Answer:
Conditionals are slower than plain arithmetic operations, but much, much faster than something as silly as calculating the square root
Explanation:
integer or bitwise op: 1 cycle floating -point add/ sub/mul: 4 cycles . Floating- point div ~ 30 cycles Floating - point exponentiation :~ 60 cycles depending on implementation Conditional branch : avg. 10_ cycles, better if well- predicted , much worse if mispredicted.
