A computer-implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable program code are provided for reducing memory access latency. A memory controller receives a memory access request and determines if an address associated with the memory access request falls within an address range of a plurality of paired memory address range registers. The memory controller determines if an enable bit associated with the address range is set to 1 in response to the address falling within one of the address ranges. The memory controller flags the memory access request as a high-priority request in response to the enable bit being set to 1 and places the high-priority request on a request queue.A dispatcher receives an indication that a memory bank is idle. The dispatcher determines if high-priority requests are present in the request queue and, if so, sends the earliest high-priority request to the idle memory bank.