You never NEED to invoke XMP, you can always use the XMP settings by specifying them yourself.
But... that is the way to go, I think.
The ram maker has imbedded the settings necessary to run at the ram advertised speed in one of the xmp profiles included in the ram stick.
What is your motherboard?
The motherboard will have something to say about how fast ram can be set.
If you are a competitive ram overclocker, all rules go out the window.
Fast ram will be accompanied by higher latency negating much of the benefit of fast ram.
Buying the fastest ram is not likely to give you the real world benefits commensurate to the price.