[mikemike]

This is a common misinterpretation of the Dynamo paper: they compiled their C code at the _lowest_ optimization level and then ran the (suboptimal) machine code through Dynamo. So there was actually something left to optimize.

Think about it this way: a 20% difference isn't unrealistic if you compare -O1 vs. -O3.

But it's completely unrealistic to expect a 20% improvement if you'd try this with the machine code generated by a modern C compiler at the highest optimization level.