Kingston Fury Beast 3600Mhz DDR4 Review [KF436C18BBK2/32] – Rebadged HyperX but fantastic value for money

Following on from my review of the excellent Kingston Fury Renegade 3600Mhz RGB DDR4, I have also been checking out the Kingston Fury Beast 32GB DDR4 RAM kit

Kingston sold off the HyperX brand earlier this year, but the sale only included the peripherals. Gaming memory and storage will stay part of the Kingston business, and they recently announced their full range of DDR4 RAM.

This Kingston Fury Beast kit is essentially the same as the HyperX Fury I have previously reviewed, and the benchmarks of both this and HyperX were used in my Fury Renegade, I have also lazily reused much of the content from the previous review. However, I this memory represents good value for money so it is worth a post.

Specification

Test Set-Up

I don’t have a dedicated test rig, but my main work PC consists of:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• MSI MEG X570 Unifi
• Zotac RTX 3080
• Kingston KC2500 1TB NVMe

For RAM, I am comparing against:

• HyperX Fury 32GB 3600MHz DDR4 – HX436C17FB3K2/32
• Kingston Fury Renegade 3600Mhz RGB DDR4 CL16

Technically, the HyperX has a better spec with CAS17 while the Kingston is CAS18, but even with the XMP profile set, the various benchmarking apps I used seem to think it is CAS18.

AMD CCD Memory Write Performance with Zen 2 and higher

With recent AMD CPUs that use a chipset design, you get a lower write speed for memory on CPUs that use a single CCD/chipset. This is a decision AMD made with the CPU and has nothing to do with the memory itself.

With the new chiplet design, each CCD is connected to the I/O chip (cIOD) via a high-speed data fabric capable of reading 32 bytes and writing 16 bytes on each clock cycle. For CPUs using a single CCD (such as mine), you get 16 bytes of write performance vs the 32 bytes that the cIOD uses.

AMD states this was a calculated design choice because most client workloads don’t do much writing. By halving the data link write speed between CCD and cIOD they save area, improves power, and a few other ancillary benefits.

12 and 16-core CPUs that use a two chipset design will not have these issues.

Installation / Set Up / XMP profiles

Nowadays, RAM is extremely simple to set up. Once you have installed it, on the first boot, you will likely be told to go into BIOS, from here. You can set the XMP profile,

This was auto-selected, so nothing else to do, I just exited, and the RAM was running at the correct timings and frequency.

Performance

There is not a huge performance difference between the three options I tested. The Kingston Beast does fractionally outperform the HyperX but not enough to claim it is significantly better, nor is there any reason it would be better.

AIDA64

Geekbench 4

• Kingston Beast: 6476/39156
• HyperX Fury: 6427/39019
• Renegade RGB: 6591/40621

Passmark Memory Test

• Kingston Beast: 3294
• HyperX Fury: 3171
• Renegade RGB: 3355

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker

Kingston Beast

Loading Times by Scene

• Scene #1: 1.185 sec
• Scene #2: 2.982 sec
• Scene #3: 3.178 sec
• Scene #4: 1.856 sec
• Scene #5: 1.035 sec
• Total Loading Time:10.236 sec

HyperX Fury

Loading Times by Scene

• Scene #1: 1.897 sec
• Scene #2: 2.462 sec
• Scene #3: 3.377 sec
• Scene #4: 1.655 sec
• Scene #5: 1.509 sec
• Total Loading Time: 10.481 sec

Renegade RGB

Loading Times by Scene

• Scene #1: 1.712 sec
• Scene #2: 2.32 sec
• Scene #3: 3.526 sec
• Scene #4: 1.443 sec
• Scene #5: 0.69 sec
• Total Loading Time: 9.691 sec

Price and Alternative Options

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz DDR4 CL18 Desktop...	11,708 Reviews	£87.84	Buy on Amazon
	Corsair Vengeance LPX Black DDR4-RAM 3600 MHz 2x 16 GB -...	No ratings yet	£67.98	Buy on Amazon

The exact model for this Kingston FURY Beast 32GB kit is KF436C18BBK2/32. It has a CAS latency of 18. I have not been given the official RRP, and when Box first listed this, it was at £197.50, which would have made it poor value for money. Either Box or the RRP has been overinflated and you can get it much cheaper now.

MemoryCow has it listed for £132.99, Box has it at £133, and Amazon has it for £167.94 sold via a Market Place seller.  Prices have been dropping consistently, about £10 has been knocked off in the past week.

Nowhere seems to have the HyperX kit in stock anymore (because all HyperX RAM is discontinued). Amazon state some are coming in, but it is listed at £229.99

The best buy I can find is the Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G36C16U4R 3600 MHz which is CAS16 for £147 available from Amazon.

Corsair Vengeance LPX Black CAS18 is £143, so almost the same price as the Kingston Fury Beast.

Overall

Similar to the Kingston Fury Renegade RGB, the Fury Beast kit is excellent RAM. It performs as you would expect RAM with this specification to perform, and it is one of the cheapest options on the market.

Pricing is quite close to competitors, last week it was about £10 more, so it was about the same as the Crucial and Corsair. The current price makes it the cheapest option I can find currently, so a great buy.  

James Smythe( Editor-in-chief )

I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.

As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.

In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.

Last update on 2024-04-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API