Explaining 2nd Level Cache

So recently I've been tweaking my computer's registry for its Memory Management. I know its a bad thing to do to edit your registry without knowing what it may cause to your system but i've only touched a specific registry value which is the SecondLevelDataCache in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

I've "accidentally" set its value to 512 Hexadecimal(1298 decimal) instead of 512 Decimal. My CPU's L2 Cache can only do 2x256 KB(Intel I3 2nd Gen 2330M).

So far I've seen faster responses from the system when I set it on 512 Hexa.

Not only that, I've also tried playing games and running applications and also observed better performance from them overall.

And now my question is, what might be a problem later on for this setting if I left it on? What might it cause to my hardware/OS if it were to be left like that that?

1 Answer

According to canonical source, the SecondLevelDataCache entry has no effect on performance. As a computer science bachelor I'm aware that modern CPU caches are invisible (transparent) to operating systems, optimizing RAM access automatically.

You may never know if you have really observed a performance "boost". Have you run any benchmarks and compared the result?

Nevertheless, keeping your modified value of SecondLevelDataCache probably does no harm to your hardware and user experience.