Admin Tips
- Windows Server 2008/2003/2000/XP/NT Administrator Knowledge Base
  - Windows NT
    - Registry Tips
      - Miscellaneous
        L2 cache

Section(s): Miscellaneous
Published on Apr 20, 2004.
Last Modified on Apr 20, 2004.
Last Modified by Wayne Maples.
Rating: Not Rated

This item is obsolete. On all modern systems, that is all supported processors/systems, it should not be an issue. This is not related to the hardware; it is only useful for computers with direct-mapped L2 caches. Pentium II and later processors do not have direct- mapped L2 caches.

If you have more than 256K of L2 cache, NT may not be using all of it. To correct this:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement
Name: SecondLevelDataCache
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 default for for 256KB of L2 cache

If you have more cache, adjust the value by double-clicking SecondLevelDataCache to bring up DWORD editor. Click Decimal. Enter the amount of L2 cache you have and click OK.