Lexar Hades RGB DDR4-3600MHz Memory Kit Review

A few weeks ago, Lexar released its Hades RGB line of DDR4 gaming memory. It’s the company’s first attempt to penetrate the gaming DRAM market. However, the “gaming DRAM” market is not only saturated at this point, but the competition is stiff as well. We have the Lexar Hades RGB DDR4-3600MHz 32GB memory kit here. Let’s find out how well it performs and if it can keep up with the competition. Please continue reading our Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 memory review below.

Lexar Hades RGB DDR4-3600MHz 32GB Memory Kit Review

Lexar’s Hades RGB DDR4 memory kits are marketed towards gamers and performance users. Just like any PC components and peripherals that are aimed towards “gamers”, the Lexar Hades memory kit is built with RGB lighting. It is compatible with ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion 2.0, MSI Mystic Light, and ASRock Polychrome SYNC.

Unlike the other memory manufacturers who bombard the market with a wide range of memory speed and latency, Lexar only released two memory speeds and a couple of capacity options. The Hades RGB DDR4 is only available at 3200MHz and 3600MHz memory speed. When it comes to capacity, there are only 8GB and 16GB sticks; or a 16GB kit and 32GB kit.

According to Lexar, the Hades DDR4 memory kits are compatible with Intel XMP 2.0 and support the AMD Ryzen platform as well. Below are the rest of the specifications of the memory kits.

Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 Specifications

Packaging and Closer Look

Above you can see the front and rear view of the Hades RGB DDR4 memory’s retail packaging. While I don’t have any complaints about the packaging, it looks nice and decent by the way, there are a couple of things that caught my attention.

First, if you look closely at the “32GB Kit” sticker label on the lower-right corner, you’ll notice that the memory speed is indicated as “3600 Mbps”. I think “Mbps” is not the right term here, as Mbps means Megabits per second. “Mbps” is not the same as “MHz” or MegaHertz. Since it’s only a sticker label, Lexar can still correct this one.

Second, it’s good that you can read the memory size and speed, but the information regarding the memory timings is nowhere to be found on the retail box. You’ll have to open the box and look at the sticker to see the memory timings. However, I doubt that the store would allow you to do that since the box is sealed. I hope Lexar would indicate the CAS latency information or memory timings on their future memory kits.

The Design is Okay…

I’m glad that Lexar didn’t go with a very aggressive or “screaming” heat spreader design, since they are targetting the gaming segment. The memory’s heat spreader is an aluminum sheet with a brushed texture. There is a cut-out for the RGB light diffuser on top. It’s plain and simple but somehow for me, the design is somewhat uninspiring.

The Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 is a single-sided memory stick. This means that only one side of the memory’s PCB is populated with memory chips. There is a total of eight memory chips on each stick. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information as to where the memory chips are sourced from. Lexar didn’t seem to disclose who is the manufacturer of its memory chips.

The RGB Light Bar…

Lexar has RGB Sync software to control the RGB lighting effects on the Hades DDR4 memory kit. However, it was mentioned on its media kit that the Lexar RGB Sync software is unavailable in the US. But you can use the motherboard’s software to control the RGB lighting.

Now, let’s see how the Hades DDR4-3600 Memory performs.

Test System Used

Originally, I plan to test the Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 on both Intel and AMD system. For the AMD system, the motherboard is the Gigabyte X570s Aorus Master. Unfortunately, I was not able to make the Hades DDR4 work on that system, even after updating the motherboard’s BIOS. It would only run at DDR4-3200MHz CL-22-22-22-52, so I decided to not include it.

I am not sure if the issue is isolated to the X570s Aorus Master alone. But considering that the Hades DDR4 is not optimized for the AMD Ryzen system, I guess it could be a hit or miss depending on the motherboard.

As for the test system used for this review, I am using MSI’s MEG Z490 GODLIKE motherboard powered with an Intel Core i7-10700K. Below are the rest of the specifications of the system.

