Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR3 Memory Kit Review

Overclocking

Every enthusiast knows, stock and recommended specs are only for the common folk. Pushing beyond these rated settings is where the fun is at. Overclocking is not an exact science. It varies greatly as it is influenced by a number of factors. Some of these factors can be controlled by the overclocker, some not. For example, memory chips designed from the same wafer can vary in the maximum speeds they can run at. This is how the manufacturer may rate the maximum stable speed that the chip can run at. Therefore, the maximum overclock that these chips reach may not be representative of other memory sticks in this range of products.

To overclock I first tested by setting the RAM at speeds of 1066 MHz, 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz while CPU and NB were at stock frequencies. On the last one, bus was overclocked to reach the maximum RAM overclock. As a result CPU and NorthBridge were also overclocked.

I was able to overclock the memory to a maximum overclock of 1688 MHz. This is not a very large increase, but large enough to allow some leg room for your CPU overclock because when you try to overclock your CPU to its maximum limit you will probably lower the memory divider, and it is unlikely that you will need more than 1688 MHz from the memory sticks. The memory was running at a voltage of 1.75V. I tried to raise the votlage but wasn’t able to go over 1688 MHz. That may also be attributed to the fact that I am not using the most overclocking friendly motherboard.

Underclocking

While overclocking is important, I also wanted to see how tight I could run the timings on these modules at various speeds to reduce the latency. Therefore, the timings shown in the results are the lowest that these modules could achieve at the shown speed. I was amazed by how tight this kit could run at 1066 MHz. At this speed, I could tighten the timings to 5-5-5-15 and run the kit comfortably at 1066 MHz. These timings are the speeds that most high end DDR2 kits used to run at until recently. Now that DDR3 memory can run at similar timings provides a testament to the fact that memory technology has significantly advanced since DDR2 days. Most DDR2 kits these days can do 1066 Mhz at CL5 timings. But with this DDR3 kit, you can not only do that but you can go all the way up to 1688 MHz as we have seen in the overclocking section.

The modules also impressed me by running at 1333 MHz at just 6-6-5-15 timings. Most kits in the market are rated at 9-9-9-24 timings with the lowest being 7-7-7-24 at this speed. I was also pleasantly surprised that I could lower the timings at the rated speed of 1600 MHz to 8-8-7-21 which are lower than those advertised (8-8-8-24).