Intel removed / disabled the last two bytes in the prefetch queue because they found that it actually made the CPU faster (because of less wasted prefetch cycle

Intel removed / disabled the last two bytes in the prefetch queue because they found that it actually made the CPU faster (because of less wasted prefetch cycles on jump instructions). The 8086 didn't have that problem, because it only started a new prefetch when there were two bytes free in the queue, so there was enough time for the jump microcode to stop it. edit: already mentioned in the article