x87test.c output, PIII 500 MHz gcc 3.2.3 (MinGW 3.1.0) -O3 -ffast-math NOTE: The "Default" case uses the MSCRT run-time DLL call for pow(), NOT the new default implementation which Danny Smith put in. The Danny Smith version of pow() is much slower. See http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=6106262 sincos: Default: sum = 2.00000696427020e+007 CPU time = 8.109 seconds. In-line: sum = 2.00000696427020e+007 CPU time = 6.516 seconds. atan2: Default: sum = 4.17421689313004e+007 CPU time = 12.609 seconds. In-line: sum = 4.17421689313004e+007 CPU time = 5.891 seconds. exp: Default: sum = 5.00013168762230e+007 CPU time = 30.046 seconds. In-line: sum = 5.00013168762230e+007 CPU time = 23.375 seconds. pow: Default: sum = 4.56558765935041e+008 CPU time = 13.11 seconds. In-line: sum = 4.56558765935041e+008 CPU time = 10.703 seconds.