In our first DDR4 review, we take a look at the Crucial Ballistix Sport memory kit and see how it performs against other DDR4 with Intel X99 chipset.
Product on Review Ballistix Sport DDR4
Manufacturer & Sponsor: Crucial
Street Price: £195 GBP / $255 USD
Crucial have been around in the PC market for as long as we care to remember. It takes a massive amount of effort to compete in a very volatile market, more so to keep going through numerous global recessions. Crucial have seen companies come and go and yet they remain, steadfast as one of the largest manufacturers of PC memory. Backed by the overclockers favourite, Micron, Crucial have made some great memory kits in the past that offered blistering performance while remaining kind to the wallet.
Today, we are looking at their Ballistix Sport which is a range designed for both enthusiasts and mainstream users alike. They certainly look the part; low-slung with silver heatsinks atop of a black PCB. Ballistix are renowned for being good overclockers so we anticipate this aspect of the DDR4 modules with verve. So without further delay let’s move on to the specifications of these modules.
Crucial on their Ballistix Sport
Crucial is a trusted name when it comes to DRAM, and that’s no coincidence. As a brand of Micron, one of the largest manufacturers of DRAM in the world, we work with our engineers to design, refine, test, manufacture, and support our extensive line of memory modules. With a product portfolio that includes thousands of different DRAM upgrades for more than 50,000 systems, we’ve got one specifically designed for your computer. For more than fifteen years we’ve kept gamers and system builders happy with premium quality memory and outstanding customer service.
Specifications & Features
Memory Technology DDR4
Module Density 4-8GB
Speed 2400 MT/s
Target System Desktops
Ideal For Cutting-edge DDR4 platforms
Design Elements Custom heat spreader on black PCB
Benefits of all Sport modules Faster speeds and lower latencies than standard memory modules, easy plug-and-play installation, Intel® XMP profiles for easy configuration, integrated heat spreaders, limited lifetime warranty**
Features
Speed. Style. Sport. Get more out of your memory.
Designed for performance enthusiasts and anyone who simply wants to get more out of their system, Crucial Ballistix Sport performance memory helps you do just that. Give your processor the resources it needs to perform and make your computer faster and more responsive.
Make your system go Ballistix.
Memory is fun when it’s faster, when it’s stylish, and when it helps your system perform at a higher level. Compared to standard PC memory, that’s exactly what Ballistix Sport is engineered to do. Get faster speeds and run demanding applications with ease. Multitask at will with increased bandwidth. Strike first with better latencies and reduced load times. And achieve seamless responsiveness with exciting and affordable performance.
Speed up your system
Install with ease.
Getting more out of your system should be easy – and that’s exactly how we engineered Ballistix Sport memory. Featuring intuitive module designs, Intel® XMP profiles* and more, we designed Ballistix Sport with the sole intent of creating affordable, easy-to-use performance memory. Installation is a cinch: just plug-and-play, and get ready to win with little to no BIOS configuration.
Install with ease
Choose best-fit modules for your system.
Ballistix Sport performance memory is available in a wide range of module types, configurations, and heat spreader options. Sport modules are available in UDIMM/SODIMM form factors, DDR3/DDR4 memory technology, and tall/short height profiles. Pack more performance into nearly every type of system – yours included.
First Look
the packaging of the Ballistix Sport is basic. Just a blister pack and a cardboard insert separate the modules from the outside world however, this is par for the course where memory modules are concerned but nonetheless, we would have preferred to see a little more luxury as far as the packaging goes. We were disappointed that Crucial did not advertise the latency of the modules on the packaging, just the bandwidth which for our kit stands at 2400MHz.
The modules themselves look very neat yet much more compact than we are used to. While we are not massive fans of oversized heatsinks we do like a little bit of extra cooling on the memory. Crucial provide this with just a sliver of aluminium but will this be enough?
The front of the modules feature the aforementioned heatspreader complete with chromed inserts that frame the Ballistix logo. Certainly less brash than we are used to for a Ballistix kit but we feel this is a good thing.
The rear of each module is a mirror of the front side but has two additional stickers, one showing hte serial number of the product and the other displaying those all important timings and voltage.
