Thursday, February 17th 2022
Crucial to End Ballistix RAM Production and Sales
Out of nowhere, Micron has announced that it will end production of its Ballistix RAM products that are the high-performance and gamer focused RAM products from its Crucial brand. The details available so far doesn't state a reason for the discontinuation of these products. That said, Crucial has launched a wide range of DDR5 products, but so far none under the Ballistix brand and that is obviously a permanent move now. The company said it would 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."
Furthermore the press release mentioned that "the company will continue to support the performance compute and gaming communities with its award-winning SSD products, such as the Crucial P5 Plus Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD, Crucial P2 Gen 3 NVMe SSD, and the popular Crucial X6 and Crucial X8 portable SSDs." It seems like Micron has decided to change the focus of it's consumer focused Crucial brand yet again, as the company has done several times in the past, but it's going to remove a major player in the consumer DRAM market, which isn't a good thing, especially as Micron was one of few DRAM manufacturers to offer high-end RAM modules, since neither Samsung or SK-Hynix is in this market. That said, it looks like Crucial will at least continue to offer its standard RAM modules, but they tend to follow JEDEC spec and aren't particularly exciting.Updated:
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."
Source:
PCPer
Furthermore the press release mentioned that "the company will continue to support the performance compute and gaming communities with its award-winning SSD products, such as the Crucial P5 Plus Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD, Crucial P2 Gen 3 NVMe SSD, and the popular Crucial X6 and Crucial X8 portable SSDs." It seems like Micron has decided to change the focus of it's consumer focused Crucial brand yet again, as the company has done several times in the past, but it's going to remove a major player in the consumer DRAM market, which isn't a good thing, especially as Micron was one of few DRAM manufacturers to offer high-end RAM modules, since neither Samsung or SK-Hynix is in this market. That said, it looks like Crucial will at least continue to offer its standard RAM modules, but they tend to follow JEDEC spec and aren't particularly exciting.Updated:
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."
85 Comments on Crucial to End Ballistix RAM Production and Sales
So I've checked and found out that the newer BIOS screwed up the latency on my CRUCIAL 16GB Ballistix DDR4 3200MHz CL16 KIT BL2K8G32C16U4B.
Ballistix binned Micron E became my favorite DDR4 for price/performance on AM4, even more so than Hynix CJR or DJR.
I have tried a few unbinned JEDEC Micron E and they were terrible though.
I'm guessing the time and effort to bin DDR5 ICs is just not worth the cost for Micron.
But it's still funny watching their marketing guys trying to put lipstick on the pig.
Currently they only sell JEDEC spec stuff but basic XMP would be welcome without the pointless space-wasting "heat"sinks or RGBLED bullshit.
At least you're not on the latest AGESA, so that's not what's messing things up, but it seems like even the one you're on might be less than ideal.
Can you roll back to one version older and at if it makes a difference?
The problem is I don't have a power backup of any kind, and every BIOS flash is a huge risk (i think my mobo is already out of the warranty, and it was already replaced once due to the magnetic interference with onboard audio). I do need to buy a cheap UPS just for BIOS flashing purpose, and I will soon enough. I will post the results.
For now, I'll just drink that latency with a few ice cubes and a slice of a lemon.
Thanks for the help provided. It's highly appreciated.
BIOS updates are not really a risk these days, not had one gone wrong since pre Y2K.
Besides, you have an MCU on your board so even if the flash went wrong you could still reflash the BIOS as many times as it would take, from a USB drive.