Very recently we took a long hard look at Crucial’s latest addition(s) to their DDR5 Professional lineup and walked away highly impressed with what those 64GB (32GBx2) kits had to offer. We did however make mention of the fact that, while extremely impressive in their capabilities and user-friendliness, they still only offered 64GB of RAM capacity. While that is probably enough for most people’s needs, for professionals that really is not enough these days. Sadly, the moment one starts using 2D2R / ‘quad stick’ RAM configurations on consumer-grade CPUs… most of those user-friendly features are going to get frogged marched out the nearest airlock. Which was a shame considering they are called “Pro” kits. Crucial’s DDR5 Pro design team(s) obviously agreed with our assessment as they just added 128GB (64GBx2) capacity options to the line-up. Specifically, black and white clad options promise both mega-capacity and DDR5-5600 frequencies for both Intel and AMD systems. Albeit at CL46 timings.
If one has not been paying attention for the past couple of years, for example, the last system you built was back in the DDR4 helicon days of yesteryear, one could be forgiven for not being impressed with those paper specifications. After all, DDR5-5600 is ‘slow’ and DDR5-5600 at CL46 is even slower. Heck, Crucial themselves had faster DDR5 kits for DDR5 debut… and yet that misses the forest for the trees. DDR5-5600 is indeed ‘slow’ when dealing with piddly little 32GB (16GBx2) kits of RAM. It is even slow when dealing with 96GB(48GBx2) kits of RAM. What it is not, is slow by Big Boi 64GB per channel standards. In fact, a manufacturer promising DDR5-5600 on Intel and AMD consumer CPUs is going to make professionals sit up and take notice. Even if said kit has an asking price of $270 USD. While reasonable by both 64GBx2 kit and even price per GB standards, it is a bit wince-inducing when Crucial’s very own DDR5 Pro OC 64GB kits clocking in at 6400 frequencies is only $180, and even 96GB (albeit at 5600) is ~220 USD.
Mix in the phenomenal ease of use those 96GB kits offer with the notoriety that 128GB kits have for being divas and, no matter the amount of wishing and praying for a return of mega-capacity builds, there are going to be serious questions asked before anyone, especially professionals, plunk down that kind of money. Simply stated, can these new 64GBx2 kits offer the same ease of use as their smaller brethren. Furthermore, can they do that while at the same time offering (relatively) blazing performance? If they can, they will indeed be worthy of the ‘Pro’ moniker. If not, most professionals will opt for the less expensive 96GB capacity options long before they willingly (let alone routinely) break the 100GB barrier. So let’s see if Crucial has indeed pushed the industry back in the right direction… or if its going to be another generation (or more) before RAM manufacturers catch up with the DDR4 days and let pros have pro levels of RAM.
