Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4 3600MHz Gold Memory Review

Metallic Gold Comes to TOUGHRAM RGB

Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB memory kits have been available for a number of years now. The kits have done well, but March 2021 they spruced up the line with some new color options. Those new color options for the ToughRAM RGB series would be Metallic Gold and Racing Red kits. Both colors are only available in 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600 MHz memory kits that feature 18-19-19-39 timings with 1.35 Volts of power.

When Thermaltake offered us the Metallic Gold memory kit to review we were told it was a limited edition memory kit. Only two samples were being sent to out to media sites. We asked how limited they were for consumers and was told they only manufactured a small batch with these colors for this series. They didn’t have a ballpark figure of how limited these kits are, so if you are looking for a gold or red DDR4 memory kit here is your chance. The part number on the kit that we were sent was RG26D408GX2-3600C18A and it runs $169.99 shipped over at Amazon.

On this kit the aluminum heat spreader has a painted finish and then there are two metal sections that have a mirror finish on them. You’ll have to peel off protective film from the mirrored finish part!

Now that is a gold memory kit! The finish is excellent and should appeal to those looking to complete a gold themed PC build.

Each module has 10 bright addressable RGB LEDs that can be configured and synchronized through TT RGB Plus, Razer Chroma, Amazon Alexa, Asus Aura Sync, MSI Mystic Light, Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0, or ASRock Polychrome Sync. They are even able to be voice controlled with TT AI Voice Control, Razer Chroma or Amazon Alexa!

Thaiphoon Burner Details

A quick look at Thaiphoon Burner shows that this kit is a single-rank kit using SK hynix CJR memory (C-die) memory ICs. These memory ICs have proven to be solid in recent years. Most memory kits use Samsung B-die, Micron E-die, or Hynix CJR (DJR) chips.

Here is what CPU-Z shows with the default XMP profile enabled.

TOUGHRAM RGB Benchmarks

We ran this kit on our new Intel Z590 platform and it worked fine. This platform uses the ASUS ROG Maximus XIII HERO motherboard and an Intel Core i9-11900K ‘Rocket Lake’ processor.

Here is what CPU-Z showed for this kit running XMP settings.

We managed to reach 51,001 MB/s read, 50,033 MB/s write, and a latency of 54.0 ns with the XMP 1 profile setting.

If you wanted to overclock the kits you can easily do so by going into the BIOS and manually increasing the DRAM clock frequency. We were able to get our test kit up to 4000 MHz without touching the memory timings or the voltage. This 11% overclock improved the memory bandwidth performance by 8 to 9 percent. The AIDA64 memory read performance went from 51,001 MB/s to 55,883 MB/s and on the write side it went from 50,033 MB/s to 54,182 MB/s. Latency increased at this speed though despite running the board in Gear 1 mode (1:1) and using the same timings.

Those that are comfortable manually adjusting memory timings and increasing the voltage to the kit will have some serious fun with this kit. By relaxing the timings to 19-25-25-45 and increasing the voltage to 1.45V, we hit a pretty impressive 4800 MHz with this kit. This is a 1200 MHz overclock! AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark showed that we were reaching 65,197 MB/s read and 64,101 MB/s write speeds at this clock frequency with these timings. We started out at 51,001 MB/s read and 50,033 MB/s write, so we are getting nearly 30% more memory bandwidth by overclocking the kit.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

This was a pretty quick look at the TOUGHRAM RGB memory kit, but the big news here is that it is available in metallic gold for the very first time. They only made a small batch of these from what we’ve been told and they are pretty awesome looking if gold is your thing. Performance of this kit was pretty normal at stock settings and it became pretty impressive when we manually overclocked it. This is the first memory kit that we’ve overclocked on the ASUS ROG Maximus XIII HERO motherboard and it was a painless experience. We had no issues pushing this kit up to 4800 MHz with relaxed timings and it certainly seems like it has more overclocking headroom.

Pricing is $169.99 shipped over at Amazon and the kit is backed by a limited lifetime warranty. Most DDR4 memory kits in the 4600 MHz to 5000 MHz range cost between $379 and $1,399. This little kit for us up to 4800MHz for just $170! It is a fun kit for enthusiasts as it has plenty of headroom for days of fun and won’t drain your bank account!

Legit Bottom Line: If want a gold DDR4 memory kit that has RGB lighting and good overclocking potential, the TOUGHRAM RGB Metallic Gold memory kit might be what you need.