INTRODUCTION

    Just like with most things in the PC market even though the top-end DDR5 RAM kits have long surpassed 9000MT/s (MHz) leading in sales are their slower brothers. As a matter of fact, most AMD owners tend to go for kits clocked at around 6000MT/s whereas most Intel owners don't go over 6800MT/s. Crucial is not one of the leading manufacturers of RAM kits for no reason, they are well aware of this fact and so instead of betting on high-performance kits they've been taking things very slow. Case in point their latest Pro OC kits which are clocked at 6400MT/s (6000MT/s for the previous release & 6400MT/s for their last CUDIMM kit) and well, today I'm testing the 32GB dual channel one.

    We are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products through our Micron® and Crucial® brands. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.

    The latest Pro Overclocking DDR5 dual-channel kit by Crucial is available in both black and white colors, packs AMD EXPO and Intel XMP 3.0 compatible profiles and is based on Micron single-die unbuffered modules (16Gb density) clocked at 6400MT/s, have a timing of CL38 and this time over require 1.35V. As with past models Crucial covers the new Pro Overclocking kit with a limited lifetime warranty but again what makes their kits stand out is their high compatibility with motherboards. So, time to see what the latest Pro Overclocking 32GB 6400MHz CL38 Dual-Channel Kit can offer in terms of performance.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE PRO OVERCLOCKING 32GB 6400MHZ CL38

Crucial uses a blister package to ship their latest Pro Overclocking RAM and so you can see both modules from the front.

The main product features/benefits are printed at the rear of the package in 9 languages.

Just like the Pro line the Pro Overclocking kit features low-profile heatspreaders (33mm top to bottom).

On a small sticker located at the rear you can find the serial number, speed, capacity and voltage.

Again, just like the ones used with the Pro line the heatspreader used with the Pro Overclocking modules are closed on top.

Typically, this kit may not impress with its looks but for people who don’t care about ARGB lighting this shouldn’t be an issue.

Thanks to AIDA64 we have details on this kit.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP 3.0 and EXPO profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run a brand new RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the BIOS and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP/EXPO profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR5 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile I'll also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V for 1.35V kits – even though most kits can function at higher voltages I don’t recommend doing so - RAM modules that use 1.4V/1.45V/1.5V will be tested up to 1.45V/1.5V/1.55V respectively) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until I find the maximum achievable stable frequency (those results will be entered into the OC charts). I also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without using 0.5-1V over stock) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how I'll be testing each DDR5 Dual-Kit to arrive in the lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but I’ve got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 23, MaxMemm2, Passmark Performance Test v10.1, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v2.11. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into the charts.

* Since you all decided for me to use the Intel Core I9-13900K for graphics cards tests I’ll also be using that for DDR5 tests (5.8GHz P-Cores / 4.7GHz E-Cores / RING 4.9GHz) and in order to showcase potential gains between stock and overclocked clocks/frequencies I’ll also be using Forza Horizon 5 (1080p/Extreme Graphics). Still do keep in mind that I can't dedicate a high-end GPU solely for DDR5 reviews so each time i review such a kit I’ll be using a different chart (the card used will be listed above).

TEST RESULTS - XMP 3.0 PROFILE

TEST RESULTS – OVERCLOCK

Moving to 1.4V allowed me to hit a stable 7000MT/s, not bad for an 6400MT/s kit.

TEST RESULTS – FORZA HORIZON 5

CONCLUSION

    Ever since Crucial ceased their BallistiX DDR4 RAM lines (and didn’t move them to DDR5) top-end performance hasn’t been their thing and well, the same of course applies with the Pro OC kit I reviewed today. As I explained in the intro page however the thing with RAM kits however is that most people don’t care about having the best performance around and well, for those people the Pro OC 32GB 6400MT/s kit should be more than just plenty. It does offer very good overall performance and as for overclocking headroom 600MT/s extra at 1.4V is a very good result. The lack of ARGB lighting and also the lack of 48/96GB kits are two things I expect may affect sales a bit but again, such kits already have a specific target group.

    Right now, the Crucial Pro OC 32GB 6400MT/s CL38 Dual-Channel kit retails for just USD88.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 93.68Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de), a very balanced price tag. Overall, the Pro OC kit may not be the fastest or best looking out there but it does deliver and so the Golden Award is in order.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Performance
- Overclocking Headroom
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Available In Black & White Colors
- Low Profile Heatspreaders
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Lack Of ARGB Lighting (For Some)
- No 48/96GB Kits