that gamers, content creators, and enthusiasts crave. We will continue to focus on offering an exceptional high-performance memory and storage portfolio, with Micron, Crucial, and Ballistix engineers striving to deliver leading-edge technology that redefines the performance boundary.”Teresa Kelley