Hi Andrew,
this sounded a plausible explanation, because the X86 processor does not have an instruction to calculate the power function.
So I tried the llvm.sin.f32 intrinsic, as the X86 processor family does have an instruction for that, but I still get the same problem. While you may still be right, there is at least something else going on as well.
Thanks for your input, though.
Taco.