Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR PC4000 Review

Name: Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR PC4000
Brand: Crucial

//mAr

on Sep 5th, 2005,

in Memory.

Manufacturer: Crucial

(3 Comments) »

Testing

Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC4000
CPU Clock & Memory Ratio	Memory Speed	Memory Timings	Everest Read	Everest Write	Everest Latency	Quake 3 Arena	3DMark 2001SE	SuperPi Mod 1M
JEDEC DDR400A	200 MHz	2.5-3-3-8 2.7V	5808 MB/s	2226 MB/s	51.8 ns	262.1 FPS	23340	42.28s
10 x 210 1:1	210 MHz	2-3-3-8 2.7V	6041 MB/s	2481 MB/s	47.6 ns	276.5 FPS	24612	40.33s
10 x 230 1:1	230 MHz	2.5-2-2-5 2.7V	6656 MB/s	2737 MB/s	43.0 ns	304.3 FPS	26531	36.31s
10 x 250 1:1 default specs	250 MHz	3.0-4-4-8 2.7V	6861 MB/s	2842 MB/s	45.8 ns	320.0 FPS	27163	34.75s
10 x 250 1:1	250 MHz	2.5-2-2-5 2.8V	7112 MB/s	2940 MB/s	39.8 ns	330.7 FPS	28442	33.45s
10 x 260 1:1	260 MHz	2.5-2-2-5 2.9V	7436 MB/s	3057 MB/s	38.9 ns	343.2 FPS	29260	32.14s
10 x 266 1:1	266 MHz	2.5-2-2-5 3.09V	7700 MB/s	3154 MB/s	37.8 ns	350.4 FPS	30093	31.438s
10 x 270 1:1	270 MHz	2.5-3-3-5 2.8V	7533 MB/s	3194 MB/s	38.5 ns	351.5 FPS	29427	31.36s

Very good results, but a motherboard with Vdimm up to 3.1V is required to see the sweet spot of these modules.
Reduced latencies give you a nice gain in overclocking, but not that much, it's better to run these modules with the tightest timings you can get. This shows that this memory is designed for low latencies. Faster than DDR500 with tight timings is very fast compared to 3.0-4-4-8, which is the default specification.

Benchmarks

For easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.1V and tested until we found the highest clock frequency and fastest timings for this memory. The Benchmarks Everest Read, Everest Write and Quake 3 were run. We then calculated the performance increase in percent compared to some standard DDR400 memory running at JEDEC DDR400A (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table:

Conclusion

Two 512 MB modules are sold for $170 to $200, which is very good for this performance.

Nice unique LEDs
Very good performance
Nice design, beautiful heatspreaders
Great overclockability

Need a motherboard with Vdimm up to 3.1V to show their best.

The Crucial Ballistix Tracer are really great performance memory modules. Great latencies at speeds of over DDR500, where other memory barely run 2.5-3-3-7, together with a great price, help the memory get our Editor's Choice Award. The only drawback is that you need a motherboard which can supply a high memory voltage, which not all boards offer. But there are voltmods for most of them.