To set a performance baseline for the improvements that follow in this tutorial, build your project with these settings:
Select Project > Properties. The project property pages window appears.
Select Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Optimization .
For Optimization, select Minimum size from the dropdown list.
For Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Optimization [Intel C++] > Interprocedural Optimization, select No.
Select Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Language [Intel C++].
For Enable C99 Support, select Yes.
Select Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Code Generation .
For Floating Point Model, select Fast (/fp:fast).
The /fp:fast option sets the compiler to aggressively optimize floating point arithmetic operations. Using the /fp:precise or /fp:strict options may limit opportunities for auto vectorization.
Rebuild the project, then run the executable (Debug > Start Without Debugging). Record the execution time reported in the output. This is the baseline against which subsequent improvements will be measured.