At first we would like to thank Crucial for sending a sample of their 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-4800 Memory Kit for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Crucial:

 

“Looking for computer memory or a new storage drive? You've come to the right place!

 

Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the largest memory and flash storage manufacturers in the world. We make computer memory upgrades (DRAM) and solid state drives (SSDs), and offer more than 250,000 upgrades for over 50,000 systems. For 17 years, we've sought to provide the Crucial Difference — award-winning products, outstanding support, and a team of memory and storage experts who explain complex lingo in everyday terms. We're here to help improve the performance of your system.

 

Crucial memory and SSDs have been qualified and approved by major original equipment manufacturers, and every single module that leaves our doors has been rigorously tested at the component and module level. That's a big deal in the memory industry, but it's not all. When it comes to our SSDs, each drive undergoes over a thousand hours of prerelease validation testing and hundreds of qualification tests to ensure optimal reliability and performance.

 

To find upgrades in just a few clicks, our award-winning Crucial System Scanner or Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool will identify compatible upgrades for your system, and if you order on Crucial.com, we guarantee compatibility — or your money back. With fast and free shipping, outstanding tech support, and an exhaustive library of articles, videos, and install guides, we make it easy to find and install the right upgrade for your system.

 

Let us be your memory and storage experts.”

 

Product Features:

 

Faster load times and file transfers

Crucial DDR5 Desktop Memory can empower your computer to transfer 50% more data than DDR4 at launch, resulting in faster load times, file transfers, downloads, refresh rates and less lag time. Due to higher bus efficiency, DDR5 technology is not just faster than the previous generation, it’s better.

More responsive multitasking

Crucial DDR5 offers 50% faster speeds than DDR4 at launch, empowering users with extreme performance right out of the box. Even more impressive, Crucial DDR5 is optimized for enhanced performance and multitasking, not just during testing, but in real-world conditions. Opening more browser tabs and switching between apps now feels more responsive than ever.

Extreme innovation for stable performance

Crucial DDR5 takes an extreme step forward in engineering over the previous generation with two independent 32-bit channels per module for optimized performance. Designed with on-die ECC (ODECC) at the component level for long-term stability, Crucial DDR5 is engineered to maintain the same reliability as the previous generation, even with the rigorous demands of next-gen computing.

Optimized power efficiency

For improved efficiency and stability, Crucial DDR5 introduces on-module voltage regulation with a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), which was on the motherboard with older memory technologies. This results in improved signaling and cleaner power for the modules (DIMMs). Moreover, DDR5’s on-module operating voltage is only 1.1V compared to DDR4’s 1.2V.

Micron quality – tested reliability you can trust

As the vertically integrated consumer brand of Micron, Crucial is trusted by millions for reliability, performance, and compatibility. Unlike module assemblers, our unique relationship with Micron involves a deeper level of engineering collaboration to squeeze every ounce of performance from our products without compromising reliability. With Micron’s 43+ years of manufacturing excellence and Crucial’s 25+ years of consumer product development, Crucial DDR5 is backed by our limited lifetime warranty and delivers the powerful performance you can trust. When it comes to memory, don’t settle for less.

 

Product Specifications:

 

Technology - DDR5

Speed - DDR5-4800

PC speed - PC5-38400

Density - 32GB Kit (16GBx2)

Module type - UDIMM

DIMM type - Unbuffered

CAS latency - 40

Extended timings - 40-39-39

Voltage - 1.1V

Kit Qty - 2

Warranty - Limited Lifetime

 

DDR5 consumer memory has arrived on the market since last year but adoption was quite poor due to lack of stocks, expensive motherboards and kits which were quite pricy themselves. The situation is slowly stabilizing, with more and more motherboard models appearing on the market, we have seen more DRAM stocks in online shops but there is still a shortage of PMIC (Power Management ICs) and VRMs (Voltage Regulating Modules).

 

Crucial has now available memory kits with capacities from 8GB (single stick) and up to 64GB (dual sticks), all sporting a 4800Mhz operating frequency and no heatsinks. The kit we are going to review in this article is a 32GB capacity one, composed of two sticks and a CAS latency of 40. At this frequency, the RAM is operating at 1.1V, assuring that it will not need any extra cooling.

 

The 32GB kit has arrived in a simple, transparent plastic packaging, with two stickers attached on the frontal layer, informing us of the product code name, its frequency, the running voltage and CAS latency and more!

 

 

 

The sticks do come with black PCBs in order to fit most setups and no flashy LEDs as on the Ballistix line (now retired):

 

 

 

In the middle area of the modules, we can clearly spot the power delivery components, while on the sides we have four memory ICs, each with a capacity of 2GB:

 

 

 

The memory packages come with the D8BNJ code name:

 

 

 

Here is a close look at the power delivery area as well:

 

 

 

The back side of the module does not come with extra components:

 

 

 

The module installation on the motherboard is a very easy process and due to no heatspreaders, there are no clearance issues:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel i7-12700K @ Stock

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm AIO

Motherboard: MSI MEG Z690 TORPEDO

RAM: currently tested kit

Video: XFX Radeon RX 5700XT Ultra THICC III

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: Silicon Power US70 1TB PCIe 4.0

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

The pre-programmed timings and frequencies can be also found by using AIDA64; the DRAM IC manufacturer is listed as Micron:

 

 

After testing memory at XMP, we did try some overclocking, by raising the RAM frequency at 5200MHz, the voltage at 1.25 and left the timings the same. The kit has proven 100% stable for booting in Windows but also during the TM stress test tool:

 

 

 

We then went further and raised the frequency further at 5400MHz and checked for stability at the exact same voltage of 1.25; we were impressed to see that the kit was performing admirably even at this speed:

 

 

 

When we did try to climb up to 5600MHz, we did boot into Windows, but errors started appearing as soon as the first programs started loading up.

 

 

Test Results

 

SuperPI XS 1.5 2MB

 

 

GeekBench 4

 

 

Blender Ryzen Rendering

 

 

 

 

AIDA64 Bandwidth

 

 

CineBench R15 Rendering

 

 

HWBOT X265 4K Encoding

 

 

PCMark 8

 

 

Ashes of Singularity - CPU Focused

 

 

PCMark 10

 

 

 

Without sporting heatsinks or flashy RGB LEDs, the Crucial 32GB 4800MHz C40 DDR5 memory kit offers good performance and can be surely considered in case you are going for a brand-new Intel Alder Lake build. The memory quantity is enough for a lot of applications such as video encoding, gaming, rendering, running multiple VMs at once and can even squeeze more performance out of it by increasing the voltage to 1.25 and upping the clock to 5400MHz!

 

Crucial plays it safe with this kit, going straight to the default JEDEC of 4800MHz, to be compatible with all setups. Ballistix line is now gone, but we surely hope to see even higher-clocked modules from Crucial, even if they won’t be gaming themed.

 

The 32GB kit, as tested can be currently found online for about 250 Euros, so around the price of a mainstream DDR5 motherboard for Intel’s newest generation of processors, Alder Lake.

Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-4800 Memory Kit is Recommended for:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to Crucial for making this review possible!