Latency and Speed

[thealmightyone]

DO all RAM components have a low latency but a low speed, or have a high speed but a high latency. I'm just not sure whether the speed of the Ram or its latency are more important for gaming. I'm thinking of getting PC-4400 Ram, but am I better off (performance wise) getting 'slower' ram.

 

[suprasteve]

most people like the 3200 and you get better latencies, as a rule of thumb, latencies and speed increase together, to go against that trend you spend a lot of money, for gaming latency is probably slightly more important, but it's easier to throw up two sticks and say "which one" than to give an overall rule

 

[ceewi1]

Your RAM will only run at the speed of your FSB/HT. For example if you put PC-4400 RAM with an AMD 64, it'll run at PC-3200. This will mean, however, that you can lower your latancies and retain stability (or overclock).

In short, you should be able to run that 'faster' RAM at the slower speed with the same latancies you would get out of the 'slower' RAM (all other things equal, of course).