Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 Review

Corsair’s memory is popular in performance desktop builds. The latest Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 memory features customizable ten-zone lighting, Intel XMP profiles, and aluminum heat spreaders for maximum performance.

Corsair’s memory is popular in performance desktop builds. The latest Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 memory features customizable ten-zone lighting, Intel XMP profiles, and aluminum heat spreaders for maximum performance.

Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 Design and Specifications

DDR5 memory availability started in late 2021 alongside Intel’s 12^th generation “Alder Lake” Core processors. (See our Core i9-12900K review for an Alder Lake intro.) It will also be supported by AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7000 series chips. Next to DDR4, which has been the mainstream standard since 2014, DDR5 offers higher bandwidth and lower power consumption.

As DDR5 is still a low-volume product, it remains pricier than DDR4 memory. The 32GB (2x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 kit we’re reviewing is pricey, at $306 on Amazon, or a nearly 50% premium over the DDR5-5200 version (Amazon link). Importantly, note Corsair sells a Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C40 kit as well, which won’t perform as well since it has a higher latency. All Vengeance RGB DDR5 kits are backed by a lifetime warranty.

Vengeance RGB DDR5 looks and feels like premium desktop memory. The 288-pin UDIMMs have attractive aluminum heat spreaders in white or black. Heatspreaders are important for memory so they can dissipate heat under an extended load.

Each module has 10 RGB LEDs which are individually addressable in the Corsair iCUE app. The app also allows you to monitor each module’s temperature and can even alert you when a temperature threshold is reached. Corsair also said is going to allow iCUE to manage XMP profiles, though this feature isn’t yet available.

Installing Vengeance RGB DDR5 is like installing any other desktop memory kit. It’s impossible to install incorrectly because of the notch position, and DDR5 won’t fit in a DDR4 slot because the notch position is different. The only potential install pitfall with this memory is the module’s 56mm height; verify in advance if your CPU cooler will clear them.

The full specifications of this memory are as follows:

Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 Performance

We use our self-built StorageReview desktop to test DDR5 memory. It has the following specifications:

• Intel Core i9-12900K CPU
• Asus ROG ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard
• Microsoft Windows 11
• Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD

We tested a 32GB kit (2x 16GB) of Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 C36 memory using our motherboard’s default settings, which caused it to run at the DDR5 standard of 4,800MHz and CL40 timings, and using XMP profiles 1 and 2, where it ran at its rated 6,000MHz and CL36 timings. The complete timings are:

• Default: CL40-40-40-58
• XMP 1: CL36-36-36-65
• XMP 2: CL36-36-36-65

The XMP timings are especially impressive; the DDR5-5200 memory we’ve tested has been typically CL40, so not only is this Corsair DDR5-6000 C36 kit running at a much higher frequency but also a lower latency, so we have high hopes for its performance.

We did run into instability issues with this kit, which disappeared after we removed the undervolt we had applied to our Core i9 CPU. Your mileage may vary.

We don’t have direct comparisons to this kit since it’s the highest frequency kit we’ve tested, so it’s going against a DDR5-5200 kit of Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-5200. Here are our other DDR5 memory reviews:

• Corsair Vengeance DDR5-4400 Review
• XPG Lancer RGB DDR5-5200 Review
• Lexar Ares OC DDR5-5200 Review
• Team Group T-Force Delta TUF RGB DDR5-5200 Review

The DDR5-5200 kits we’ve tested have performed similarly, with noticeably better performance than the DDR5-4800 standard. Let’s see what DDR5-6000 performs.

SiSoftware Sandra 2021

Our first test is the popular SiSoftware Sandra 2021. Higher numbers are better in all subtests.

The Corsair kit shows substantial advantages running at 6,000MHz in its XMP profiles, which provide the holy grail combo of lower latency and higher bandwidth. The Kingston DDR5-5200 kit performed noticeably better than the Corsair did at DDR5-4800, a familiar situation from our other DDR5-5200 reviews. Especially note the lower cache and memory latency.

7-Zip Compression Benchmark

The excellent 7-Zip file archive tool has a handy built-in compression benchmark. We ran 10 passes using a 128MB dictionary size and all 24 CPU threads of our Core i9-12900K; higher numbers are better.

Here again, we see the huge performance leap going from the Corsair kit at DDR5-4800 or the Kingston kit at DDR5-5200 to the Corsair kit at DDR5-6000 in either of its XMP profiles. Look to the compression scores for the largest differences; the Corsair kit achieved 113.415 GIPS at DDR5-6000 in XMP 2, 16% higher than the Kingston kit at DDR5-5200 in XMP 2.

Conclusion

Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 memory showed excellent potential in our testing, easily outperforming the DDR5-4800 and DDR5-5200 kits we’ve tested. We expected it to do so because of its higher frequency, but this kit really shines by offering both higher frequency and lower latency in its easy-to-use XMP profiles.

We also like the effective aluminum heat spreaders, customizable RGB lighting, and versatile iCUE companion app, all hallmark features of Vengeance RGB DDR5 kits (which start at DDR5-5200). But if you want to get the most out of your ultra-performance build, the DDR5-6000 kit is easily worth the premium.

Corsair Product Link

Engage with StorageReview

Newsletter | YouTube | Podcast iTunes/Spotify | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | RSS Feed