The example you gave is actually different code and are not directly comparable. With i = 0; x = array[i++] will access the first element, x = array[++i] will a

The example you gave is actually different code and are not directly comparable. With i = 0; x = array[i++] will access the first element, x = array[++i] will access the second element. So of course in the second case the array load will wait until it gets the incremented value. Edit: The same code with a preincrement notation would be x = array[i]; ++i;