Putting Memory Latency into Perspective

As memory standards have changed over the years one thing has remained constant: the confusion that arises when trying to compare different memory speeds and timings. It's been drilled into our heads again and again that faster speed is good, but so are lower timings, and unfortunately those two ends seem to move in opposite directions. The higher the memory goes in frequency, the greater number of cycles spent waiting before reading from or writing to it. Invariably the question always arises, which is better for my system?

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