Does frequency or timing matter more for DDR5 RAM performance?

Frequency matters more than timings on DDR5. Increasing frequency gives noticeably more FPS than tightening timings, which only yields 1–3% gains in best-case scenarios. Bumping frequency from 6000 MT/s to 6400 or 6800 can give 5–8% real gains in CPU-bound games, especially on Ryzen 7000/9000. Buy faster-rated RAM instead of spending hours manually tuning timings, unless you’re already at max stable frequency.