Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB 4000 MHz DDR4 Review

Stock

While the memory kit is rated at 4000 MHz, that is technically an overclocked speed. The memory booted at the first profile at 3600 MHz, which is pretty damn faster on its own. However, even at the slower speed, it manager to score a new record in Cinebench. The score matched the 2060 points of the Corsair Dominator Platinum. It even hit the top score in PCMark 10, and our second fastest in WPrime. Pretty good for the first set of benchmarks.

Overall, the read, write and copy speeds were pretty decent, but nothing amazing. Then again, we haven’t exactly maxed out this memory to its rated speed yet. Latency was right where we expected it though, sitting around 49.9ns.

Overclocked

Punching up to 4000 Mhz is tricky territory for a lot of memory kits. For one, you need good quality memory, which we have. Next up, your CPU and motherboard are basically operating in an overclocked state too at this frequency. Fortunately, I did get to the 4000 MHz, although I had to apply a tiny voltage bump manually to get it stable.

The end result is worth it though, with the score boosting to an impressive 2071 in CineBench. That is 2nd place, but the Dom Plat kit was a lot more expensive and also 32GB. The same is true of AIDA 64, as those read, write and copy speeds took a huge uplift. Going from 46444 Mbps to 52232 Mbps read speed tells me we’re right on the money with 4000 MHz. Latency also dropped to 49.2ns.

WPrime wasn’t quite as quick this time, but still very competitive with similar speed kits. However, when it comes to 3DMark Physics and PCMark 10 it blazed a trail to scoring our two highest results to date.

CineBench R15

AIDA64

WPrime

3DMark Fire Strike

PCMark 10 Productivity