Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 review

Our Verdict

88%

Well-priced DDR5 memory with great RGB lighting, although the modules are a tad tall.

We have yet to see many 32GB DDR5 memory kits rated to 6000MHz or faster speeds dip under the $200 mark, but that reality is edging closer and this month, it’s Thermaltake’s turn to push the needle a little closer to the line with its latest Toughram modules. Retailing for $213 and sitting at 6000MHz, the Toughram XG RGB D5 is one of the cheapest kits of this speed or higher we’ve seen that includes RGB lighting.

It’s a far better effort than the Toughram RC DDR5 we reviewed a few months ago. Not only does it retail for $150 less, but it also offers a frequency that’s 1200MHz higher. The modules look stunning too, with grey and black heatsinks, which feature a mirrored section in between them, along with multiple RGB lighting zones. They’re not exactly low-profile, though, standing at 48mm tall, so you’d do well to check memory clearance if you have a large CPU cooler that overhangs the DIMM slots, or a chunky radiator in the top of your case.

In terms of spec, it has fairly tight timings of 36-38-38-76 and a voltage of 1.3V, courtesy of Hynix M-die memory chips that are the current standard of affordable, high-frequency DDR5 memory kits.
They don’t usually allow for much overclocking headroom, especially if you keep the voltage at stock settings. That said, our kit hit a wall of 6400MHz, which is decent enough compared with other kits, and enough to offer a good amount of bandwidth for AMD Socket AM5 systems too. That said, there’s no AMD EXPO support here, although we’ve seen mixed benefits from this tech in our testing, depending on the kit we’re using.

We pitted the Toughram XG RGB D5 against a G.Skill 6000MHz Trident Z5 Neo AMD EXPO kit with 30-38-38-96 timings. In our image editing RealBench test, the former scored 87,068, with a Handbrake video encoding score of 1,398,180 and total system score of 492,139. These results were very close to the 87,451 image editing score, 1,400,140 video encoding score, and 492,501 system score of the G.Skill kit. You’ll be losing little to no performance opting for the Toughram XG RGB D5 over a similar EXPO kit if you want to use it in a Socket AM5 system.

When it comes to the light show, there are 16 RGB LEDs under the heatspreaders, split into eight lighting zones. If you use Thermaltake’s TT RGB Plus software, each of these zones can be set to a specific color, or take part in the usual lighting effects you typically see on RGB hardware, such as rainbow or scanning effects.

The lighting is set under diffusing bars and is both punchy and color accurate, with less obvious gaps between the LEDs than we saw on Kingston’s similarly priced Fury Beast memory. What’s more, the lighting on these modules is also supported in Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI’s own RGB software, so you can synchronize the lighting with that of your motherboard.

Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 pros and cons

Pros

• Lighting can be controlled by your motherboard
• Competitive price
• Solid performance

Cons

• Limited overclocking headroom
• Modules are quite tall
• No official EXPO support

Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5

specs

The Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 specs list is:

Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 price

Price: Expect to pay $250 USD / £213 GBP for 32GB (2 x 16GB), 6000MHz

Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 review conclusion

It’s great to see another option for affordable DDR5 memory available, and the Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB D5 is well-priced, looks great, offers decent timings and frequency, and works with most motherboard manufacturers’ lighting software too. They’re not short modules, but if you want RGB lighting, Thermaltake finally has the goods. There’s no need to worry about AMD EXPO support either, as our tests showed it kept up with a G.Skill 6000MHz Trident Z5 Neo AMD EXPO kit with similar specs, so we can recommend this kit for owners of both Intel LGA1700 and AMD Socket AM5 systems.