Racket versus Lisp SBCL 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 Lisp SBCL #5 30.77 35,984 681 30.77 Lisp SBCL #3 36.37 29,828 826 36.36 Lisp SBCL #4 9.96 29,748 1527 39.01 Lisp SBCL #2 46.46 15,576 517 46.46 Racket #2 112.85 69,308 908 112.85 Racket #3 30.68 71,424 1101 116.70 Racket 140.73 69,084 649 140.73 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL #2 7.79 15,980 1403 7.79 Lisp SBCL 12.79 15,864 1368 12.79 Racket #2 14.11 69,380 1689 14.11 Racket 40.98 69,484 1496 40.98 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL #6 5.32 17,484 505 5.32 Lisp SBCL 5.32 17,960 631 5.32 Lisp SBCL #7 1.44 10,880 762 5.68 Lisp SBCL #2 1.44 10,880 915 5.69 Lisp SBCL #3 1.45 10,880 890 5.69 Lisp SBCL #8 1.44 10,880 791 5.69 Racket #3 3.83 66,808 627 14.73 Racket #2 15.00 67,848 532 14.99 Racket 29.49 67,340 446 29.49 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL 4.66 47,552 2473 16.48 Lisp SBCL #4 4.17 39,252 2447 16.63 Lisp SBCL #3 10.85 47,100 894 29.07 Racket #3 34.63 68,008 802 34.63 Racket #4 10.45 126,756 801 41.21 Racket 49.21 67,484 517 49.21 Racket #2 51.15 66,340 585 51.14 pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs Racket #2 1.19 68,388 1136 1.19 Lisp SBCL #3 3.22 127,976 493 3.21 Lisp SBCL #4 3.22 127,976 489 3.22 Lisp SBCL #2 6.02 137,764 648 6.02 Racket 12.45 71,504 453 12.45 regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Racket 23.71 1,305,156 541 23.70 Racket #2 13.79 1,507,508 729 24.67 Lisp SBCL #4 15.63 819,344 1972 31.32 fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL #6 4.54 15,816 1757 4.54 Lisp SBCL #3 5.96 15,876 1587 5.96 Racket #3 8.00 67,800 1280 8.00 Lisp SBCL #2 9.34 15,996 1622 9.34 Lisp SBCL 9.43 18,812 1424 9.43 Racket 19.20 67,316 1066 19.20 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL #5 16.48 153,116 2320 16.45 Lisp SBCL #4 17.02 152,920 2291 17.02 Lisp SBCL #6 10.20 537,800 2479 37.02 Lisp SBCL 11.81 381,756 2424 38.08 Lisp SBCL #3 52.10 381,228 1290 52.08 Lisp SBCL #2 52.27 381,232 1284 52.27 Racket #4 61.49 858,184 885 61.46 Racket 198.95 2,674,436 547 196.69 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Lisp SBCL 5.58 1,516,388 904 5.58 Racket #2 8.88 892,920 1030 8.88 Racket 40.81 2,041,148 553 40.81 Lisp SBCL #2 Timed Out binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs Racket #3 6.47 317,704 473 6.47 Racket #2 9.22 318,236 416 9.22 Lisp SBCL #3 5.01 364,316 932 9.32 Racket #4 4.86 481,644 853 9.34 Lisp SBCL 11.20 376,512 589 11.19 Racket 15.89 526,568 476 15.89 Racket Racket v8.7 [cs]. Lisp SBCL SBCL 2.3.0 all Racket programs & measurements all Lisp SBCL programs & measurements