Below are the XMP and SPD information screenshots of the Hades DDR4 memory kit.

Lexar Hades RGB DDR4-3600MHz Benchmark Results

AIDA64 Memory Benchmark Results

One of Lexar’s competitions that they mentioned in the media kit is the Crucial Ballistix RGB. Luckily, I have a Ballistix RGB DDR4-3600 CL16 32GB kit to compare it with. Based on the results that I got from the AIDA64 memory benchmark, Crucial’s Ballistix RGB DDR4-3600 performed slightly faster and better than Lexar’s Hades RGB DDR4-3600 memory kit. I was somewhat expecting that since the Ballistix RGB has tighter timings than the Hades RGB DDR4.

It’s CL16-18-18-38 of the Ballistix vs CL18-22-22-42 of the Hades. The minute changes in timings do affect the memory’s performance. The lower the CAS latency, the better and faster the memory runs. However, in a real-world scenario, the performance difference is negligible and unnoticeable.

SiSoft Sandra Memory Benchmark Results

Up next is the SiSoft Sandra benchmark suite, and Lexar’s Hades RGB DDR4-3600 memory is slightly behind Crucial’s Ballistix memory. I am a bit surprised to see that Corsair’s Dominator Platinum was able to outperform Lexar’s Hades, despite having a slower memory clock speed of 3200MHz.

In the memory bandwidth test, you can see that both memory kits are just on par, with the Dominator Platinum performing a hairline faster. Meanwhile, on the memory latency test, the Lexar was the slowest. Again, the performance differences between these kits are unnoticeable and negligible in a real-world scenario or day-to-day use.

Finally, with the overall memory test, the 4000MHz kit is still the overall faster memory thanks to its faster clock speed; while the 3200MHz kit is the “slowest”. However, between the Ballistix RGB DDR4 and Hades RGB DDR4, the former is slightly faster thanks to its tighter memory timings.

Time to wrap things up…

Pricing and Availability

The Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 memory kits are now available. The DDR4-3600MHz 32BG (16GBx2) kit comes with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $217 USD. Lexar is also offering a limited lifetime warranty for the said memory kit. However, at the time this review was published, Lexar has discounted the retail price down to around $160 USD only. I’m not sure if this is permanent or a limited-time promotion. For the latest pricing and availability, visit the link below.

Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 Memory is available on Amazon here.

Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 Memory Review Conclusion

After using the Hades RGB DDR-3600MHz memory kit, I think Lexar is off to a good start here. However, there is definitely room for improvement. Performance-wise, the memory timings could be improved and make them a bit tighter. Perhaps, Lexar could use better memory ICs in the future, which will help out with the performance. Aesthetically speaking, it is not bad, but I think it’s a bit plain and uninspired. While the design falls into one’s personal preference, I think Lexar could improve it a little bit by adding some flair to it.

Finally, let’s talk about the price. With its MSRP of $217 for the DR4-3600MHz 32GB kit, it would be a hard sell. There are better options from G.Skill, Corsair, and even HyperX. Good thing that the retail price for this specific memory kit is down by 26% as of today. I hope Lexar would keep the price down or better yet, offer a bit more discount to make it even more attractive. Like I mentioned earlier, the market for “gaming memory” is saturated and the competition is fierce.

Another thing I would like to note is that if you are using an AMD system, I would recommend that you opt for an AMD-optimized memory kit. Although the Hades RGB DDR4 is compatible with the AMD Ryzen system, it didn’t run at 3600MHz on my X570s Aorus Master motherboard. I can’t speak for the other AMD motherboards, but all the other memory kits I have tested worked with the X570s Aorus Master without any hiccups.

At the end of the day, I think that the Lexar Hades RGB DDR4 memory kit is a good alternative. It will not be my first choice, but it’s not a “bad” memory kit and Lexar is off to a good start. They just need to improve further. If you can spot one for a really good price, it may be worth considering.