cpucpu-cache
I noticed that my laptop seems to have 4x the amount of "L2 cache memory" than my desktop, is that normal?
Is there a way for me to increase the L2 cache memory on my desktop? Would it make the computer faster? I have 3 GB of RAM in it.
It depends. If the inner loop of your program fits into the L1 cache of both CPUs and memory speeds are the same, you won't see much difference.
If the inner loop fits into the 6MB L2 cache, but does not fit into the L2 cache of the CPU with 6MB L3 cache, then the program will be faster on the older CPU with the larger L2 cache.
But in general, the inner loop part of a program is very small.
Lower CPU cache will result in a higher probability of cache misses, which will significantly degrade performance. That being said, another entire core will allow the computer to run at least two threads simultaneously, so it's a trade-off when you have to pick one over the other.
From the above graph, we can see that when the cache size is over 1 MB, the probability of a cache miss is already extremely low, and shows diminishing returns with increasing cache size.
Extra CPU cores, on the other hand, can show drastic speed increases when applications take advantage of the multiple cores.
For most real-world applications, the extra execution core will provide a better gain in performance over the extra cache. Both cache size and core count are vitally important when weighing a computer's performance, but when you are dealing with a relatively low amount of cores to begin with, extra cores will usually provide significant performance gains.
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Best Answer
the L2 cache is built into the CPU itself. The only way to get more is to replace your CPU with one that has more L2 cache.
The Celeron is more of a budget class processor compared to your C2D, so it makes sense that it has less cache.
Will more cache be faster? In most cases, yes.
In the case of your desktop, depending on the socket you can replace the CPU with a new unit that not only has more cache, but with a faster clock speed as well.