Computex 2014: Crucial Shows Ballistix Elite DDR4
by Kristian Vättö on June 4, 2014 11:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
- Crucial
- Micron
- DDR4
- Computex 2014
Obviously one of the biggest topics of Computex this year is DDR4. Crucial will be bringing their DDR4 to the consumer market under the Ballistix Elite brand with speeds of 2666MHz and 3000MHz in the beginning. The modules themselves will be 4GB or 8GB at first, although kits will range all the way to up to 32GB (4x8GB). The latencies are still up in the air as the product isn't finalized yet but from what I have heard the latencies will be about CL15 at first, although it's certainly possible that there will be different models with different latencies available. Availability is slated for August but pricing has yet to be announced.
The big thing about DDR4 is that it comes with a lower voltage of 1.2V compared to 1.5V that DDR3 uses by standard. That will result in lower power consumption, which ultimately means longer battery life for mobile devices. In addition, DDR4 is also bringing higher speeds because right at the beginning we are going to see products at 3000MHz, although Crucial told me that they have been able to get the modules to run at up to 3200MHz, so we might see even faster modules pretty soon. DDR4 will also bring support for higher densities (4Gb vs 1Gb), which will allow bigger for higher capacity DIMMs. While Crucial's offerings will be limited to 8GB at launch, they (well, Micron) has quad rank server DIMMs that go to up to 32GB but only at 2133MHz.
In addition to DDR4, Crucial also had the MX100 at their suite. We already reviewed the drive earlier this week when it officially launched, so there isn't really anything new to share, but Crucial was able to tell me that they are working on an SSD toolbox that should be available within a few months (I was told around September). This has been one of the only things missing from Crucial's SSDs, so it's great to see that they are responding to the public demand. The supply of MX100 should also be a lot better than the M500 when it launched, meaning that you shouldn't see any sold out tags at every retailer.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
25 Comments
View All Comments
DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
On the Intel side, the rumor mill says it'll launch with Haswell-E later this year and with the new SkyLake architecture/socket in 2015.DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
I haven't seen anything about AMD's plans; but with their APUs being ram bottlenecked, I'd expect them to jump on board as soon as it's not prohibitively more expensive.Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
AMD is changing their architecture design completely.Their architectures have been CMT so far.
Now they're going for SMT with excavator. Same stuff that intel uses, and that makes H-threading possible.
Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
Actually not true.One of the reasons that DDR3 was so expensive at release, was because back then in the Core 2 days, was when PC parts were helluva expensive (you can get the same real-world application performance for much less. For the FPS you'd get a game today, for a game back then you'd pay much more to get as much FPS.) (Anybody remember Nvidia's 4000USD Nforce boards?) DDR3 came out right then, when prices just started to drop. Prices for DDR3 dropped in about a month or two to something affordable.
DDR4 is coming out at a time when prices are starting to stabilize, and slowly drop.
A5 - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Then do more with your computer?HisDivineOrder - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
Anyone going Haswell-E is FORCED into a DDR4 "upgrade."Senti - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
And it's a nice thing. My previous "forced upgrade" to DDR3 when I went i7-920 still serves me well till today.In 2-3 years you'll look as pathetic with DDR3 as you are with DDR2 today.
UltraWide - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
When will they stop with the heatsinks?WithoutWeakness - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Tons of companies produce RAM without heatsinks, Crucial included. The addition of heatsinks is just another way for companies to differentiate and make their products stand out to consumers.Peanutsrevenge - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Dangit, I only JUST upgraded to DDR3 (My income doesn't even come close to matching my love of hardware).