Kingston FURY Beast 8GB DDR5-5600 CL36 Black

Kingston's FURY Beast 8GB DDR5 stick runs at a solid 5600 MT/s with RGB and dual XMP/EXPO support. But 8GB is a tough sell for gaming in 2024, and the price spread is wild. Worth it only if you're on a tight budget and plan to add a second stick soon.

5600 MT/s at CL36 lands at the 78th percentile for speed and 71st for latency. That's well above average for DDR5, though not close to the top of the charts. The dual 32-bit subchannels and on-die ECC help with stability, and the low-profile spreader keeps things cool without hogging space. But single-channel operation with one 8GB stick will choke bandwidth on memory-hungry games. You'll want a second stick eventually.

Against the G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB and Corsair Vengeance RGB, this Kingston stick gets smoked on capacity and raw speed. Those kits run 32GB at 6000 MT/s or higher with tighter timings. The Crucial Pro Overclocking kit also offers way more headroom. But those are all dual-stick kits aimed at enthusiasts. The FURY Beast is a single 8GB stick, so it's really competing with budget DDR5 options like the ADATA Lancer Blade. And there it holds its own on speed, just not on value.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US you'll see this stick listed anywhere from USD 260 to USD 411, which is a wild spread for 8GB of DDR5. Newegg has the lower end of that range, so if you're buying in the US, that's the listing to watch. In Europe it's tighter, EUR 209 to EUR 246 across four listings. Honestly, even at the low end you're paying a premium for RGB and the FURY branding. You can find 16GB kits for similar money if you shop around.

Kingston's FURY Beast KF556C36BBEA-8 is a single 8GB stick of DDR5 running at 5600 MT/s with CL36 timings. It's got RGB, a low-profile heat spreader, and support for both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO. Nothing fancy, just a solid entry point into DDR5.

The catch? 8GB in 2024 is tight for gaming and brutal for anything heavier. Our database puts capacity at the 23rd percentile, which means most competing kits ship with way more memory. But if you're building a budget rig and just need to get off the ground, this stick does the job without drama.

Skip this if you're building a gaming PC and have room in the budget for a 16GB or 32GB dual-channel kit. The single 8GB stick will bottleneck performance in modern titles, and the price per gigabyte is rough. Also skip it if you're doing any kind of server or productivity work, our database shows server performance at the 22nd percentile, which is a real letdown.

This stick makes sense for someone building a budget AMD or Intel system who wants DDR5 now and plans to add a second stick later. The EXPO and XMP support means you can drop it in and go. But if you're building a gaming rig from scratch, buy a 16GB or 32GB dual-channel kit instead. You'll thank yourself in six months.