diff --git a/core/src/com/google/zxing/pdf417/decoder/PDF417CodewordDecoder.java b/core/src/com/google/zxing/pdf417/decoder/PDF417CodewordDecoder.java
index 478f0e23a..017f3f399 100644
--- a/core/src/com/google/zxing/pdf417/decoder/PDF417CodewordDecoder.java
+++ b/core/src/com/google/zxing/pdf417/decoder/PDF417CodewordDecoder.java
@@ -98,9 +98,13 @@ final class PDF417CodewordDecoder {
     int bestMatch = -1;
     for (int j = 0; j < RATIOS_TABLE.length; j++) {
       float error = 0.0f;
+      float[] ratioTableRow = RATIOS_TABLE[j];
       for (int k = 0; k < PDF417Common.BARS_IN_MODULE; k++) {
-        float diff = RATIOS_TABLE[j][k] - bitCountRatios[k];
+        float diff = ratioTableRow[k] - bitCountRatios[k];
         error += diff * diff;
+        if (error >= bestMatchError) {
+          break;
+        }
       }
       if (error < bestMatchError) {
         bestMatchError = error;
diff --git a/cpp/core/src/zxing/pdf417/detector/LinesSampler.cpp b/cpp/core/src/zxing/pdf417/detector/LinesSampler.cpp
index 4ec640ea3..62c005473 100644
--- a/cpp/core/src/zxing/pdf417/detector/LinesSampler.cpp
+++ b/cpp/core/src/zxing/pdf417/detector/LinesSampler.cpp
@@ -408,7 +408,11 @@ void LinesSampler::linesMatrixToCodewords(vector<vector<int> >& clusterNumbers,
       for (int j = 0; j < POSSIBLE_SYMBOLS; j++) {
         float error = 0.0f;
         for (int k = 0; k < BARS_IN_SYMBOL; k++) {
-          error += pow(RATIOS_TABLE[j * BARS_IN_SYMBOL + k] - cwRatios[i][k], 2);
+          float diff = RATIOS_TABLE[j * BARS_IN_SYMBOL + k] - cwRatios[i][k];
+          error += diff * diff;
+          if (error >= bestMatchError) {
+            break;
+          }
         }
         if (error < bestMatchError) {
           bestMatchError = error;