C gcc versus C++ g++ fastest programs Always look at the source code. These are only the fastest programs. Look at the other programs. They may seem more-like a fair comparison to you. regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 0.80 152,196 1397 2.03 48% 100% 54% 53% C++ g++ 1.08 203,816 1315 3.38 78% 99% 65% 73% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 7.52 836 910 29.37 99% 100% 93% 99% C++ g++ 8.08 1,900 980 31.45 98% 100% 98% 93% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 0.72 1,100 569 2.86 100% 99% 100% 100% C++ g++ 0.72 1,216 1044 2.86 100% 100% 99% 100% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 4.30 8 1391 4.32 0% 0% 0% 100% C++ g++ 4.09 1,800 1808 4.13 100% 0% 0% 0% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 0.82 2,896 2268 3.26 99% 100% 100% 99% C++ g++ 0.78 2,468 2751 1.62 8% 99% 99% 3% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 0.73 2,848 416 0.75 1% 100% 1% 0% C++ g++ 0.60 4,944 986 2.38 100% 100% 98% 100% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 0.86 698,264 820 1.27 1% 18% 100% 28% C++ g++ 0.63 499,704 2093 0.64 0% 100% 2% 0% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.27 31,692 1135 5.08 100% 100% 100% 99% C++ g++ 0.84 34,604 3542 3.28 98% 99% 98% 95% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.79 168,760 809 5.35 64% 64% 71% 100% C++ g++ 1.04 154,824 1122 3.74 88% 100% 88% 86% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 3.81 130,112 1506 12.18 54% 87% 79% 100% C++ g++ 1.95 156,372 1631 5.95 73% 70% 92% 70% C gcc gcc (Ubuntu 10.2.0-13ubuntu1) 10.2.0 C++ g++ g++ (Ubuntu 10.2.0-13ubuntu1) 10.2.0 all C gcc programs & measurements all C++ g++ programs & measurements