The Computer Language
24.11 Benchmarks Game

C gcc versus Free Pascal fastest performance

How the programs are written matters! Always look at the source code.

If the fastest programs are * hand-written vector instructions, does the host language matter? You might be more interested in the less optimised programs — more seconds, less gz source code.

fannkuch-redux
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C gcc #6 2.14 19,704 1582 8.43
* C gcc #4 14.04 19,704 1190 14.03
C gcc #5 7.29 19,704 917 28.25
C gcc #3 36.80 19,704 574 36.79
C gcc #8 39.33 19,492 483 39.32
C gcc 39.61 19,704 514 39.60
* C gcc #2 10.19 19,704 1563 39.99
Free Pascal 10.62 19,604 1057 42.30
n-body
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C gcc #9 2.10 19,772 1639 2.10
* C gcc #4 4.05 19,772 1398 4.05
C gcc #6 4.97 19,772 1186 4.97
C gcc #2 5.19 19,772 1270 5.19
C gcc #3 5.23 19,772 1214 5.23
C gcc 5.23 19,772 1179 5.23
* C gcc #5 5.43 19,772 1436 5.43
C gcc #8 5.54 19,492 1193 5.54
Free Pascal 6.29 19,672 1331 6.29
Free Pascal #2 6.29 19,672 1345 6.29
C gcc #7 6.89 19,772 1250 6.88
Free Pascal #3 7.18 19,672 1441 7.18
spectral-norm
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C gcc #6 0.40 19,772 1203 1.59
* C gcc #5 0.72 19,772 576 2.85
* C gcc #7 0.72 19,772 906 2.85
* C gcc #4 0.72 19,772 1145 2.85
C gcc #8 5.40 19,772 389 5.39
C gcc #3 1.43 19,772 470 5.70
Free Pascal #3 1.45 19,688 656 5.71
Free Pascal #2 1.44 19,688 548 5.71
Free Pascal 11.79 19,688 429 11.79
* C gcc #2   Make Error  
mandelbrot
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C gcc #6 1.28 33,400 1147 5.10
C gcc #5 1.63 33,512 788 6.31
* C gcc #4 3.52 33,060 805 13.89
* C gcc 3.49 32,864 828 13.92
* C gcc #7 3.51 33,276 1000 13.95
* C gcc #3 3.53 32,860 769 14.09
Free Pascal #5 3.90 33,116 980 15.50
C gcc #9 4.07 33,128 700 15.70
C gcc #8 25.15 19,496 412 25.15
Free Pascal #7 6.64 36,992 956 26.21
Free Pascal #3 26.57 19,672 533 26.57
Free Pascal #2 11.03 33,280 853 29.56
Free Pascal 11.04 33,280 853 29.59
Free Pascal #6 7.47 36,096 809 29.75
fasta
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C gcc #3 0.78 19,772 1469 0.78
C gcc #5 1.24 19,616 1286 1.24
C gcc #2 2.77 19,772 1299 2.76
C gcc #6 0.94 19,772 1936 2.78
C gcc #7 0.82 19,772 2276 3.24
C gcc 3.70 19,772 1213 3.70
C gcc #8 4.62 19,772 825 4.62
Free Pascal #6 5.60 19,636 1196 5.60
Free Pascal #5 5.65 19,636 1225 5.65
C gcc #4   Make Error  
k-nucleotide
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C gcc 3.84 130,408 1512 12.45
reverse-complement
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C gcc #7 0.44 499,992 1899 0.59
C gcc #9 0.48 500,032 1551 0.76
C gcc #6 0.96 675,260 828 1.36
C gcc #5 1.53 994,108 654 1.53
C gcc #2 1.06 994,536 757 1.58
* C gcc #4 3.70 500,452 716 3.69
Free Pascal #2 3.81 525,052 773 3.81
binary-trees
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C gcc #2 1.53 169,284 816 4.18
C gcc #3 1.96 134,540 842 4.70
Free Pascal #5 2.10 132,608 959 5.00
Free Pascal #6 2.10 132,608 967 5.03
Free Pascal #7 2.15 132,608 1010 5.15
C gcc #8 21.08 285,544 607 21.08
C gcc 21.67 264,244 660 21.67
C gcc #5 8.77 351,332 914 31.93
pidigits
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C gcc #2 0.74 19,772 422 0.74
C gcc 0.74 19,772 459 0.74
* Free Pascal #3 0.87 20,008 536 0.87
* Free Pascal #2 5.37 19,672 834 5.37
Free Pascal 14.68 19,720 3068 14.67
regex-redux
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C gcc #5 0.81 152,500 1403 2.03
C gcc #2 3.21 103,288 1121 3.21
C gcc #4 0.97 152,264 1237 3.28
C gcc #3 1.72 103,736 1273 3.31
Free Pascal 5.52 103,016 1313 5.52
C gcc

gcc (Ubuntu 14.2.0-4ubuntu2) 14.2.0

Free Pascal

Free Pascal Compiler
version 3.2.2 [2021/05/16]