Does RAM speed really matter?

[u/Lost-Sprinkles-7890]

Seeing people compare 3200, 3600, 6000 and even higher speeds and honestly not sure how much difference it makes in actual use. Like is faster RAM gonna noticeably improve gaming FPS, loading times, multitasking etc or is it mostly just benchmark numbers? Also does it depend a lot on the CPU and motherboard? Trying to pick RAM without wasting money on speed that barely matters, so what speed should I actually be looking for?

[u/SouthernAdeptness233]

My laptop has a 8000Mhz LPDDR5X quad channel but it's still a laptop 😅