DOMINATOR TITANIUM vs DOMINATOR PLATINUM: What’s the difference?

For those of you not in the know, CORSAIR started out as a memory company, and it wasn’t until much later that we started making cases, power supplies, keyboards, and everything else. This means that we’ve been at the bleeding edge of memory technology for almost 30 years, responding and contributing to every major paradigm shift in the world of DRAM (Dynamic RAM) ever since.

So, when the DDR5 memory standard was unleashed back in 2020, we released our top of the line DRAM modules to take advantage of the benefits of the new standard. Since then, the DDR5 standard has undergone some important changes, so it was time for a new flagship: enter DOMINATOR TITANIUM.

DRAM can be confusing, though, so the differences and advantages between DOMINATOR TITANIUM vs DOMINATOR PLATINUM might not be readily apparent, laymen or otherwise. To help with this, we’re going to break it down for you here. We’ll start with the design, then move onto the technical stuff.

DRAM is one of the most immediately visible parts of a PC, positioned to the right of the CPU, and sometimes flanking it on both sides. This means that it needs to look the part. So, we decided to take the iconic monolithic shape of our DOMINATOR PLATINUM DRAM and rethink it.

For starters, we've added a diffusion layer over the LEDs, creating a more even spread of illumination. This allows all 16.4m colors in the RGB spectrum to shine through and glow, instead of visibly separate LEDs. (Don’t worry, each LED is still individually addressable, so any animated lighting settings you’ve grown fond of will still work.) The light shines out from the top and through two slots on each side, so the DRAM looks great regardless of system configuration, so the more creative and experimental builders out there still get to enjoy the light show.

Additionally, we’ve changed the overall style of the sticks. Where the top bar of the DOMINATOR PLATINUM had an industrial vibe, looping around the top to join the sides, the TITANIUM top bar affixes seamlessly to the main body. This creates a more streamlined, yet angular shape which is minimalist enough to fit into any PC, but special enough to be an awesome showpiece.

Speaking of the design, we’ve also engineered the top bars to be user replaceable, so if you dig white DRAM, but fancy a two-tone arrangement, you can buy a black top bar to swap out. Vice versa if you’d prefer the opposite. These additional top bars are available exclusively on our webstore and for a touch of class feature visible copper cooling fins, too. We may be biased, but we think DOMINATOR TITANIUM is the best looking memory kit you can get your hands on right now.

Swapping the tops takes only takes a couple of minutes, too. You need only unscrew the hex key on each side of the top bar and ease it off. (Make sure to remove the DRAM from the motherboard before attempting this, by the way.)

In addition to allowing you to swap the top bars, removing them provides another advantage—a reduction in height. If you’re a fan of small form-factor builds or simply have an overly large air cooler, tall DRAM modules can be a problem. Removing the top bars of DOMINATOR TITANIUM allows you to remove almost a 3rd of the total height.

If you’re concerned that removing the top bars will result in worsened cooling, don’t be. The vast majority of the cooling is done by the main body of the module. This is where we’ve implemented our patented DHX tech that cools the front and rear of the DRAM chips, in addition to the PCB it’s all mounted to. This comprehensive cooling capability means that you can use DOMINATOR TITANIUM your own way. Regular top bars, the fin variants, custom 3D printed options, or no top bar at all. However you choose to run it, the performance won’t be impeded.

It’s worth noting that the AMD EXPO version of DOMINATOR TITANIUM is only available in grey with black top bars, and at the time of writing, we have no plans to sell grey RGB top bars—you can get get grey copper top bars, though. So those who fight on Team Red’s side should bear this in mind. Of course, this becomes less of a problem for those who have 3D printers, so let’s talk about that.

Those who keep an eye on PC gaming subreddits will have no doubt come across some awesome custom parts. A hobby that’s become more and more accessible since the advent of home 3D-printing. Here at CORSAIR we love that custom stuff, so make it easier for you guys to customize your CORSAIR DOMINATOR TITANIUM, we’ve released the 3D model files for the top bar and you can find them in the download section for any DOMINATOR TITANIUM kit.

So, you can use these as a baseline and get creative. As long as you have a H1.5 hex key to unscrew the pre-installed top bars (helpfully included with the First Edition DOMINATOR TITANIUM kits,) the top bars are your oyster, so to speak.

We mentioned earlier that the DDR5 spec was released in 2020, but in the years since, DDR5 has undergone a few significant revisions. These revisions are what allow us to push the technological capabilities of DOMINATOR TITANIUM further than we could with DOMINATOR PLATINUM DDR5.

The most influential aspect of performance upgraded in with the DOMINATOR TITANIUM DDR5 DRAM is the transfer rate. Where previous revisions of our DRAM topped out at 6,800MT/s (Mega-transfers per second,) DOMINATOR TITANIUM kits are available in speeds up to 8,000MT/s. This is a significant increase in power, which is particularly useful for gaming. Though you shouldn’t take our word for it, we got the folks over at Digital Foundry to do some testing. You can read the full Memory Matters article for more info, but the gist of it is that you can expect as much as a 31% increase in average frames per second when compared to comparable DDR4.

In terms of performance, design, and customizability, CORSAIR DOMINATOR TITANIUM DRAM is significantly more advanced than CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM DDR5. It's worth bearing in mind that you'll need to have a fairly up-to-date machine to be able to take advantage of DOMINATOR TITANIUM though, as it’s only available as DDR5. If your PC is a little older, you'll need to make sure your motherboard and CPU are DDR5 compatibility. If you’re good to go for DDR5, DOMINATOR TITANIUM is the way forward. Otherwise, our DOMINATOR PLATINUM and VENGEANCE line-up has you covered for DDR4.