Micron’s next DDR5 evolution – Crucial DDR5 Pro and Pro overclocking kits review with Teardown and OC

1 - Unboxing and design 2 - SPD information and heatsink test 3 - Teardown and PCB analysis 4 - Overclocking on Intel and AMD 5 - Benchmarks – XMP 6 - Benchmarks – OC 7 - Summary and conclusion

When a memory manufacturer launches new DDR5 memory chips on the market, a review from us is naturally not far away. After Micron introduced the 24 Gbit Rev B ICs in the middle of last year, there are now more new additions almost a year later, but this time with 16 Gbit and initially only in products of their own brand, Crucial. The “Pro” and “Pro Overclocking” RAM kits have been available in Germany for a few weeks now and we’ll be taking a closer look at both today.

The “Pro” and “Pro Overclocking” kits are available in different clock rates and capacities from DDR5-4800 to DDR5-6000 and with 16 to 48 GB per module. Although Crucial or Micron could not officially confirm this, we assume that the Crucial Pro kits with 16 GB modules use the new 16 Gbit Rev D ICs and the 24 GB modules continue to rely on the somewhat older 24 Gbit Rev B ICs. In today’s test we have the Crucial Pro DDR5-5600 2x16GB Kit (CP2K16G56C46U5) and the Crucial Pro Overclocking DDR5-6000 2x16GB Black Kit (CP2K16G60C36U5B).

Unboxing

The kits are packaged almost identically – the non-overclocking kit can be recognized by its blue accent color and the overclocking kit by its pink one. Incidentally, all Crucial Pro kits support Intel XMP and AMD EXPO with dedicated profiles at the same time. Although most current motherboards can also interpret the profiles of the opposing standard, these modules from Crucial are, to our knowledge, the first to officially support both CPU manufacturers beyond JEDEC clock rates.

pro_oc_unboxing_0001

pro_nonoc_unboxing_0001

The non-OC kit is specified with DDR5-5600 46-45-45-90 at 1.1 V, which effectively corresponds to the officially supported JEDEC clock rate for Intel CPUs of the 13th and 14th generation, but this should also work with Alder Lake CPUs of the 12th generation. The overclocking kit is not much faster with DDR5-6000 36-38-38-80 at 1.35 V, but uses significantly tighter timings and more voltage.

The heatspreaders of both kits are made of black anodized aluminium. While the sides of the overclocking modules are also bent to visually match the DIMM slots, the sides of the non-OC modules remain open. The OC modules are also slightly more saturated in color and slightly glossy, while the non-OC modules are more matte.

In addition to the clock specification, the sticker also shows the product number of the individual module: CP16G60C36U5B.M8D1 for the OC module and CP16G56C46U5.C8D for the non-OC module. While the beginning is almost identical and self-explanatory in meaning, the B before the dot is interesting and specifies either the color of the heatspreader “Black” or identifies the OC variant.

After the dot, there is the typical Crucial information about the IC used. Interestingly, the OC module is labeled M8D1, while the non-OC module is labeled C8D. Micron, x8 bit width, Rev D, and the 1 stands for the OC SKU? For C8D it would then be Crucial, x8 bit width, Rev D. I’m not quite sure here and unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on this either. The lettering rotated by 90 degrees on the far right is the serial number, which we will also find in the SPD in a moment, and the 4-digit number next to it probably stands for the week of manufacture, e.g. week 4 in 2024.

From above, the OC modules are very sleek and slim with their flattened cooler. The non-OC modules also have a white “Crucial DDR5 PRO” lettering on one of the two interlocking heatsink halves.

From below, the structure of the modules looks almost identical, apart from the heatsink shape of course. The modules are fitted with ICs on one side and a foam placeholder is inserted on the back.

From the side you can see that even the non-OC SKU has a thermal pad on the PMIC. We will see more details in the teardown.

pro_oc_unboxing_measurement_00003

pro_oc_unboxing_measurement_00001b

pro_nonoc_unboxing_00001 (3)

The OC modules are slightly higher with a total of approx. 35 mm and approx. 32 mm from the top edge of the DIMM slot, while the non-OC modules are around 3 mm smaller at 32 mm and 29 mm respectively. The latter are effectively the dimensions of a JEDEC A0 reference board and therefore optimal in terms of compatibility with air coolers or radiators in narrow housings. The OC modules are just slightly higher and, due to the heat sink above the DIMM slot fasteners, also approx. 4 mm wider than the pure board.