Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK16GX4M2B3200C16

Part number: CMK16GX4M2B3200C16

Capacity: 16GB, 2 x 8GB

Type: DDR4 UDIMM, 288-pin, unbuffered, non-ECC

Speed: 3200MT/s (PC4-25600)

Timings: 16-18-18-36 at 1.35V

True latency: 10.0ns

SPD fallback: 2133MT/s, 15-15-15-36, 1.2V

Profile: Intel XMP 2.0, one profile

Rank: single on ver 4.3x and 5.3x, dual on ver 4.2x

PCB: eight-layer

Size: 33.5 x 135 x 7mm

Colour: black. RGB: none

Intel: 200 to 600 series, X299

AMD: 300 to 500 series, X570

Warranty: limited lifetime

Two 8GB sticks in a clamshell. No accessories, no software.

Each stick has two labels. One is the part number. The other is a version string, ver X.YY, which tells you the memory chips.

Write it down before you install. You can't read it once they're in the case.

Anodised aluminium spreader, eight-layer PCB, no RGB and no software.

33.5mm tall. That's the whole reason to buy LPX. RGB Pro is 51mm and G.Skill Ripjaws V is 42mm, and both start fighting the fan on a big tower cooler.

No thermal sensor, so HWiNFO won't show DIMM temps. You don't need it at 1.35V.

Best for: tight clearance under a 120mm or 140mm tower cooler.

Three LPX kits, all badged 16GB DDR4-3200 CL16, all 1.35V.

B: 16-18-18-36

D: 16-19-19-36

E: 16-20-20-38

The difference is tRCD and tRP. At 3200 a clock is 0.625ns, so 18 against 20 costs 1.25ns per row activation.

Will you feel it in a game? No.

Winner: the B on price parity. If the E is 40 dollars cheaper, take the E and put the difference toward capacity.

The letter is the timings. The ver number on the sticker is the chips.

ver 3.xx: Micron

ver 4.xx: Samsung

ver 5.xx: SK Hynix

Every version hits the rated spec, so you get what you paid for. What changes is manual tuning headroom, and Samsung versions go furthest.

You can't pick. Retailers don't list it. If overclocking is the point, buy a kit binned for a known die.

Two sticks go in the second and fourth slots from the CPU, usually A2 and B2. Your board manual wins over any general rule.

Corsair says it's for airflow. It isn't. Most boards daisy-chain their memory traces and are tuned for the far pair. Use the near pair and the far slots hang off as electrical stubs, and the board may refuse to train 3200.

Fill all four slots on AM4 and expect to drop to 2933 or 2666.

Power off at the wall, open the clips, line up the notch, press both ends until they snap shut.

Out of the box it runs 2133MT/s. That's the JEDEC fallback and it's normal.

ASUS: Ai Overclock Tuner, set to D.O.C.P.

Gigabyte: Extreme Memory Profile

MSI: A-XMP

ASRock: Load XMP Setting

Intel: XMP, Profile 1

XMP and DOCP are the same thing. Nothing to convert.

On AMD, leave FCLK on Auto. It lands on 1600 by itself, which is 1:1 with the memory clock.

3200 is AMD's official spec for Ryzen 3000 and 5000. On those chips this is one click and done.

B550 and X570: best case.

B450 and X470: fine on a current BIOS.

A320, B350, X370: awkward. A320 often locks memory overclocking entirely, so there's no DOCP option and you sit at 2133 forever. Check your BIOS before buying.

Ryzen 2000 frequently caps at 2933. Ryzen 1000 needs a BIOS update first.

On Ryzen 1000 or 2000, we'd buy a 2933 kit and stop fighting it.

200 through 600 series and X299. Turn XMP on and it runs.

The trap is chipset. Some H and B boards don't expose XMP at all, and you're stuck at 2133 with no way out.

On a non-Z board, check your BIOS first. A 2666 kit costs less and performs the same if XMP is locked.

QVL entries are version-specific. The Crosshair VI Hero lists ver 4.31, the Crosshair VIII lists ver 4.23. A ver 5.3x stick is on neither, same retail part.

That doesn't mean it won't work. QVLs only record what got tested.

The useful column is population. On X370 this kit is qualified at 3200 with two DIMMs only. On X570 it's qualified with two and four.

Don't buy a second kit later for 32GB. Corsair won't support mixing versions.

The biggest change you'll make isn't overclocking, it's turning XMP on.

On AM4, 2133 to 3200 takes AIDA64 read from about 33,000 to 46,000 MB/s and latency from 95.4ns to 76.4ns. A fifth off your latency from one toggle.

In games it's all about your CPU. Ryzen 1000 gained 16 percent in one title. Ryzen 5000 shows up to a 19 percent spread at 1080p. Mainstream Intel shows 2 to 3 percent.

So on Ryzen, memory speed matters. On Intel at 1440p or above, buy whatever 3200 kit is cheapest.

Task Manager, Performance, Memory. Speed should say 3200MHz. If it says 2133, the profile is off.

CPU-Z, Memory tab. DRAM Frequency shows 1600MHz, which is the same thing. Timings should read 16-18-18-36.

CPU-Z, SPD tab. Click each slot to confirm both sticks are seen.

If the speed is right but the timings aren't, your board made up its own.

Booting at XMP means the board trained the timings. It doesn't mean it's stable.

TestMem5 with the anta777 Extreme config, three cycles. Harshest test going and where we'd start.

Karhu RAMTest to 5000 percent, three to six hours.

Don't use the AIDA64 memory test or Memtest64. Neither finds errors reliably.

One error is a fail. But it's usually the board or the slot population, not the memory. Turn XMP off, retest at 2133, and if errors stay you've got a warranty claim.

