Here are some comparisons and tests using 

MATLAB Version 7.5.0.342 (R2007b)


Computer :  Dell Precision 690
            2xQuad-Core Xeon 5345 2.33GHz 64-bit.
            Est. Peak 75 GFlop/s

OS : Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit


Intel Linpack Benchmark 10.1 vs Matlab x = A\b  
using 8 cores
 _______________________________________________
 Size    Opers     Linpack        Matlab 7.5 
  n      GFlop   secs   GFlop/s  secs    GFlop/s
 _______________________________________________
 1000      0.7    0.04   17.74    0.11    6.46
 2000      4.9    0.2    24.74    0.51    9.67
 3000     17.7    0.5    35.46    1.4    13.12
 4000     42.5    1.1    38.68    2.5    17.27
 5000     83.5    2      41.77    4.4    19.02
 10000   655.6    14     46.83    27     24.54
 15000  2250.9    43     52.35    78     28.79
 20000  5331.5    98     54.40    169    31.51
________________________________________________



 MatBenchMC times (secs), 5000 x 5000 matrix
_______________________________________________
Cores      1        2       4       8   Speedup
                                         1:8 
_______________________________________________
MM       30.8     16.2     8.6     5.3   5.86
LUD      12.7      7.5     5.0     4.7   2.70
Det      12.1      7.1     4.7     4.0   3.05
Inv      37.7     22.8    15.2    13.0   2.89
_______________________________________________
SVD    2143.7   2108.4  2049.9  2043.8   1.05
QRD     142.2    130.8   117.1   113.9   1.25
Eig     497.5    430.2   396.5   383.8   1.30
Rank    233.9    223.7   214.6   213.6   1.09
Cond    231.4    219.1   212.9   212.1   1.09
_______________________________________________
Total  3341.9   3165.7  3024.5  2994.2   1.12


 The Linpack test is at

http://www.intel.com/cd/software/products/asmo-na/eng/266857.htm


I will post the Matlab code for the tests, if anyone is interested.


Derek O'Connor