Matlab, on intel hardware (may be on AMD also), will
use intel's MKL, a very highly optimized math library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_Kernel_Library

"Intel's Math Kernel Library (MKL) is a library of
optimized, math routines for science, engineering,
and financial applications. Core math functions
include BLAS, LAPACK, ScaLAPACK, Sparse Solvers,
Fast Fourier Transforms, and Vector Math."

So, if someone on Matlab is doing  say x=A\b or A*B,
then Matlab will do this as fast as any body else,
since it will end up making a call to the MKL.

(Actually Matlab's A*B is faster than Fortran's
MATMULT(A,B) based on what I read on the net.
http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gfortran/MATMUL.html

You can google this.

But for generic operations, i.e. pure m code,
then would expect C++ generated compiled code, which
does an equivalent algorithm to be faster than Matlab's.

That is why it is good to always try to use Matlab's
build-in functions. They most likely end up making
calls to such libraries as MKL and will be much
faster than home grown pure m code.

--Nasser