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 #9	0.78	19,772	1469	0.78
C gcc #5	1.24	19,772	1286	1.24
C gcc #7	2.76	19,772	1299	2.76
C gcc #6	0.94	19,772	1936	2.78
C gcc #2	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]