Overclocking
Disclaimer: Overclocking is never guaranteed so that the results may vary depending on certain conditions and various hardware configurations. I am not recommending overclocking if you do not know what are you doing. High voltages may damage hardware, and it will not be covered by warranty.
Above you can see a warning about high memory voltages, but the tested memory doesn’t need high voltages for overclocking. It’s also not scaling well with high voltages on typical room temperature.
Ballistix Elite DDR4-3600 memory uses Micron E-die IC, which is not the most popular amongst overclockers but recently surprised the whole community with a world record in memory frequency. The result was made on an LN2 cooling, so it’s not available for all. I will show how much we can make on an ambient cooling so available for most users.
While overclocking very important is also luck. Not all memory modules will overclock the same. Our memory is a retail product so you can count on similar results if you buy it in any store. But again, results can be better or worse.
In the performance section, you could see results made in a quad channel while here I will present what was possible in a dual channel on the Z390 chipset.
During the tests, I’ve noticed that some memory modules were overclocking better and some worse. The lowest clock at which memory was fully stable, was DDR4-4200 while the highest DDR4-4400.
Above is a fully stable setting of DDR4-4300 19-19-19 1.35V. It was straightforward to set it like that on two better modules.
Below is maximum benchable setting so not sufficiently stable but could pass most tests without issues – DDR4-4400 CL19-19-19 1.45V.
Maximum possible clock in the dual channel was DDR4-4600 at CL24 and 1.5V. It was possible to run some benchmarks, but these settings were not stable for longer. I guess it’s possible to set this memory at DDR4-4500+, but as I mentioned, it’s a matter of luck as not all modules can reach this clock.
I think that overclockers and enthusiasts will have a lot of fun with the Ballistix Elite. For the first time, we can see that memory based on Micron IC runs at such a high frequency. I was able to set some previous Micron-based memory kits at DDR4-3800 or DDR4-4000 but never before at DDR4-4400+. No wonder that with the help of LN2 cooling, this memory could pass DDR4-5700 mark. Simply amazing!
