Yes, Chinese DRAM is fine for gaming but don't think for one moment that any of it is a bargain

A promotional image for Gudga DDR5 memory — (Image credit: Gudga)

Corsair, G.Skill, and Kingston are some of the best-known brands of DRAM for gaming PCs, and over the years, these companies have shipped millions of memory kits. However, now that we're well into pits of hell (aka the RAMpocalpyse), everything these vendors offer is now exceptionally expensive.

But what about the lesser-known brands? Ever heard of Cusu, Gugda, or Juhor? No, me neither, but that's because these are manufactured in and for China. With the US, European, and other major markets dominated by the big brands, there's been no call for these manufacturers to seek customers elsewhere. Until now, that is.

A promotional image for Adata XPG DDR5 memory — Better known via its XPG brand, Adata's RAM is good stuff. (Image credit: Adata/XPG)

As for good ol' Temu, well, I didn't have much luck there with DDR5, though I did stumble across a 16 GB DDR4-3200 Eaget kit for £65, whereas I'd have to pay $265 for a fancy-RGB Juhor DDR4-3200 set at DHgate, though a set of Cusu stuff of the same capacity and speed is only $123 at AliExpress.

Now, if you're looking at those prices and thinking "Err, that doesn't seem all that cheap," then you'd be quite right. After all, a 16 GB kit of G.Skill DDR5-5600 is $259 at Amazon, and just $220 at Newegg, if you use the listed promo code. It's a bit different if you want a 32 GB set of fast Corsair stuff for an ultimate Ryzen gaming PC build, with a DDR5-6000 CL36 kit setting you back $440 at Newegg, but none of this is massively more expensive than the Chinese DRAM.

As for DDR4, you can get a nice 16 GB kit of pink Timetec DDR4-3200 for $120 at Newegg, with the 32 GB version coming in at $220. Since that Temu DDR4 offer looks suspiciously too cheap, I'll ignore it and just focus on the fact that AliExpress and DHgate don't really have anything that undercuts Amazon and Newegg, despite being pulled from China's vast DRAM market.

This is probably because the memory supply crisis is affecting that country just as much as any other, but also because these stores will be well aware that many customers will be willing to pay those prices. In some cases, the prices you see plastered over the home page are a bit of a trap: You click on it to find that the low cost is only for a tiny, near-useless memory stick, with the more sensible stuff is considerably higher in price.

A promotional image showing two G.Skill DDR5 memory sticks on a reflective surface — Big-brand DRAM is no more expensive than stuff you've never heard of. (Image credit: G.Skill)

Admittedly, I spent just an hour going through AliExpress, DHgate, and Temu. That first store has an enormous array of memory kits on offer, and I dare say that I only sampled a small selection of them (partly because ordering lists by price doesn't seem to fully work at AliExpress). There are other stores out there too, such as Taobao, but they're often really hard to search through and find the right offers.

In other words, it's distinctly possible that there is a decent set of Chinese DDR4 or DDR5 out there that nicely undercuts anything you can buy from the major online retailers. But if you do find such a mystical beast, is it actually going to be any good?

Hardware Unboxed recently tested a KingBank set of DDR5-6000, which uses Chinese CXMT DRAM modules. Where the likes of Corsair and G.Skill have used Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron exclusively for years, China's memory vendors have been happily using home-manufactured chips for a good while now, and HUB's testing shows that it works perfectly fine.

Is This The Solution to Crazy DDR5 Prices? - YouTube

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Which is to be expected because AMD and Intel's processors have tight specifications for DRAM modules. You can't just throw any old rubbish in with them, because if the memory chips don't meet the requirements, it simply won't run. What a few benchmarks won't show, of course, is how well a DRAM kit will last over years of use.

I've had a mega-expensive set from a well-known brand fall apart after less than 14 months, possibly because of a manufacturing defect with the heatsink, and while the kit still runs just fine, it looks a complete mess now. So if problems can crop up with something that will set you back almost $1,000 now, products that are less than a quarter of the cost will certainly be just as susceptible to issues, if not more so.

But since all DRAM prices are utterly ridiculous now, any savings to be found shouldn't be ignored. So if you stumble across a 16 or 32 GB kit of DDR4 or DDR5, with decent speeds (though that actually doesn't matter all that much in gaming), then by all means grab it while you can. Forget about the name and the marketing stuff: If it's proper memory and not an obvious scam, then it will all work just fine in your gaming PC.

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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?

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