A processor uses a dedicated buffer to reduce the amount of time needed to execute memory copy operations. For each load instruction associated with the memory copy operation, the processor copies the load data from memory to the dedicated buffer. For each store operation associated with the memory copy operation, the processor retrieves the store data from the dedicated buffer and transfers it to memory. The dedicated buffer is separate from a register file and caches of the processor, so that each load operation associated with a memory copy operation does not have to wait for data to be loaded from memory to the register file. Similarly, each store operation associated with a memory copy operation does not have to wait for data to be transferred from the register file to memory.