Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 C16 4x8GB Review: Fairest of Them All

Corsair's Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 waltzes into a market that's one of the most competitive playgrounds in the hardware world, with new faces popping up left and right. Corsair, however, remains one of the few veteran players that has maintained its position and has several offerings on our list of top memory kits. 

The company's Dominator memory line goes all way the back to the DDR2 days. Still, the Dominator branding remains relevant thanks to Corsair's continued determination to revamp the series throughout its lifetime. The Dominator Platinum RGB is the most recent installment in the Dominator series, and Corsair recently started to offer the memory kits in white trim.

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Despite all the transformations over the years, the Dominator memory modules stay true to their origins. The new Dominator Platinum RGB retains the iconic top fins, and with this iteration, Corsair dresses the memory modules in a white aluminum heat spreader with a semi-glossy finish. The gold-painted fins complement the heat spreader perfectly, while Corsair attached the matching white top bar to the body of the memory modules via four small gold screws.

From the ground up, the Dominator Platinum RGB memory modules measure 56mm (2.2 inches). All the RGB goodness is located on the top bar. There a total of 12 Capellix LEDs in each stick, one behind each square and two behind the Dominator logo. In terms of benefits, Corsair's Capellix LEDs are smaller than conventional RGB LEDs and shine brighter while consuming less power.

One thing you should know about the Dominator Platinum RGB's lighting is that it's exclusive to the Corsair brand, meaning you can only control its effects through the included iCUE software. The software allows you to synchronize the memory module's illumination with other Corsair products within the brand's ecosystem to create pretty light shows, but that can be a drawback if you want a more expansive set of options to control other components.

Being a memory kit that targets quad-channel platforms, the Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 arrives with four single-rank 8GB memory modules. They are built with a 10-layer PCB that's populated with Hynix H5AN8G8NCJR-TFC, also known as C-die or CJR, integrated circuits (ICs).

At stock settings, the Dominator Platinum RGB memory modules post at DDR4-2133 with the default timings configured to 15-15-15-36. The memory modules only come with one XMP profile, which sets them to DDR4-3200 at 16-18-18-36 with 1.35V. For more on timings and frequency considerations, see our PC Memory 101 feature, as well as our How to Shop for RAM feature.

Comparison Hardware

Our Intel test system consists of an Intel Core i7-10700K and MSI MEG Z490 Ace on the 7C71v11 firmware. Meanwhile, the AMD testbed is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and ASRock B550 Taichi that runs on the 1.30 firmware. Regardless of the platform, an MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio handles the graphical duties.

Intel Performance

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The Dominator Platinum RGB came in last place on the general and gaming performance charts. But, the margin between Corsair's kit and the second place Crucial Ballistix Max RGB memory kit was less than 2%.

AMD Performance

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The Dominator Platinum RGB received more love from the AMD platform. The memory kit moved up to second place on both RAM benchmarks charts. The Dominator Platinum RGB excelled in two specific benchmarks: Microsoft Office and the HandBrake x265 encoding test. 

Overclocking and Latency Tuning

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Hynix C-die ICs aren't known for running with tight timings, but they excel in memory frequency. The Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3600 memory kit had no problems hitting DDR4-4133 at 1.45V. However, we only managed to stabilize the memory modules with 20-22-22-42 timings.

Lowest Stable Timings

Unfortunately, there was little opportunity for optimization at DDR4-3200. Even with the DRAM voltage at 1.45V, the memory modules would only go as low as 15-17-17-37 before we hit the instability wall. 

Bottom Line

Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but you can't deny that the Dominator Platinum RGB kit looks awesome. The memory kit might not have dominated the benchmarks, but its performance is within expectations for its frequency and timings. Given its configuration, it's clear that this particular Dominator Platinum RGB memory kit would probably excel on a quad-channel platform. However, dual-channel users who are set on 32GB and hate to see empty memory slots could find the Dominator Platinum RGB very attractive, as well.

The Dominator Platinum RGB currently retails for $229.99, resulting in a solid option when pitched against similarly-speced competitors. It's only a bit more expensive over a handful of memory kits. Then again, those memory kits don't feature RGB lighting or unrivaled aesthetics. More importantly, they don't blend in flawlessly with white PC builds, which is exactly where you will likely find this Dominator Platinum RGB memory kit.