Someone Found Chinese NAND Flash in a Corsair Vengeance Memory Kit

Someone Found Chinese NAND Flash in a Corsair Vengeance Memory Kit | PCMag

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(Credit: Corsair)

As the global memory shortage continues, Corsair memory may be trialing a new source for its NAND Flash chips, VideoCardz reports. An X user posted screenshots of some Corsair Vengeance memory they were running and found that the underlying NAND Flash chips on the sticks were made by China-based ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). This could be a sign of memory companies diversifying as best they can to avoid steeper price rises.The past year has seen consistent and repeated memory price hikes. As data centers gobbled up all the available RAM and encouraged memory producers like Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix to produce server-friendly HBM instead of DDR, shortages and rising costs abound. While we wait for new fabrication capacity at the big players to come online in 2027 or 2028, though, other alternatives are emerging. One of those is the Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT. You May Also Like

Although a comparative newcomer to the memory market, having only launched as a company in 2016, CXMT is already a major global producer, with a major expansion in 2025 driving it toward a near-10% stake in the global DRAM market. Now it may be making inroads in mainstream DDR memory, with Corsair potentially testing the waters with a new supplier. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

According to the CPU-Z screenshots, the memory is a 2x8GB, 16GB Corsair Vengeance kit with a DDR5-6000 speed rating. Its standard JEDEC speed locks it to 2,400MHz with timings of 40-40-40-77, but onboard EXPO and XMP profiles bring it to 3,000MHz and adjust the timings to C36-40-40-96. That suggests it will run at full speed in both AMD and Intel systems. Recommended by Our Editors Threat of Samsung Strike Pushes Up Memory Prices (Again) China Asked ChatGPT for Help Crafting Online Harassment Campaigns DDR5 Prices Drop After Google's TurboQuant News. Don't Expect It to Last

Intriguingly, the product name is listed as CMK5X16G3E60C36A2-CN. Both points point to Corsair Vengeance memory, and the Chinese market, which could suggest this is a China-exclusive product, or a sample where Corsair is testing the waters in a market close to that of its potential new supplier. Although CXMT is considered an entity of interest by US authorities and has been subject to sanctions in the past to curb the sale of cutting-edge chip manufacturing equipment to the company, many restrictions on its activities were lifted earlier this year. That could open up sales of CXMT-based memory outside China, potentially in the United States.

About Our Expert Jon Martindale Contributor Experience Jon Martindale is a tech journalist from the UK, with 20 years of experience covering all manner of PC components and associated gadgets. He's written for a range of publications, including ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and Lifewire, among others. When not writing, he's a big board gamer and reader, with a particular habit of speed-reading through long manga sagas. Jon covers the latest PC components, as well as how-to guides on everything from how to take a screenshot to how to set up your cryptocurrency wallet. He particularly enjoys the battles between the top tech giants in CPUs and GPUs, and tries his best not to take sides.Jon's gaming PC is built around the iconic 7950X3D CPU, with a 7900XTX backing it up. That's all the power he needs to play lightweight indie and casual games, as well as more demanding sim titles like Kerbal Space Program. He uses a pair of Jabra Active 8 earbuds and a SteelSeries Arctis Pro wireless headset, and types all day on a Logitech G915 mechanical keyboard. Latest By Jon Martindale AMD's RX 9070 GRE Graphics Cards May Soon Be Available Outside China Time to Switch: How to Set Up Passkeys Before Microsoft Ditches SMS 2FA Logins China Just Made a GPU That's Powerful Enough for Gaming, But There's a Catch Preorders for AMD's $3,999 Ryzen AI Halo, Its DGX Spark Competitor, Start in June Valve Overhauls Steam Tags, Kills Off Dozens But Adds New Categories, Too More from Jon Martindale Read Full Bio

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