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 you are doing. High voltages may damage hardware, and the warranty will not cover it.
Overclocking tests were performed on the same ASUS Strix B550-I Gaming as in all other tests in this article. This is the best motherboard for memory overclocking, so if you pick something else, it’s not guaranteed that you will reach the same results.
Results highly vary in the used processor and its memory controller. What I’ve noticed is that Ryzen 4000 processors sometimes need a bit more relaxed timings than Ryzen 5000 to run at the same frequency. On the other hand, Ryzen 4000 has a much stronger memory controller and can pass the DDR4-5000 mark without issues, which most Ryzen 5000 processors won’t be able to do.
Above is a screenshot at the highest frequency, which passed some stability tests and all our benchmarks. DDR4-5000 CL18-22-22 1.55V is a great result, even though the voltage was quite high but still acceptable.
Below is a more interesting result for most users because of tied infinity fabric and memory controller clocks at a 1:1 ratio with memory clock. This setting gives optimal results in most tests and games. Since our processor couldn’t run at DDR4-3800 without stability issues, we had to stop at DDR4-3733 CL14-17-16 1.45V, which is a great result too.
Ryzen 4650G lets our memory fly above DDR4-5000. Below is a result at DDR4-5400 CL18 and not really optimized sub-timings. This setting wasn’t fully stable but could still pass over 30 minutes of the AIDA64 stability test.
The maximum memory clock possible in the stability test was DDR4-5300 CL18-24-22 1.60V. However, as I already mentioned earlier, performance test results were the same as at DDR4-5200. Simultaneously, the slightly lower setting required significantly lower voltage what feels more comfortable for most users.
Below is the maximum clock which I was able to set on nothing but standard air cooling. The day I made the result, it was the highest memory frequency in the global HWBot ranking made only on air cooling. That’s impressive, especially that at the same time, it was made on a 16GB memory module and not 8GB like all other results!
I’m sure that anyone who decides on the Ballistix MAX DDR4-4400 memory will have a lot of fun, as much as I had while reviewing this memory kit. It really feels like a fresh breeze on a memory market flooded by the same IC for long months.
