loop unrolling in C++

In the high-level view of a language, you're not going to see the optimization. The speed enhancement comes from what the compiler does with what you have.

In the first case, it's something like:

LOCATION_FLAG;
DO_SOMETHING;
TEST FOR LOOP COMPLETION;//Jumps to LOCATION_FLAG if false

In the second it's something like:

LOCATION_FLAG;
DO_SOMETHING;
DO_SOMETHING;
DO_SOMETHING;
TEST FOR LOOP COMPLETION;//Jumps to LOCATION_FLAG if false

You can see in the latter case, the overhead of testing and jumping is only 1 instruction per 3. In the first it's 1 instruction per 1; so it happens a lot more often.