Crucial launches the fastest DDR4 memory kit on the planet

(Image credit: Micron)

How far will DDR4 go before handing off the baton to DDR5? At least a little bit further, apparently—Crucial just earned itself some bragging rights by launching the Ballistix Max 5100, the fastest available RAM on the market.

It is only offered as a 16GB kit (2x8GB), and in limited edition quantities to boot. Crucial did not say exactly how many kits it is producing, only that it is a limited run and up for grabs while supplies last.

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Crucial's memory kit leverages custom tuned Micron memory die sets. According to Crucial, it is the only memory maker to perform custom tuning at the die level. Crucial is Micron's consumer brand, and this sort of thing is one of the advantages of sourcing its own memory chips.

Rated specs on this kit call for 19-26-26-48 latency settings at 5,100MT/s. Those are a bit loose, as tends to happen at higher speeds. For comparison, a DDR4-4000 kit of Ballistix Max runs at 18-19-19-39. Not that it really matters much, outside of synthetic benchmarking—RAM speed and capacity matter most for gaming, for the most part.

This kit is available now, and it costs a pretty penny—Crucial has it listed for $900 on its web store. That's at least cheaper than Corsair's Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-5000 kit, which lists for $945 on Newegg, though it comes with a fan attachment.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).