Best RAM for gaming 2023

On the lookout for the best RAM for your PC? Then you’ve landed in the right place. Whether you’re looking for the best DDR4 memory or the best DDR5 memory, our guide takes you through your best options at every budget. You’ll find high-quality no-frills memory for those who don’t care about bling, and there are high-performance shiny modules covered in RGB lighting, for those who like to have it all.

At Custom PC, we’ve been reviewing PC hardware since 2003, and we’ve tested and overclocked hundreds of memory kits, going right back to the original DDR era. We run both synthetic and application benchmarks to assess performance, and also see how far we can overclock each kit.

In addition, we look at any RGB lighting features and assess how good it looks, as well as how well the control software works. We also assess the height of memory modules for practical purposes. For more information, check out our How we test page.

We pick out the best memory for whatever system you have, and at the bottom of this buying guide we highlight issues around specific Intel or AMD memory, as many memory manufacturers list products as being specifically optimized for one system or another.

Here is the best RAM for gaming in 2023:

1. Corsair Vengeance LPX – the best cheap DDR4 gaming RAM
2. Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB – the best low-profile RGB DDR4 gaming RAM
3. Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro – the best DDR4 RGB gaming RAM
4. Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 – the best premium DDR4 RGB gaming RAM
5. G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO – the best budget AMD DDR5 gaming RAM
6. Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 EXPO – the best AMD DDR5 RGB gaming RAM
7. Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB – the best Intel DDR5 RGB gaming RAM
8. Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB  – the best premium DDR5 RGB gaming RAM

1. Corsair Vengeance LPX

The best cheap DDR4 RAM is the Corsair Vengeance LPX.

Corsair Vengeance LPX specs:

Pros

• Great price
• Low profile
• Decent performance

Cons

• Bland-looking heatsinks
• No lighting
• Sometimes limited overclocking headroom

The amazingly priced Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory modules are not only the best entry-level DIMMs available, but they also have a very low profile. We’ve used them in loads of budget PC build guides over the last few years. With a height of just 33.5mm, you’ll also have no trouble squeezing one of these kits into your motherboard if you have a radiator installed in the roof of your case, and they’re ideal for mini-ITX systems where space is at a premium.

They don’t look particularly exciting, and they often don’t overclock far beyond their rated speeds, but their anodized aluminum heatspreaders keep the memory cool enough while giving these DIMMs a minimally smart appearance. The current sweet spot price for these modules is a 3600MHz kit with CL18 latency timings, which we’ve detailed below.

2. Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB

The best low-profile RGB DDR4 RAM is the Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB.

Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB specs:

Pros

• Low profile
• Good lighting software
• Tight timings

Cons

• Taller than Corsair LPX modules
• Cheaper kits are faster

If you’re looking for some bright RGB gaming memory that isn’t going to clash with an AIO liquid CPU cooler in the roof of your case, then the Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB is a fantastic option. The lighting looks intense, there are loads of options for RGB software control and the diffusion bars iron out the gaps between the LEDs well.

The side details are an attractive touch and, as a bonus, the modules are only 42mm tall, making them ideal for use with height-restricted coolers or in very compact systems. In our original review, we criticized our sample’s high price for its loose latency timings and needlessly high 4600MHz frequency, but you can now hit the 3600MHz CL16 sweet spot with these kits for a reasonable price, which we’ve detailed below.

What’s more, these kits come with two XMP profiles, enabling you to easily experiment with a 3000MHz frequency at 15-17-17 latency timings, as well as the flagship 3600MHz 16-20-20 settings. Read our full Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 RGB review.

3. Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro

The best DDR4 RGB gaming RAM is the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro.

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro specs:

Pros

• Fantastic lighting
• Great software
• Reasonable overclocking headroom

Cons

• Might interfere with low-rising CPU heatsinks
• Aging design

We’ve used Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro modules in features and systems more times than we’ve had hot dinners and for good reasons. These RGB gaming memory modules are always very well priced, look fantastic, and have other benefits too.

The lighting is the Vengeance RGB Pro’s party piece, as it’s as vibrant and accurate as any other modules we’ve recently tested but also benefits from full Corsair iCUE software. The diffusing bars across the tops of the modules do a great job of evening out the photons from the LEDs underneath, and you can also buy dummy modules to easily fill out all four DIMM slots on an average ATX motherboard.

There’s some decent overclocking headroom available as well, and we were easily able to push our 3600MHz test sample up to 3866MHz by just upping the frequency, with no need to touch the voltage or latency timings. Be warned, though that the modules are quite tall, with a height of 51mm. Read our full Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro review.

4. Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4

The best premium DDR4 RGB gaming RAM is the Corsair Dominator Platinum.

Corsair Platinum Dominator RGB DDR4 specs:

Pros

• Excellent lighting
• Great software
• Decent overclocking headroom

Cons

• Expensive
• No dummy Light Enhancement modules
• Tall modules

This is as good as DDR4 memory gets. The Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB models are now fairly old, but they remain available in a huge range of speeds and timings, as well as gorgeous white models too. We recommend a 3600MHz kit as the sweet spot, but we had no trouble overclocking are test sample all the way to 3933MHz with no latency or voltage tweaking required.

Corsair’s iCUE software also gives you full control over the LEDs, and with the Dominator Platinum individually lit sections, you can set each LED to a different color with this pixel-like display, rather than having a diffusing light bar. The lighting is very vivid, with accurate colors, and the ability to set each LED segment to a different color is a real boon.

This memory also offered some of the fastest speeds we’ve seen from DDR4 memory in AIDA64 Extreme memory benchmarks, performing well in terms of both read, write and latency out of the box. The only downer is that the modules are very tall, so you’ll need to make sure you have room for them in your case. Read our full Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 review.