Test Setup & Methodology
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 760
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000
Cooler: Corsair H105
Motherboard: MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC
SSD: Corsair Force LX 512GB
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000
Cooler: Corsair H105
Motherboard: MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC
SSD: Corsair Force LX 512GB
Memory
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) 2666MHz 16-17-17-35 2T
GSKILL RipJawZ 16GB (4x4GB) 2800MHz 16-16-16-36 2T
Crucial Desktop 16GB (4x4GB) 2133MHz 15-15-15-36 2T
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4x4GB) 2400MHz 16-16-16-39 2T
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) 2666MHz 16-17-17-35 2T
GSKILL RipJawZ 16GB (4x4GB) 2800MHz 16-16-16-36 2T
Crucial Desktop 16GB (4x4GB) 2133MHz 15-15-15-36 2T
Benchmarks
We have taken a long hard look at our memory benchmarks and feel that many of the utilities that are commonly used such as games and ‘overall’ benchmarking systems give an inaccurate representation of the memory on test. For example, a game is just as likely to be influenced by CPU speed as memory speed and if th CPU frequency is required to be adjusted to attain the correct bandwidth then there is little point in using said game as a benchmark as the system with the higher CPU speed will possibly reflect a greater score. IT is akin to testing a set of tyres at 100Mph and then testing another setat 50Mph. You wouldn’t compare the results between them so we don’t think it is correct for us to compare results of benchmarks where there are other influencing factors at play. For this reason we will be sticking to memory specific benchmarks for our comparisons. While these will not show ‘real world’ effects, they will show you which kit is the faster and thus you can draw your own conclusions from those results more accurately than using a game as the basis of comparison! The following tests were used to compare performance of the memory kits on test:
SiSoft Sandra
AIDA64
Passmark 8
We have taken a long hard look at our memory benchmarks and feel that many of the utilities that are commonly used such as games and ‘overall’ benchmarking systems give an inaccurate representation of the memory on test. For example, a game is just as likely to be influenced by CPU speed as memory speed and if th CPU frequency is required to be adjusted to attain the correct bandwidth then there is little point in using said game as a benchmark as the system with the higher CPU speed will possibly reflect a greater score. IT is akin to testing a set of tyres at 100Mph and then testing another setat 50Mph. You wouldn’t compare the results between them so we don’t think it is correct for us to compare results of benchmarks where there are other influencing factors at play. For this reason we will be sticking to memory specific benchmarks for our comparisons. While these will not show ‘real world’ effects, they will show you which kit is the faster and thus you can draw your own conclusions from those results more accurately than using a game as the basis of comparison! The following tests were used to compare performance of the memory kits on test:
SiSoft Sandra
AIDA64
Passmark 8
SPD, XMP & Overclocking
Above is the recorded SPD reading of the Crucial Ballistix Sport. This setting was dialled in and validated by passing through all of our benchmarks and a 4 hour Prime95 run.
Above is a screenshot of the XMP profile loaded onto the modules. At 2400MHz it isn’t the quickest kit at stock being ‘middle of the road. Many kits are now hitting 3000MHz with a couple of kits being produced en-mass that are faster still.
Overclocking the kit was very easy.the kit ran quite happilly with no adjustments at 2666MHz and with a minor voltage adjustment it ran at 2800MHz. We would have been happy with this result form a 2400MHz kit but the Ballistix had more still to give us and with a safe 1.3v vDIMM dialled into the settings we hit a stable 3000MHz. This will put a grin on your face as at this speed the kit will save you quite a lot of money should you not mind running the memory kit out of specification. Great stuff!
SiSoft Sandra
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
AIDA64
AIDA64 is the successor to Everest ULTIMATE. This application not only details every component within a system but it also incorporates a comprehensive memory benchmarking tool that will ascertain bandwidth and latency figures.
Passmark8
Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest ™ allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers. Memory tests allocating and accessing memory speed and efficiency.
Conclusion
You should never judge a book by it’s cover so the saying goes and this has never been more true than with the Crucial Ballistix Sport. The kit gave us a predictable set of results being the 3rd fastest kit, on paper at least, on test which was reflected in our own tests. It did exactly as it said on the tin running at 2400MHz with the latencies set via X.M.P so we have little to complain about in that regard. The main feature of this kit is something that is not advertised and that is the phenomenal overclocking capabilities this kit has. While it obviously cannot be guaranteed that every kit will be capable of 3000MHz, the kit supplied to us reached this mark and was stable with very little tweaking involved.
To look at, you would be forgiven for thinking this was a smart little memory kit offering little more than what is advertised thanks to the discreet heatspreaders and basic packaging but like us, you would be wrong for thinking that because the mid range Crucial Ballistix Sport kit has so much more to offer. Priced at around £195 GBP / $255 USD it is not cheap but then you are buying 16GB of cutting edge DDR4 and when compared to some of the other kits on the market this is actually quite a snip, especially when you consider the overclocking capabilities. For this reason we are awarding the kit our Silver award.
The Crucial Ballistix Sport may look underwhelming but underneath those nondescript heatspreaders lay some blistering memory chips that will embarrass some memory kits costing a lot more money.
Pros
+ Good value
+ Low profile
+ Amazing overclocking capability
Cons
– Basic Packaging
+ Good value
+ Low profile
+ Amazing overclocking capability
Cons
– Basic Packaging
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
