Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB 3200Mhz Review

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro - Stunning RGB....Striking Speed!

Corsair has been around the corner with its wide and ever growing and ever evolving range of peripherals and other PC components for well over time that I can remember. Over the time I've reviewed a lot of Corsair products and the best part about them is that they keep on revamping them which mostly if not all the time leads to improvements over the predecessor. Today is well no different as we plan to look at a yet another product which though is new but technically it can be dubbed as an improvement over its past iteration, today we look at the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro Memory Kit!

The Vengeance RGB Pro is the latest memory kit in the newly launched Pro lineup of components from Corsair which is only second to the Platinum series that only has the legendary Dominator series of kits and no other so the Vengeance RGB Pro is your best bet now if you want performance and RGB in a single pack. Since it is the Vengeance series my expectation are a bit high from this kit since so far this series of kit be itt the LPX or the RGB hasn't really disappointed me or anyone else out there.

Priced in at $150 or ₹17,000 in India the kit is a bit higher on the price spectrum but since its equipped with a Samsung-B die and offers compatibility with Intel aswell as AMD Ryzen and Threadripper platforms, finally, the price can somewhat be justified. The kit comes with a Life Time warranty on all of its variants and is available in two colors namely as White and Black that go from as low as 2666Mhz all the way up to a jaw dropping 4700Mhz kit that are available in dual and quad channel configurations!

What's in the Box!?

Corsair brings their Vengeance RGB Pro in their somewhat signature memory packaging style this time aswell which mainly has the color theme of black and yellow that they use for their gaming line of products. We can see the image of the product in the center which is very crisp and attractive along with the Corsair logo and memory kit specifications on the top corners. At the bottom we have the product name and a nice RGB colored strip which adds a nice touch but strangely Corsair only puts their iCUE software compatibility sticker in the front even though the kit is compatible with others too.

At the back we have two slit windows so that one can take a peek at the actual product itself which is resting securely inside. If you look near the bottom left corner you will see that its mentioned that the kit is compatible with Corsair's own iCUE utility and also in tiny prints are mentioned Gigabyte Fusion and MSI Mystic LEDs which I'm sure is a way to promote iCUE over others but then wider compatibility is an added bonus for the kit in terms of wider buyer base then why to take that risk anyways.

Inside the thing cardboard box pack you will find the memory sticks resting inside a transparent clam-shell packaging which holds the sticks securely and is good enough to protect the product during transit.

A Closer Look!

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro takes a more minimalist approach to styling with an all matte powder coated finish. Ours is a black kit and the matte finish can be seen in a more prominent fashion which looks extremely elegant and also helps in avoiding finger prints or fading away of the paint over time due to wear and tear or simple heat.

We just have the product name on the front is small fonts while the anodized aluminum heat spreaders are slightly embossed and angled to give a subtle design element to the kit.

On the back side we have the same design and pattern going on as in the front with an all matte black finish and a sticker with all the vital details in the center, obviously if you remove this sticker then you'll be voiding the warranty so take extra care of that. Our kit has a serial number of CMW16GX4M2C3200C16 which means that its a 16GB Corsair kit with a rated frequency of 3600Mhz at CL16 timing.

Standing in at roughly 51mm the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro is a bit tall but definitely compatible with even most of the air cooler out there including the Noctua NH-D15 in a single fan configuration. Also the light bar on the top is quite thin but enough and with the small
perforations along the sides of the bar is unique and should give this
kit an edge when its all lit up and functional. One more thing noticeable here is that there is no logo or brand name on the LED bar on top which means the lights would be clean and seamless without any obstructions in between giving it a distinguished look over others.

Benchmarks and Overclocking 

Due to the classy and elegant looks of the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro in matte black it gels in well with most of the builds today which uses the color combination of black, grey and shades of gunmetal such as that on the MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC over here. Also as for the lighting the RGB looks different and will catch anyone's eye immediately
for that outlandish colors that it produces through the clear acrylic plate with horizontal textured lines on top along with the perforation patterns on the side and
the overall looks with the animations turned on. Best part is that its
widely compatible with almost all the various RGB lighting control utilities by
various motherboard manufacturers including Asus Aura Sync on the Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero which isn't licensed by Corsair, yet, while at the same time doesn't only rely upon Corsair iCUE utility to function properly hence making it swift and
easy for the end user.

With all that being said let's get to the benchmarks and testing of this
unique memory kit. For the benchmarks we used the following test setup
configuration --

CPU: Intel Core i5 9600K

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz

Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB Platinum

Graphics Card: MSI GTX 1070 Ti Gaming X 8G

Storage: Corsair Neutron GTX 480 480GB

Secondary Storage: Kingston A1000 240GB

Power Supply: Corsair CX750 750W

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

GPU Driver: ForceWare 416.94

BIOS: A.20

A few noteworthy points about the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro is that it uses Samsung-B die which not only makes it a potentially good overclocking memory but also it solidifies the fact that it will run rock stable on AMD Ryzen and Threadripper systems since they tend to favor Samsung-B die over Hynix and Micron. Also the kit is rated at 3200Mhz at 16-18-18-36-2T with 1.35v using the XMP profile it comes with so I'm sure we can extract some extra juice out of this kit since these kits go all the way upto 4700Mhz. Great part is that the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro comes with an onboard thermal sensor so you can monitor the temperatures on these RAMs via a simple utility which makes it extremely useful especially when overclocking. In my results the maximum I hit was 36°C under full load when overclocked for a straight one hour of gaming followed by synthetic benchmarks which is quite impressive and well within the safe range.

