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| Troubleshooting the Motherboard and System Devices | Secondary Cache ]
I added more secondary cache to the system but I didn't see any improvement in
performance
Explanation:You were told that adding more secondary (level 2) cache to the system
would improve performance, but don't see it. The system seems the same as it did before.
Diagnosis: The truth is that especially if you already have 256 KB of cache, adding
another 256 KB does not significantly impact on performance. The reason is that the
original cache is already probably catching over 90% of memory requests, so there just
isn't that much room for improvement. A 5% improvement in overall performance is typical
for a desktop user, and increases in speed of less than 10% are hard for most people to
notice. Of course, this all assumes that your upgrade was performed correctly, and
actually "took".
Recommendation:
- Make sure that the extra cache was recognized and is being used. When the system boots
up, check to see how much cache it is reporting, and make sure it is the right amount.
- Double-check in your system manual to see if adding more cache requires any jumpers to
be changed on the motherboard. Some do require this. Check in the BIOS setup for a BIOS
setting that you may need to change (though this would be unusual).
- Run some benchmark programs and compare their results to before the upgrade. Some sort
of improvement, even if minor, should be apparent.
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