You don't need to think about this.

DDR4 refreshes every 64ms up to 85C, then twice as often above it. A 1.35V stick at stock in a normal case doesn't get close.

Temperature only matters if you're hand-tuning, because tRFC drifts with heat.

The heat spreader is mostly decoration. PCWorld measured DDR4 spreaders at about two degrees, with case airflow mattering more. So you lose nothing going low profile and you gain clearance.

Nobody reviewed this kit with overclocking numbers, so this is all from owners.

The reliable win is tightening secondaries at stock 3200. One ver 4.32 owner got about 7 percent from subtimings alone, mostly tRFC.

Past 3200 it's the chip lottery. Samsung versions go further, Hynix and Micron much less.

Don't push voltage. Owners report 1.34V and above making things worse on this family.

If overclocking is the point, this isn't your kit.

Windows 11 idles above 10GB on a 16GB machine, so you've got around 6GB to play with.

One game at a time: fine. Battlefield 6 lists 16GB as minimum and recommended.

Game plus browser plus Discord: this is where it breaks. You'll page to the SSD and feel it as stutter.

Won't fit: Mafia: The Old Country wants about 20GB. Doom: The Dark Ages and Borderlands 4 recommend 32GB.

Streaming, 4K video, VMs: get 32GB.

Office, browsing, photo editing: comfortable.

G.Skill Ripjaws V F4-3200C16D-16GVKB: 16-18-18-38 against 16-18-18-36 here, so Corsair wins on tRAS by a hair. Ripjaws V is 42mm against 33.5mm. Winner: LPX under a tower cooler, Ripjaws V otherwise if it's cheaper.

Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G32C16U4B: matched this kit exactly and tuned better on Micron E-die, but it's discontinued. Academic.

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro CMW16GX4M2C3200C16: identical performance, 51mm tall. Winner: RGB Pro if you have the room.

Our 32GB LPX kit, CMK32GX4M2E3200C16: looser at 16-20-20-38, but capacity beats timings. Winner unless the budget won't stretch.

Corsair direct: around 180 dollars. The E variant: around 140.

Newegg: 145 to 160 dollars, refurb or used.

Best Buy: discontinued. It used to sell near 90.

The cheapest DDR4-3200 16GB kit of any brand is tracking around 99 dollars, so you're paying a real premium here.

The market is against you. DDR4 contract prices are forecast up over 50 percent this quarter as production winds down.

Waiting won't help. If you need DDR4, buy it. If you're building new, go DDR5.

Limited lifetime on defects in material and workmanship.

Here's the one that matters. In the US, Corsair only honours DRAM warranty if you bought from Corsair or an authorised reseller. Buy from an unauthorised marketplace seller and you have no cover at all.

Most of what's left of this part is marketplace and refurb, so check who you're buying from.

Keep the receipt. Claims need a photo of the serial number.

Advanced RMA ships your replacement first and holds the value on your card. Take it if this is a work machine.

Why does my RAM show 2133MHz?

The profile isn't on. Enable XMP on Intel, DOCP on ASUS, A-XMP on MSI, Extreme Memory Profile on Gigabyte, or Load XMP Setting on ASRock.

What is XMP?

A speed and timing profile stored on the stick. Turning it on runs the memory at what it's rated for. AMD boards read the same profile under a different name.

Which slots do I use?

Second and fourth from the CPU, usually A2 and B2.

Should I test it after enabling XMP?

Worth ten minutes. TestMem5, anta777 Extreme, three cycles.

What do 16-18-18-36 mean?

Clock cycles. CAS latency, then tRCD, tRP and tRAS. Lower is faster at the same speed.

Is CL16 good?

On its own the number means nothing. True latency is CAS times 2000 divided by speed, so 10.0ns here. DDR4-3600 CL18 is also 10.0ns.

Does RAM speed affect FPS?

On Ryzen yes, up to 19 percent across the range at 1080p. On Intel it's 2 to 3 percent.

Is 2x8GB better than 1x16GB?

Yes. Two sticks fill both channels and roughly double your bandwidth.

Will this work with my motherboard?

Intel 200 to 600 series and X299, AMD 300 to 500 series and X570. The traps are A320 boards that lock memory overclocking, and some Intel H and B chipsets that don't show XMP.

Will it run 3200 on Ryzen?

On Ryzen 3000 and 5000 yes. Ryzen 2000 often caps at 2933. Ryzen 1000 needs a BIOS update.

Why won't it run 3200 with four sticks?

Four DIMMs load the memory controller harder and usually force a drop to 2933 or 2666 on AM4.

Can I mix kits?

Don't. Buy the capacity you need in one kit.

B or E?

B is 16-18-18-36, E is 16-20-20-38, D sits between. Take the B on price parity, the E if it's meaningfully cheaper.

LPX or RGB Pro?

Identical performance. LPX is 33.5mm with no lighting, RGB Pro is 51mm with it.

Which chips are in it?

Depends on the version. ver 3.xx Micron, ver 4.xx Samsung, ver 5.xx SK Hynix.

How do I find my version?

Printed on the label as ver X.YY, or read it with Thaiphoon Burner.

Single or dual rank?

Current versions are single-rank. Worth about 3 to 5 percent, not worth hunting for.

DDR4 or DDR5?

They don't fit the same boards. For an existing DDR4 machine the question doesn't arise. For a new build, DDR5.

16GB or 32GB?

32GB if you stream, edit 4K or run VMs. 16GB if you game one thing at a time.

Why has it got so expensive?

DDR4 contract prices are forecast up over 50 percent this quarter as production winds down.

Does the warranty work from a marketplace seller?

In the US, no. You need Corsair or an authorised reseller. This is the most expensive thing to get wrong here.