The Crucial Ballistix memory brand is no more

Crucial Ballistix Max — (Image credit: Crucial)

Earlier today we received a press release from Micron, stating that its long running Crucial Ballistix sub brand was to be retired.

As the industry ramps up its shift towards DDR5, we were wondering why we hadn’t seen or heard of any enthusiast tier Ballistix memory. Today’s statement explains why. At this point, the only Crucial DDR5 memory available is generic DDR5-4800.

It’s a sad day when the PC community loses a long-established brand. Gamers have been using Ballistix memory since the days of DDR1. Although my memories of my memory aren’t what they once were, shoving 3.0v through a set of DDR-500 Ballistix Tracers comes to mind! Crucial also took out the DDR4 frequency world record.

Let’s speculate a little. Crucial memory, being a subsidiary of Micron, only contains Micron memory ICs. It’s understood that Micron memory chips aren’t known to clock to levels as high as competing SK-Hynix or Samsung DDR5 ICs. This would have made it impossible for Ballistix kits to reach DDR5-6000 speeds that are increasingly common among enthusiast tier kits from competing brands that would otherwise compete with Ballistix kits.

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Micron will continue to supply Crucial branded SSD products, such as the P series NVMe SSDs and X series portable SSDs. Teresa Kelley, Vice President and General Manager, Micron Commercial Products Group: “We remain focused on growing our NVMe and Portable SSD product categories, which both offer storage solutions for PC and console gamers. Additionally, Crucial JEDEC standard DDR5 memory provides mainstream gamers with DDR5-enabled computers with better high-speed performance, data transfers and bandwidth than previously available with Crucial Ballistix memory.”

There was another line from the statement saying the company “will intensify its focus on the development of Micron’s DDR5 client and server product roadmap, along with the expansion of the Crucial memory and storage product portfolio.” Does the ‘expansion’ of the Crucial memory product portfolio mean that Micron isn’t out of the enthusiast and gaming memory market forever? Time will tell.

Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational PC' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he's gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.