Micron Retires Crucial Ballistix Memory Brand To Focus On Gaming SSDs And Mainstream RAM
Are you thinking about selling off your kit of Crucial Ballistix DDR4 memory? You may want to reconsider before parting ways with what just became a piece of computing history. If you're into electronic collectibles, that is. Either way, it's the end of an era as Micron has made the decision to discontinue all remaining Crucial Ballistix product lines, including Ballistix, Ballistix MAX, and Ballistix MAX RGB.
This is not just a branding move, though that's part of it. The Crucial Ballistix brand, recognizable to any PC enthusiast who's been around the block a time or two, was (ouch, it hurts to use past tense) Micron's best performing memory. It was also Micron's only performance memory line,. and unfortunately it doesn't sound like anything is going to replace it.
Micron is essentially conceding the enthusiast market to competitors like G.Skill, Corsair, and TeamGroup, all three of which are active in the overclocking community and continue to push the limits of RAM as the market gradually shifts to DDR5.
This doesn't mean Micron is abandoning RAM altogether. To be clear, it's not. Instead, it will continue to release mainstream memory kits, while putting all of its enthusiasts efforts into performance and gaming SSDs, like the Crucial P5 Plus.
"We remain focused on growing our NVMe and Portable SSD product categories, which both offer storage solutions for PC and console gamers. Additionally, Crucial JEDEC standard DDR5 memory provides mainstream gamers with DDR5-enabled computers with better high-speed performance, data transfers and bandwidth than previously available with Crucial Ballistix memory," Teresa Kelley, vice president and general manager of Micron, said in an emailed statement.
Micron also says it plans to intensify the development of DDR5 products for its client (consumer) and server roadmaps, and expand its overall Crucial memory and storage product lines. Just as it relates to RAM, however, don't expect any further kits that cater specifically to the overclocking and extreme performance crowd.
That's understandable, given that the landscape has changed, but is still disappointing for old school geeks like myself. The Ballistix line has been around since the original DDR days, and I remember reviewing a couple of DDR2 kits back in the day. Time (and technology) marches on.
Beyond the nostalgia factor, what's disappointing is that Micron is uniquely positioned to make a spirited run in the overclocking memory space, being a memory chip maker and all. The Crucial brand is its own. In contrast, company's like G.Skill don't make their own ICs, but source them from memory makers like Samsung and SK Hynix.
It makes sense to focus on SSD storage from a business standpoint though, so I can't really criticize Micron for the decision.
