A system and method for efficiently allocating data in a memory hierarchy. A system includes a memory controller for controlling accesses to a memory and a display controller for processing video frame data. The memory controller includes a cache capable of storing data read from the memory. A given video frame may be processed by the display controller and presented on a respective display screen. During processing, control logic within the display controller sends multiple memory access requests to the memory controller with cache hint information. For the frame data, the cache hint information may alternate between (i) indicating to store frame data read in response to respective requests in the memory cache and (ii) indicating to not store the frame data read in response to respective requests in the memory cache.