Thorough explanation on RAM.

[tempestt]

I have a kit of G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-4000 18-22-22-42 2x16. Is it worth to downclock my RAM to get my latency down to 3800/3866 cl16? I'm getting mixed comments about it and I have no idea what to do. I need an actual explanation so I can understand what the hell is going on because I have no idea what the hell the advantages and disadvantages are. 

It is on the way; I don't have it yet. 
I am running on a Z690 platform and a Gigabyte Aero G Z690 DDR4. 

[YoungBlade]

Take a look at this video:

 

Basically the answer is: higher speed = higher bandwidth, lower CL = lower latency.

 

However, latency is measured in clock cycles, so 1200MHz DDR4-2400 CL11 and 2400MHz DDR4-4800 CL22 have the same latency.

 

You want the highest possible speed and the lowest possible latency, but there's often a trade off. For gaming, lower latency is generally better. For some productivity tasks, higher bandwidth is better.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, tempestt said:

I have a kit of G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-4000 18-22-22-42 2x16. Is it worth to downclock my RAM to get my latency down to 3800/3866 cl16? I'm getting mixed comments about it and I have no idea what to do. I need an actual explanation so I can understand what the hell is going on because I have no idea what the hell the advantages and disadvantages are. 

It is on the way; I don't have it yet. 
I am running on a Z690 platform and a Gigabyte Aero G Z690 DDR4. 

Unless you can run CL16 or tighter at 4000, it's not worth the head ache and possible weeks of tweaking to eek out 1 or 2 ms faster latency.

 

If you where into competitive benchmarking, CL16 at 4000 would be considered loose.

 

It sounds like the information you're getting from people is a cross of gamers and people seeking the best performance possible even if it's just 1%.

 

I'd probably take the route of keeping the same timings and try running 4267mhz instead. That will decrease latency but also add a little but of bandwidth. But again, this depends on the effort and time you want to put into it.

 

Just a gamer? Set XMP and just enjoy the stable system. If your after FPS, you would concentrate on VGA OC over anything else.