Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB review

Our Verdict

Kingston's new Fury Beast RGB DDR5 gaming RAM looks great, with fantastic lighting that's compatible with a wide range of RGB systems. It's also speedy, reasonably priced, and has the added benefit of coming in dual-channel 16GB kits.

Reasons to buy

• Fantastic lighting
• Reasonable price for DDR5
• Universal motherboard software compatibility

Reasons to avoid

• Kingston's Renegade heatsinks are even better
• Loose memory timings
• DDR5 RAM is still expensive

This Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 kit shows that at least one manufacturer has rapidly stepped up its DDR5 frequencies while offering reasonable prices and plenty of stock. This 32GB 6,000MHz RGB-enabled gamer memory set comprises a pair of 16GB modules, and is available for around $230. Thankfully, in a rare move, Kingston also offers a more affordable way to jump onto the DDR5 bandwagon, with a 16GB kit available too for just $150.

That gives Kingston a significant advantage against the competition right now, as barely anyone else makes dual-channel DDR5 kits, especially with fancy RGB lighting. You can buy plenty of the best gaming RAM in 32GB configurations and higher, but that’s a tough ask at current DDR5 prices, particularly if you need to buy a new motherboard and CPU too.

Specs

Of course, $150 for a dual-channel 16GB kit is still much more expensive than an equivalent DDR4 kit, such as the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro, but you’re gaining some future-proofing here, as well as some much faster memory. What’s more, the 6,000MHz frequency of these modules is rumored to be the new sweet spot for AMD’s forthcoming Socket AM5 systems.

If the rumors are to be believed, these modules would then sit at a 1:1 ratio with Infinity Fabric, just like the 3,733MHz upper limit for DDR4 memory. So if you’re planning on upgrading to a Ryzen 7000-series CPU, this kit could well be a prime candidate for your shortlist.

The 6,000MHz frequency (or 6,000MT/sec as Kingston now refers to it), is backed up by 40-40-40-40 timings, which are the same as those on the ADATA XPG Lancer RGB, with a similar frequency and the same SK Hynix memory chips too. If there’s one criticism, it’s that those timings are a bit loose compared to some of the other competition, although we’ve found that clock speed is a bigger factor than latency in most real-world performance tests.

Design

The modules themselves are low-profile, despite being kitted with RGB lighting, and stand just 42mm tall according to our digital vernier calipers at the tallest point. As such, they won’t interfere with many CPU coolers, even if you’re using a low-profile one. The heatsinks look much the same as those on the DDR4 version of Kingston’s Fury Beast memory, although the ones on Kingston’s new Renegade modules look even snazzier.

The extra surface area on the Renegade heatsinks offers slightly better cooling in my tests too, shaving 2°C off the temperature of the Fury Beast, although the latter still only hit 62°C under load and didn’t cause any issues.

Meanwhile, the RGB lighting is quite understated, with no large retina-burning LED strips, but instead a diffusing section of plastic on top of the module that offers vibrant colors and an even lighting array. The lighting was much brighter than that of the ADATA XPG Lancer RGB kit too.

To control the lighting, you can either use the software included with your ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI motherboard, or you can use Kingston’s own Fury CTRL software. This proved to be just as good, if not better, than any motherboard software we’ve used, and provides ample tweaking and lighting effect presets with which to play. That universal software compatibility is also a big boon if you want to sync your RAM lighting with the lights in the rest of your system.

Performance

Our benchmarks showed marginal gains in real-world tests when shifting up to 6,000MHz from the more run-of-the-mill 5,200MHz speed of older DDR5 memory kits, but there were clear advantages in synthetic read, write, and latency tests.

When it came to overclocking, we were also able to add another 200MHz to the Fury Beast RGB’s clock speed, but the ADATA kit went up another 200MHz to 6,400MHz.

Unrestrained by AMD Infinity Fabric in our Intel Z690 system, this overclock resulted in some performance boosts too, raising the read speed from 89GB/s to 94GB/s, although the latency increased slightly from 68ns to 69ns. Still, there were gains in our overall RealBench system score, which rose from 346,648 to 352,026. It still couldn’t match the performance of the 6,400MHz Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB I tested recently, but it’s plenty fast enough for the price.

Price

Value for money is the big selling point of this memory kit right now. The Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB price is just $150 for a dual-channel 16GB kit, giving you an affordable point of entry into the world of DDR5 memory, and with great RGB lighting too. Even the 32GB kits are reasonably priced, with the 32GB 6,000MHz kit we tested going for around $230 right now.

Verdict

There’s a great deal to like about this RAM, with this Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB kit really hitting the sweet spot. Its 6,000MHz effective frequency looks set to be ideal for AMD’s forthcoming Zen 4 CPUs, and it also works great with Intel’s current 12th-gen Alder Lake chips.

Most importantly, the price is right. With most companies still yet to release affordable lines of RGB RAM, and premium memory such as the Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 kits being very expensive, Kingston has carved out a niche for itself. What’s more, the ability to buy this memory in both 32GB and 16GB kits makes it properly affordable if you don’t need 32GB of RAM.

With reasonable pricing, decent frequencies, and great-looking RGB lighting with universal motherboard control, Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB is the DDR5 memory to buy right now.

For more information on the benefits of using the latest memory tech, check out our DDR4 vs DDR5 feature, where we test both types of RAM in a range of game tests.