Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB Series DDR4 Memory

Conclusion

Corsair’s Dominator Platinum memory kits have long been known for their premium aesthetic, acting as the finishing touch for many showpiece PCs over the year. With the Dominator Platinum RGB series, Corsair has not only brought the series into 2019 but has taken RGB lighting to the next level through the company’s use of Capellix LEDs, allowing Corsair to offer more addressable RGB lighting zones than other RGB memory offerings. 

If you are familiar with Dominator Platinum series memory, you will know what to expect. To say that these modules boast a premium build quality is an understatement. Dominator RGB Platinum RGB series memory kits offer a bill of materials that would make anyone stop and pay attention. Side plates of forged aluminium that are anodised black, a removable top par that is made from die-cast zinc alloy and darkened through microarc oxidation, fins of stamped aluminium and purpose build light diffusers that are engineered with Capellix LEDs in mind. If you are wondering why these DIMMs sell at premium prices, there’s your answer. 

With so much metal in these DIMMs, Corsair’s Dominator Platinum DIMMs feel satisfyingly weighty in your hand, not enough to be a concern, but enough to convey the premium nature of these modules. We work with a lot of PC components at OC3D, and we know that few memory kits offer this level of craftsmanship.

So they are well made, that’s to be expected from premium memory modules. What else is there to talk about? I guess we should now move over to software, which is perhaps the only area where Corsair’s Dominator series doesn’t offer stellar performance. Yes, they work pretty much perfectly under iCUE (see our video for more information), but things don’t fare so well when you try to integrate them into a 3rd party lighting setup.     

For users of all Corsair iCUE compatible components, this will pose no issue; but problems can emerge if you try to combine it with 3rd party lighting utilities like ASUS’ Aura Sync. Simply put, you can’t really get these solutions to work in tandem, making both lighting setups independent. This is fine if you mostly use static colour options, but if you want to make use of the entire RGB spectrum and theme your PC around a Unicorn, your lighting setup could pose an issue if you make use of multiple brands of products. These problems seem to come down to the ongoing RGB ecosystem war. In time, we hope that component manufacturers will put aside their differences an offer increased inner-compatibility between their RGB standards, as we think that PC builders deserve better. Thankfully, it looks like progress is already being made towards addressing these problems. 

Using iCUE, Corsair offers more than enough control options for their Dominator Platinum RGB series memory modules, with the module’s primary colours acting as some of the best we have seen in the realm of RGB. Whites are pure, reds are deep, and other primary colours look amazing. Corsair would be foolish not to fill their 2019 product stack with Capellix LEDs, when used well they can genuinely be jaw-dropping. 

Anyone who’s looking at Corsair’s Dominator Platinum series memory will know that they come with a premium price tag. The reason behind this is simple economics. You can’t make a premium product without spending more money, it’s as simple as that, and the Corsair’s Dominator Platinum RGB memory we can see where the money has gone. These modules will cover a variety of capacities and speeds, ensuring that their Dominator Platinum series will cover a broad spectrum of prices.

If you are looking for RGB memory modules with a premium feature set and a build quality to match; Corsair’s new Dominator Platinum series is definitely worth looking into. That said, the software issues that we have mentioned here and in our video are a cause for concern, though things are set to get better in time. 

We will update this product overview as the software ecosystem matures. Corsair has assured us that things are improving at a rapid pace, but our current thoughts cannot be reflected on promises alone. We can only report on what we can see before us, and as it stands, things need to improve. 

You can join the discussion on Corsair’s Dominator Platinum RGB series of DDR4 memory on the OC3D Forums.