While I have built my own PC and upgraded it several times over the years, I am still fairly new to evaluating hardware itself. I prefer to be a bit more casual with these, case i point, what the heck is RAM? Random Access Memory is essentially your computer’s short-term or working memory. You don’t want something you’re only going to use for five seconds to be stored then read from your SSD or worse, HDD, do you? I’ve been working with 16 GB of RAM for quite a while now, and it was definitely time to upgrade considering my computer would slow to a crawl or freeze up when editing 4K footage. 16GB is still very viable for games right now, but as we advance in tech it may be worth upgrading sooner rather than later, and thanks to Kingston I was able to do just that. They sent me two types of their FURY Renegade DDR4 RAM, one with RGB and one without, so I put both sets through their paces.
Previously, I had two sticks of Corsair Vengeance LPX, so let’s use that as a baseline in the graph below. I used AIDA64 for these benchmarks, with the same configuration using the first two slots of each RAM type. For whatever reason (and likely the BIOS) my older computer doesn’t boot with anything in the other two slots, but at least it keeps tests consistent. First up is read speed. This is an average of how many megabytes can be retrieved from RAM within 1 second.
This isn’t a massive leap, but still a good amount higher than what I had before. Oddly I noticed that the RGB version was ever so slightly lower than the non-RGB in all of my tests. Exact numbers can vary between the same test carried out multiple times, and I think we can chalk this oddity up to that. Still, it is consistent in my data so if you really need that extra 20 or so MB/s not using the RGB will give you that slight edge.
Next is write speed. Essentially the inverse of read, this is how much data can be written to the RAM once again in MB/s.
A very similar result, but that’s a good thing. Each speed is just a bit faster, because of something to do with how the technology works Generally, write is always going to be faster than read, but the fact that they are so close is a good thing.
Latency is a bit different. This is a measure in nanoseconds of how long it takes for the RAM to respond once an order is sent from the memory controller. You may also see this measured in clock cycles or CAS.
Now nanoseconds are a billionth of a second, so it’s hardly perceivable in the moment. However, consider how many actions you perform on a computer in a single day and those will really add up, so lower is definitely better. Another chunk ahead for the FURY, though this time the RGB comes out ahead by 1.1 nanoseconds. Oh how the turns have tabled! Once again, I believe this to simply be a matter of randomness between tests. Both are a step up from my Corsair sticks, especially in terms of size.
My two Corsair sticks were 8 GB each, resulting in a total of 16 available, while a pair of Renegades were 16 each, resulting in 32 GB which is, you guessed it, double my RAM capacity. For a real life example of why this is useful, let’s look at video editing. When putting our Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 review, dropping any 4K footage in my timeline would slow my entire system to a crawl. I could press a button to cut or click somewhere to scroll, and it would take a few seconds for my input to register if at all. After installing the FURY Renegade RGB I worked on our Alan Wake II review, and the difference was staggering. Using 4K footage would still slow things down, yes, but not nearly as much as before. At this point, I think my CPU is the bottleneck, but it’s still incredibly fast and I don’t see a need to upgrade any time soon.
Finally, let’s look at a game. Given how much can be happening at once, I chose my favorite MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, using their latest benchmark software released just before the Endwalker expansion. The differences here won’t be too significant, but it certainly gives my computer a bit more room to breathe.
Using the exact same settings and character in each test, we find the RGB coming out on top once again and with a bigger lead over the non-RGB. I’m not sure SquareEnix even understands what these numbers mean, but here higher is better. Kingston’s offerings also reduced loading times within the benchmark by about half a second, which is a nice bonus. That adds up over time as well, especially in an MMO (unless you’re the type to AFK in Limsa all day).
RAM is something you ideally shouldn’t even think about in your everyday. It does its job in the background while the more expensive toys like GPUs get the spotlight. Still, it’s very important, there’s a reason your computer won’t boot without it or if something is wrong. This was a learning experience for me as I dove into the nitty gritty of computer hardware, but if it taught me one thing it’s that even the smallest leaps can make all the difference.
David is the kind of person to wear his heart on his sleeve. He can find positives in anything, like this is a person who loved Star Fox Zero to death. You’ll see him playing all kinds of games: AAAs, Indies, game jam games, games of all genres, and writing about them! Here. On this website. When not writing or playing games, you can find David making music, games, or enjoying a good book.
David’s favorite games include NieR: Automata, Mother 3, and Gravity Rush.
Kingston’s FURY Renegade DDR4 RAM is a great option if you need just that little bit of extra power to get the most out of your rig. While not the biggest jump ahead of competitors, the size and speed are excellent, giving the rest of your computer room to do its thing.
PROS
- 32 GB
- Surprisingly stylish form factor
CONS
- Not the biggest leap forward
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