Systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing efficient memory accesses for a computing system are disclosed. External system memory is used as a last-level cache and includes one of a variety of types of dynamic random access memory (DRAM). A memory controller generates a tag request and a separate data request based on a same, single received memory request. The sending of the tag request is prioritized over sending the data request. A partial tag comparison is performed during processing of the tag request. If a tag miss is detected for the partial tag comparison, then the data request is cancelled, and the memory request is sent to main memory. If one or more tag hits are detected for the partial tag comparison, then processing of the data request is dependent upon the result of the full tag comparison.