Well, here was a test done by me for this exact reason, it was in '03, and compiled under msvc 6 (also others compiled it under gcc/linux for comparison), and the same kept happening, the switch statement was the fastest method, because it got converted to a jump table by the compiler. I actually wrote a version where I hacked my own jump table, but it wasn't really any faster. Check it out:
http://ready4dis.8m.com/gdev_vm.zip
It runs 3 methods multiple times (so the first doesn't get screwed by the cache). Feel free to play with it, of course your instruction set will be different, but hey
. The methods are as follows: function call table, switch statement and switch statement with inlined functions.