5. G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO

The best budget AMD DDR5 gaming memory is the G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO.

G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO specs:

Pros

• Smart-looking heatsinks
• Much cheaper price than at launch
• Fantastic performance on AMD Zen 4 systems

Cons

• No RGB lighting
• Hard to find kits above 6000MHz
• More expensive than non-EXPO memory

If you don’t care about RGB lighting, and you’re simply looking for some high-speed DDR5 memory modules to get the most out of an AMD Ryzen 7000-series Zen 4 system, then the G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO gives you exactly what you want. This was the first memory we tested with the new AMD EXPO profile system, and we were really impressed by the performance in our benchmarks.

At the time of launch, the 6400MHz kit we reviewed was expensive, but you can now pick up a 6000MHz CL30 set of these modules for a reasonable price, and our tests showed that this frequency is the sweet spot. What’s more, we also found that a 6000MHz EXPO kit of this memory was quicker than a 6400MHz kit of non-EXPO memory in some of our tests. Read our original G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO test writeup.

6. Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 EXPO

The best AMD DDR5 RGB gaming memory is the Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 EXPO.

Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 EXPO specs:

Pros

• Two EXPO profiles
• Clean and smart design
• Relatively low profile

Cons

• No XMP 3 compatibility
• RGB lighting could be brighter

Corsair’s Vengeance RGB DDR5 memory kits sit between the bland grey modules of its standard Vengeance kits and the super-fancy modules on its Dominator modules. They’re fast and (thanks to a large price drop since our original review) well-priced too, and Corsair is also now producing AMD EXPO models for the latest AMD Zen 4 systems.

The sweet spot is a 6000MHz frequency with tight 30-36-36-76 timings, and the modules are considerably shorter than DDR4 Vengeance RGB Pro DIMMs too, measuring just 45mm tall. For lighting, you get ten individually controlled RGB LEDs sitting underneath a diffusing light bar. The colors are more vivid than those on the original Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4 modules, but they’re not as bright.

As an added bonus, you get two EXPO profiles on a 6000MHz kit, with a 6200MHz option in addition to the standard 6000MHz profile. Read our full review of the Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 EXPO.

7. Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB

The best Intel DDR5 RGB gaming memory is the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB.

Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB specs:

Pros

• Fantastic lighting
• Universal motherboard software compatibility
• Reasonable price

Cons

• Heatsinks lack flair
• Loose memory timings

Not only do these RGB gaming memory modules look fantastic, but the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB DIMMs also have a low profile, measuring just 42mm in our Vernier calipers at the tallest point. In what’s quite a rare move, Kingston is also offering them in a 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit, giving you a cheaper way to jump on the DDR5 bandwagon than buying a 32GB kit.

The RGB lighting is quite understated, with a diffusing section of plastic on top of the modules that offers vibrant colors and an even lighting array. You can use the software included with your ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI motherboard to control your RGB lighting, or Kingston’s excellent Fury CTRL software.

When it came to overclocking, we were able to add another 200MHz to the Fury Beast DDR5 RGB’s clock speed, easily giving us a 6200MHz kit for the price of a 6000MHz kit. Our only criticism is that the latency timings could be tighter, but that doesn’t make as big a difference to performance as frequency. Read our full review of the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 RGB.

8. Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB

The best premium DDR5 RGB gaming memory is the Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB.

Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB specs:

Pros

• Fantastic lighting
• Universal motherboard software compatibility
• Fast performance, thanks to high frequency and tight timings

Cons

• Can’t overclock any further
• Expensive
• Limited other benefits over cheaper kits

This speedy Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB kit sits at the top of the company’s range and has the looks, frequency, timings and price to match. The 6400MHz kit we tested uses seriously fast SK Hynix memory chips and has very tight latency timings of 32-39-39-80. In our AIDA64 Extreme read and write tests, this kit topped our graphs, with a 94GB/s read speed, 87GB/s write speed and 63.5nm latency.

The heatsink design is very attractive, with one black layer sitting on the memory chips and a silver shroud sitting on top of this layer. The heatsinks did a decent job of cooling the memory as well, and the RGB lighting is particularly bright and vivid.

While you can use ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI’s software to control the lighting, there’s also Kingston’s Fury CTRL software, which offers detailed control over colors and effects for each LED on each module. Read our full review of the Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB.

AMD or Intel optimized?

Some DDR4 kits are sold as ‘Intel optimized’ or ‘AMD optimized’, which made sense a few years ago. When the first-generation AMD Ryzen systems were launched, we saw lots of memory refusing to POST at frequencies beyond 2933MHz, even if they were rated much higher.

This problem was soon solved by kits based on Samsung’s B-die memory, which would POST at their full rated frequencies. However, with the latest DDR4 systems we’ve seen little tangible difference between ‘Intel optimized’ and ‘AMD optimized’ memory. We’ve also seen some ‘AMD optimized’ memory fail to hit its top-rated frequency in Socket AM4 motherboards, while it’s fine in Intel systems – you largely don’t need to worry about this with DDR4 memory now.

With DDR5 memory, AMD has introduced its EXPO profile system, which is similar to Intel’s XMP system. Your motherboard should detect its maximum rated frequency, latency timings and voltage automatically, and let you apply it easily. In our own AMD Expo benchmarks, we’ve also seen EXPO memory perform better on AMD Zen 4 systems than non-EXPO memory. Similarly, for Intel systems you want to look for support for memory that supports Intel’s latest XMP 3 memory profile system.

That’s it for our memory guide – you now know exactly which memory you need to buy for your system and budget (you’re welcome!) If you’ve never built a PC before, then check out our guide on how to build a gaming PC, which includes information about installing and setting up memory. We also have full guides to the best CPU and the best graphics card for your needs.