Despite having a heat spreader, Crucial's DDR5 Pro memory is not intended to be overclocked. In fact, your warranty will be voided if you overclock it beyond their rated speeds and timings. Not one to be deterred by such things, I wanted to see how much performance I could gain without increasing the operating voltage (1.1V).
To begin, I first increased the data rate by 200 MT/s. In both cases, the DDR5 Pro memory was rock solid. I was able to run various benchmarks without any problems. After that, I started tweaking the timings (CAS Latency, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS). Starting with the EXPO profile, I reduced the timings by a couple of clock cycles.
While not a huge overclock by any means, I was pleasantly surprised by these results. I saw a 2-3% improvement in read and write speeds by simply increasing the data rate. Tweaking the timings didn't get me much more in regards to speed but, as you can see, the memory's latency dropped by nearly four milliseconds.
Final Thoughts:
Crucial's DDR5 Pro memory is a great choice for the gamer, content creator or professional looking for a solution capable of delivering the speed and bandwidth required by the latest Intel and AMD CPUs. With its support for both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO, users can take this memory, pop it in their computer and know that it will perform well without sacrificing stability. To top it all off, Crucial's DDR5 Pro memory comes equipped with an integrated, low profile heat spreader that is capable of providing heat dissipation in even the smallest form factor PCs.
Despite all this, Crucial's DDR5 Pro memory does have its shortcomings. To achieve the best possible compatibility and stability, the company has had to make some concessions in regards to performance. Due to its fairly conservative timings, the DDR5 Pro memory isn't the fastest on the market today. Of course, you can squeeze out a bit more out of it through overclocking but, by doing so, you will void Crucial's otherwise generous lifetime warranty.
Crucial's 32GB DDR5-5600 Pro memory kit is available now and can be purchased directly from Crucial.com or through retailers like Amazon for about $80.
