Sorting for Speed: The Hidden Branch-Prediction Win in a Simple Sum Benchmark

We dive into a surprising performance quirk: summing numbers greater than 128 in a huge random array can be dramatically slower than the same operation on a sorted array—thanks to CPU branch prediction and pipeline behavior. We unpack how mispredictions cost clock cycles, why a sorted pattern yields almost no mispredictions, and how branchless code (or compiler tricks like conditional moves) can reclaim speed without sorting. We’ll cover practical guidelines for writing fast code, when sorting helps, and the hardware realities that Big-O analysis often misses. Sponsored by Embersilk.

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Sponsored by Embersilk LLC