Corsair has announced two new additions to its Vengeance line of gaming desktop PCs, the 6180 and 6182. At reasonable prices of $1,899 and $1,999, respectively, for this level of build, they are contenders for the best gaming PC space. [Since the release of the second-generation Ryzen processors in 2018, AMD has become a major force on the hardware front. But with the 3rd generation Ryzen processors and 5700 series graphics cards, gamers finally have a real choice when it comes to high-end power. These new Vengeance PCs are just the first of what could grow into a healthy ecosystem of AMD-based builds, and Corsair is doing it all right with them.

There are no major differences between the 6180 and 6182 models, so we are reviewing the 6182 here, and expect the same performance from the two. The only difference is the motherboard and SSD: the 6180 has a B540 chipset and 460 GB of SSD space, while the 6182 has an X570 chipset and 1 TB of SSD space. Other specifications are the same, with a few USB ports. [The Vengeance 6182 has all components in the Crystal Series 280X RGB case that Origin PC also uses for the Big O. This dual-chamber case clearly displays the GPU, RAM, and other flashy components on the tempered glass side, and the RGB lighting reflecting off the components is unintentionally drawn in. The opaque side houses the PSU and other non-obvious components.

While there are no changes to the case design, airflow on the 6182 seemed better than I remembered when compared to the 2018 Vengeance 5180. It could be as simple as a different fan or PSU, but the hum at idle was not as loud. The 6182, running at an average idle temperature of 45°C, was dead silent, unlike the 5180.

Compared to the previous generation 5180 with an Intel Core i7-8700 and RTX 2080 (which was $400 more expensive at launch), Corsair's latest AMD Vengeance 6182 performed nearly as well or better in both synthetic and in-game benchmarks The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X had the highest multi-core and single-core CineBench scores of 2049 and 198 (without overclocking), respectively The RX 5700 XT's 3DMark score was lower than the RTX 2080, about 100 points lower at 1440p resolution and 4 K resolution, about 300 points lower.

At 1080p ultra resolution, the Vengeance 6182 scored 76 fps in Total War: Warhammer II (Skaven benchmark), 88 fps in Division 2, and 67 fps in Metro Exodus. (The 5180 was 81 fps on Warhammer, an increase of less than 1%.) Since the 5180 review, we have updated our test procedure with different games, but for better comparison we also tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and the 6182 achieved 103 fps on SoTR and 60 fps on Wildlands; 5180 fared a bit better, with 113 fps and 75 fps, respectively.

Given this performance comparison, the pricing of the current 5181/5182 and the new 6180 series is interesting: the 5181, 6180, and 6182 Vengeance models are all priced at $1,999; the 6180 series all feature Ryzen 7 3700X and RX 5700 XT. The current 5181/5182 models are powered by a Core i7-9700 and RTX 2070 Super, so not only is the performance gain from the Nvidia GPU marginal, but they also cannot overclock an Intel CPU like an AMD CPU can.

The 6182 also has a better motherboard and SSD storage than the 6180, as well as faster RAM than the 5182 for the same price. the 5181 has a larger SSD than the 5182 and 6180, but no secondary storage, and the other three products for $100 less.

In terms of which model has the "better" components, they are all evenly matched. the AMD model loses out to the Nvidia-based model in terms of frames, but the 6182 makes up for it with its superior SSD. the SSD speed is screaming fast, with a read speed of 5,000Mb/sec. just shy of 5,000 Mb/sec, while the write speed is a screaming 4,285 Mb/sec. The Force MP600 SSD on this rig has a read speed of 5,000 Mb/s and a write speed of 4,285 Mb/s.

It is worth noting that the Vengeance 6182 is only available from Corsair's website; the 6180 and 5182 models can be found on Amazon; the 6180 model is available from Corsair's website. Also, as is usual with pre-built PCs, you can build your own PC for a few hundred dollars less using the same parts, but of course that does not include the cost of someone else building it for you or the two-year warranty. Strange pricing aside, there are no glaring drawbacks to the Vengeance 6182 gaming desktop. It's compact. It's quiet under stress. It's a competitively priced high-end rig with a unique look. [But you'll sacrifice faster RAM, a faster and larger SSD, and a better motherboard, and you'll only get decent frame rates at 1080p ultra. the RTX 2070 Super is a "better" card than the RX 5700 XT, but only 6% faster. The Vengeance 6182 is a smart investment that can be overclocked considering all the specs. Upgrade the graphics card in a few years and the rest of the system should still be healthy.