well, the point of conditional moves is to avoid speculation. In theory a sophisticated CPU could convert predictable CMOVs to branches (and some non-diverging

well, the point of conditional moves is to avoid speculation. In theory a sophisticated CPU could convert predictable CMOVs to branches (and some non-diverging unpredictable branches to CMOVs), but IIRC Intel has, since Spectre, guaranteed that CMOV itself never triggers speculation.