I think I read somewhere on this forum or over at S@H that the optimized MB SSSE3 app was slightly faster than the SSE4.1 version but then I read this thread in the Windows forums. So... would it make sens to run the SSE4.1 optimized versions from the public beta download instead? Any benchmark numbers around from Core2 and Core i7?
That used to be the case mostly for quads, that SSSE3 builds were faster by some small amount. However with v8b, SSE4.1 build according to some testers, overtakes a little in performance at some angle ranges. IMO The difference would be so small as probably to be difficult to justify mucking around, though with 45nM dual cores the advantage can be a little more because of less pressure on the memory bus. ( ~1-2% overall, which is small, but could be significant over a great length of time).
The v8b builds sitting in beta download area, are actually the installer v0.2 release ones, just never got around to finishing the packages and moving them into public downloads, since most people seemed content to use the installer, and maintenance of all those packages is a lot of work.
Since, if desired, using the installer the same builds / documentation can be readily installed to a temporary folder other than the active project directory, for the purpose of extracting files, I don't see a great need for all those separate packages, and so may discontinue that method of distribution entirely. Undecided.