Perl versus Ruby fastest performance 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 Ruby #2 169.71 29,140 1455 656.90 Perl #3 1,233.33 10,840 427 1,233.17 Ruby 1,466.53 24,936 384 1,466.47 Perl #2 421.78 12,164 570 1,677.14 Perl 1,806.93 10,844 457 1,806.70 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #3 190.96 25,644 1163 190.95 Ruby #2 218.13 25,684 1137 218.04 Perl #2 405.03 10,904 1429 404.98 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl #4 25.06 12,116 555 98.69 Perl #5 102.09 10,908 340 102.07 Perl 103.18 10,908 333 103.17 Ruby #4 134.68 27,356 326 134.67 Ruby 136.75 26,644 292 136.69 Ruby #5 57.56 28,488 758 210.10 Perl #3 128.66 10,908 850 510.64 Perl #2 529.19 10,908 343 529.02 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #5 155.55 93,112 970 619.59 Ruby #4 747.10 145,736 857 746.96 Ruby #2 255.19 95,912 880 1,015.91 Ruby #3 1,526.22 25,276 307 1,526.08 Perl 478.47 77,044 586 1,900.78 Ruby #6 Failed Ruby #7 Failed pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #5 1.64 894,828 488 1.64 Ruby #2 4.08 4,777,808 660 4.08 Perl 10.35 12,684 463 10.35 Ruby 17.24 167,116 518 17.24 Perl #4 Failed Perl #2 Failed regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl 22.52 205,596 464 22.52 Ruby #3 12.56 217,132 724 24.73 Ruby #2 24.86 242,680 437 24.84 Perl #2 17.08 205,220 710 29.44 Ruby #9 29.71 217,156 321 29.71 Perl #4 10.41 157,184 820 30.81 Perl #3 10.52 409,996 854 31.05 Perl #5 Bad Output fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #6 26.18 124,704 1069 26.18 Ruby #3 46.23 124,612 1002 46.23 Perl 61.00 55,380 871 60.99 Ruby #2 105.47 223,092 743 105.46 Ruby #5 112.99 27,152 995 112.98 Ruby #4 113.43 269,460 860 113.28 Perl #4 123.00 10,896 966 122.68 Perl #2 174.19 10,896 922 173.96 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl #2 114.21 659,832 359 114.19 Perl #4 40.72 1,069,244 476 127.66 Perl 38.38 1,247,436 652 131.20 Perl #3 51.56 1,146,964 513 168.22 Ruby #2 249.91 202,672 420 249.53 Ruby #3 285.77 209,580 540 285.36 Ruby #7 289.86 397,756 785 287.45 Ruby 83.82 174,084 576 291.63 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl #4 5.52 998,432 261 5.52 Perl #3 6.44 1,495,072 287 6.44 Ruby #4 5.60 2,506,468 601 11.05 Ruby #5 11.77 1,615,676 295 11.77 Ruby #3 8.25 4,445,520 482 15.86 Ruby #2 23.00 1,003,740 264 23.00 Ruby 17.18 5,610,896 514 33.33 binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #4 46.86 569,364 364 46.85 Ruby #2 48.74 569,392 378 48.73 Ruby 48.74 569,348 376 48.74 Ruby #3 50.83 402,724 400 50.80 Ruby #5 18.36 565,588 1008 52.32 Perl #6 41.09 760,080 792 151.46 Perl #5 53.48 1,048,556 797 197.47 Perl 254.18 599,668 395 254.16 Perl #4 79.93 2,519,600 761 288.88 Perl #3 113.93 2,203,376 648 383.93 Perl This is perl 5, version 36 subversion 0 (v5.36.0) x86_64-linux-thread Ruby ruby 3.2.0 (2022-12-25 revision a528908271) +YJIT [x86_64-linux] all Perl programs & measurements all Ruby programs & measurements