With the system running flawlessly on the rated 3200Mhz CL16-18-18-36-2T I went ahead to overclock this kit and with some tinkering round it was easy for me to attain a stable 4000Mhz with 17-19-19-39-2T at 1.4v which is tighter than Corsair's own Vengeance RGB Pro 4000Mhz kit which comes at 19-23-23-45 working on 1.35v. Now this can be a silicon lottery as this is a retail sample and not an
engineering sample but the bright side is that most of the buyers out
there considering they have a good CPU with a competent motherboard and
IMC can expect to hit more than decent overclocking numbers on this kit
which imparts a ton of value to this particular product.

AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark

AIDA64 implements a set of 64-bit benchmarks to measure how fast the
computer performs various data processing tasks and mathematical
calculations. Memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze
system RAM bandwidth and latency.

7-zip

This suite allows you to measure the performance of your computer. The
benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second).
There are two tests, compression with LZMA method and decompression with
LZMA method. Once the total passes reaches 100, the score is taken.
Higher the score better is the computer's overall performance.

SuperPi Mod 1.5

SuperPi is a simple program that utilizes the processing power and
memory speed of the system to calculate the value of Pi upto 1 Million
or 32 Million decimal point depending upon what you choose. The time is
calculated in minutes and seconds, we'll take them both in seconds, so
lower the score faster is your computer.  

Cinebench R15

Cinebench uses Maxon's Cinema 4D engine to render a photo-realistic
scene of some shiny balls and weird things (we miss the motorbike). The
scene is highly complex, with reflections, ambient occlusion and
procedural shaders so it gives a CPU a tough workout.

As Cinema 4D is a real-world application - used on films such as
Spider-Man and Star Wars - Cinebench can be viewed as a real-world
benchmark.

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra & Time Spy

Fire Strike by 3D Mark is a test suit that plays a cinematic scene to
determine the FPS, GPU temperature and CPU temperature scaling
everything via a cumulative score. It is a great tool to benchmark your
GPU aswell as Memory since the render is GPU dependent and is highly
sesnitive to RAM timings and frequency giving accurate measure as to how
the components will perform in real life during graphics intensive
tasks.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Its old but still extremely effective to benchmark and one of my
personal favorites. Using DX12 the settings are set to Very High preset
at 1080p resolution with the graphics card set to stock with no
additional tweaks be it manual or through the provided utility.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The latest installation of Assassin's Creed is set in Greece and the toll
that it takes on the graphical engine and CPU is heavy in fact its
strong enough to brings down most of the modern rigs on their knees. The
quality is set at Ultra High preset at 1080p.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider  

The latest installation in the Tomb Raider series with Lara Croft and
the game obviously looking better than ever before. Its a DX12 only
title which makes it both graphics intensive and taxing on the graphics
card and the CPU alike. Benchmarks are done using the built in utility
for homogeneity and settings are set Highest on 1080p

Far Cry 5 

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto. The
developers built this open-world action/adventure first-person shooter
using the company's own Dunia Engine, originally derived from Crytek's
CryEngine and first introduced alongside Far Cry 2 back in 2008.
Naturally, continuous improvement makes it far more advanced now than it
was a decade ago. Settings here are at Ultra presets with no
customization at all running at 1080p.

GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V is an open world, action-adventure video game
developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. If you like
open world adventure then this is something that you don't wanna miss
with great graphics, catchy story line and unlimited potential for mods
that keep coming in and out every now and then on the web. Our settings
are as follows with very high quality, 16xAF, 2xMSAA and FXAA enabled.

My Verdict 

Corsair always brings something impressive to the table and the Vengeance RGB Pro is no different. The memory kit has not only been impressive in terms of raw performance but also in terms of the overall experience and ecosystem that Corsair has offered with it. Its compatibility with third party RGB utilities is a welcome move considering Corsair's own iCUE is right now a well established software courtesy to its ever popular and competitive gaming peripheral lineup.

Out of the box we get great performance in every possible task and thanks to the use of Samsung-B die overclocking it is not only easy but also fun at the same time, both on Intel and AMD platforms alike. Another big plus here is its full support for AMD Ryzen and Threadripper platforms which is a step in the right direction due to the momentum train that AMD is riding upon right now due to all good reasons.

I personally love the choice of matte color for both black and white color ways & also the way RGB lighting has been implemented here with a translucent monolithic bar with no additional elements to hinder the glow of the diffused RGB light including the brand logo itself! Also the small yet noticeable perforations along the sides of the stick are subtle and give the kit a unique cosmetic approach towards styling.

With all that said the kit is certainly on the expensive side of the spectrum and even though it delivers great performance and overall experience it might not be enough to convince a gamer on budget to go that extra mile.

"The Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro is a winner in every aspect and impeccably balances between great looks and to the point performance both out of the box and when overclocked. If price tag is not an issue and you adore or already own a bunch of Corsair products then this is the memory kit that should definitely be on the top of your shopping list!"

Pros - 

• Brilliant RGB implementation


• Compatible with iCUE and other RGB utilities


• Overclocking friendly


• Elegant looks


• Solid Build Quality


• Life Time warranty 

Cons -

• A bit pricey

I give it a 9/10 earning our Gold Award!