Why mysql 5.5 slower than 5.1 (linux,using mysqlslap)
You may find this surprising, but MySQL 5.1 may outperform MySQL 5.5 under certain circumstances.

Percona performed a bake-off among multiple releases of MySQL


MySQL 4.1
MySQL 5.0
MySQL 5.1 (with built-in InnoDB)
MySQL 5.1 with InnoDB-plugin
MySQL 5.5
MySQL 5.6


All tests were performed with MySQL unconfigured (In other words, no my.cnf was made). The results?


MySQL 4.1 performs the best single-threaded
MySQL 5.1 with InnoDB plug-in scales on multiple cores better than 5.1 InnoDB built, 5.5 and 5.6


If you want newer versions of MySQL to perform better, you must tune for it. In fact, I described in the DBA StackExchange the idea of performing a MySQL Bakeoff.

What do I mean tune for it?

In MySQL 5.5, there are new InnoDB options for utilizing more dedicated read threads, write threads, and overall I/O capacity. This can engage more CPUs in multicore servers. Left unconfigured, MySQL 5.5 would operate on the same level playing field, in most cases, as older versions of MySQL. Sometimes, it could perform worse.