Thread: Inclusive Level 3 cache

First showcased on earlier Xeon server chips, the Core i 7 family of desktop CPUs feature up to a massive 8MB of level 3 cache (shared between all four cores) as compared to the 2 ME of Phenom X4. The cache is also described as an inclusive level 3 cache. Intel claims. an inclusive_cache is more efficient than an 'exclusive' cache design"'; even if it does mean that 1MB of Nehalem's 8MB Level 3 cache is taken up by storing a copy of the 256 KB Level 2 cache inside each processing core.