Due to simulation overhead, validation of proposed microarchitecture enhancements may be limited to simple test scenarios, which focus on the known architectural deficiencies. These test scenarios often avoid a complete simulation of the eventual target environment in which the enhancements will be employed. A case study is presented, comparing and contrasting the performance of previous Thread-Level Speculation (TLS) proposals with that of a new, context-preserving proposal. Validation is performed within the constraints of a simulated target environment.