How far will DDR4 go before the baton passes to DDR5? Crucial has earned its bragging rights

with the launch of the Ballistix Max 5100, the fastest RAM on the market.

This product is only available in 16GB kits (2x8GB) and in limited quantities; Crucial does not say exactly how many kits will be produced, but it is a limited run and will be discontinued when stock runs out.

As the model name suggests, this is a DDR4-5100 memory kit, capable of 5,100 mega transfers per second (MT/s). This metric is often used interchangeably with frequency speed (MHz or GHz), although they are not technically the same thing.

Nevertheless, this is the same kit that set a memory frequency record of 6,666.6 MHz last month. Overclocker "Bianbo" accomplished this feat with an AMD Ryzen PC using an Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming motherboard, and the record still stands on HWBot.

Crucial's memory kits utilize custom-tuned Micron memory die sets. According to Crucial, it is the only memory manufacturer that offers custom tuning at the die level. Crucial is Micron's consumer brand, and this is one of the advantages of sourcing its own memory chips.

Rated specs for this kit are 19-26-26-48 latency settings at 5,100 MT/s. As tends to happen at high speeds, this is a bit loose. For comparison, the Ballistix Max DDR4-4000 kit runs at 18-19-19-39. RAM speed and capacity are most important in gaming, though not so important outside of synthetic benchmarks.

This kit is available now and sells for $900 at Crucial's web store; Corsair's Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-5000 kit sells for $945 at Newegg but comes with a fan attachment .