By: Jonathan Kwan
November 14, 2025
Recently, I stopped at a traffic light when a late model Lexus IS 350 pulled up next to me. His lane is a lane that ends after the lights, and seeing the car is fully tinted and driven by a young guy, I was almost completely confident he would floor it when it turns green to overtake me. I am always down for a race against someone I know I can beat, so I started doing some mental feasibility calculations. I know his car has a naturally aspirated 3.5L V6 that produces 311hp that can accelerate 0-60mph in the high 5-second range at sea level, while my 2022 Acura TLX's turbocharged 2.0L I4 with 272hp can do about the same. However, we are at about 3500ft elevation here in Calgary, which means he is down about 10% power. My engine, being forced induction, is much less affected. I believe I have more than enough horses to take him, so I did. It was exactly how I imagined it -- he tried to race me and lost. My Acura TLX is by no means fast by 2025 standards, but the Lexus IS 350 certainly was when the drivetrain first came out over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then, rendering the car -- while being solidly reliable and a product of quality otherwise -- not that competitive in both performance and fuel economy against modern offerings. Lexus' conservative approach to product engineering is both its strength and its weakness. When it comes to RAM, I feel like Micron takes a similar approach. Their competitor, SK hynix, has been pushing the boundaries on speed in the last few years, with the A-dies in the DDR5-7000 range and M-dies in the DDR5-8000 range. Micron, on the other hand, has released nothing more than DDR5-6400 since the beginning of time. The Pro Overclocking DDR5 series, which we have covered extensively here at APH Networks, are seemingly just iterative improvements of existing models. Are they behind in technology, or is there more to the story? Read on to find out to see how the latest Crucial Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 2x16GB compares!
Our review unit of the Crucial Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 2x16GB arrived in a large brown corrugated cardboard box from Hotayi Electronics, a contract electronics manufacturer, all the way from Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. Using the FedEx International Priority service, everything arrived in excellent condition to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today. If you are wondering about the size of the box, the packing slip calls it the "TUCKER 4PK 100 SSD". Exactly why it is necessary to ship a pack of RAM, or in this case, they included two copies, using a box designed to hold a hundred SSDs is beyond my pay grade, but here we are.
Crucial's retail package designs have always been about business, and the Pro Overclocking is no different. The box is an all-new offering, as the company has only offered simple hang packaging in the past. As you can see in our photo above, the predominantly black and purple template has Micron and Crucial's logo at the top left corner, while a "Gaming" tag can be seen at the top right corner followed by the product description, "DDR5 Pro OC Memory". Occupying the majority of the room is a partial photo of the memory modules in three-quarter view. The word "gaming" in all caps is printed vertically in the background on the left. On the bottom right, you can find its specifications, including capacity, configuration, speed, latencies, and a system requirements QR code. A series of badges at the bottom advertises its high speed/low latency, high density, and limited lifetime warranty. Additional badges highlight its Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD Expo compatibility. The RAM's product description in various languages can be found at the back.
Out of the box, you will receive each memory module in the Crucial Pro Overclocking kit packaged in its own compartment in the enclosed clear plastic tray. There is nothing else included, but I am not sure what else you can expect from a DDR5 kit either, haha.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Crucial Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 2x16GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
General tech specs
Technology: DDR5
Module Type: UDIMM
Density: 32GB Kit (16GBx2)
Kit Quantity: 2
Voltage: 1.35V/(5V ext)
Dimm Type: Unbuffered
Die Density: 16Gb
Default and performance recovery profiles
default (jedec): 32-40-40-103
XMP 3 Profile 1: 6400MT/s 32-40-40-103
XMP 3 Profile 2: 6000MT/s 36-38-38-80
Expo profile 1: 6400MT/s 32-40-40-103
Expo profile 2: 6000MT/s 36-38-38-80
Speed & timing
Speed: DDR5-6400
CAS Latency: 32
Extended Timings: 32-40-40-103
Warranty & returns
Warranty Description: Crucial offers different warranty levels for different products.
Out of the box, you will receive each memory module in the Crucial Pro Overclocking kit packaged in its own compartment in the enclosed clear plastic tray. There is nothing else included, but I am not sure what else you can expect from a DDR5 kit either, haha.
A screenshot of the memory tab in CPU-Z with Crucial's Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 2x16GB installed. The SPD timings table in CPU-Z reads standard JEDEC specifications programmed into the memory as well as XMP data for running the memory at various speeds. Our ASUS ProArt Z890-Creator WiFi motherboard used for testing had no issues detecting and working with the Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 RAM right out of the box. The Crucial Pro Overclocking CL32 DDR5-6400 2x16GB retails for approximately $175 at press time.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 Memory
6. Benchmark: PCMark 10
7. Benchmark: 3DMark
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 11
9. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench 2024
10. Overclocking and Conclusion
