A method for implementing prioritized refresh of a multiple way, set associative DRAM based cache includes identifying, for each of a plurality of sets of the cache, the existence of a most recently used way that has not been accessed during a current assessment period; and for each set, refreshing only the identified most recently used way of the set not accessed during the current assessment period, while ignoring the remaining ways of the set; wherein a complete examination of each set for most recently used ways therein during the current assessment period constitutes a sweep of the cache.