The Computer Language
24.11 Benchmarks Game

Swift versus C clang 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 clang #6 2.24 19,772 1582 8.86
* C clang #4 13.37 19,772 1190 13.37
C clang #5 8.09 19,772 917 31.94
* Swift #3 8.32 19,440 1103 32.99
* C clang #2 8.67 19,772 1563 34.02
C clang #3 34.16 19,772 574 34.15
Swift #8 35.13 19,444 470 35.12
C clang #8 36.39 19,492 483 36.38
C clang 36.51 19,772 514 36.50
n-body
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C clang #9 2.20 19,772 1639 2.20
* C clang #5 4.86 19,772 1436 4.86
C clang #6 5.16 19,772 1186 5.16
C clang 5.37 19,772 1179 5.37
C clang #2 5.42 19,772 1270 5.42
* Swift #3 5.43 19,440 1688 5.43
* Swift #4 5.46 19,440 1361 5.46
* Swift #5 5.49 19,440 1372 5.49
* Swift #7 5.50 19,440 1333 5.50
* C clang #4 5.60 19,772 1398 5.59
C clang #8 5.72 19,492 1193 5.72
Swift #6 5.78 19,440 1213 5.78
C clang #3 6.12 19,772 1214 6.12
Swift #8 6.65 19,440 1285 6.65
C clang #7 6.77 19,772 1250 6.77
Swift 7.85 19,440 1210 7.85
Swift #9 288.23 19,440 1532 288.20
spectral-norm
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C clang #6 0.38 19,772 1203 1.52
* C clang #4 0.72 19,772 1145 2.86
* C clang #2 0.72 19,772 941 2.87
* C clang #5 0.72 19,772 576 2.88
Swift #8 5.33 19,568 411 5.33
C clang #8 5.40 19,772 389 5.40
Swift #3 1.43 19,440 607 5.69
C clang #3 1.46 19,772 470 5.77
* C clang #7 1.82 19,772 906 7.24
mandelbrot
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang #9 1.22 34,332 700 4.85
* Swift #7 1.38 49,024 1147 5.49
* Swift #6 1.46 51,840 1147 5.78
C clang #5 1.53 34,864 788 6.09
* C clang #4 3.47 34,328 805 13.82
* C clang 3.49 33,172 828 13.93
* C clang #7 3.53 34,216 1000 14.00
* C clang #3 3.55 33,108 769 14.15
C clang #8 25.27 19,496 412 25.27
Swift #8 25.59 19,492 426 25.59
Swift 26.45 19,440 400 26.45
Swift #5 7.25 43,648 665 27.03
* C clang #6   Make Error  
* Swift #3   Bad Output  
fasta
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang #3 0.78 19,772 1469 0.78
C clang #5 1.20 19,772 1286 1.20
C clang #2 2.43 19,616 1299 2.43
C clang #6 1.03 19,772 1936 3.03
C clang #7 0.82 19,772 2276 3.27
C clang 3.46 19,772 1213 3.46
* Swift #2 2.11 19,440 1952 3.76
C clang #8 4.61 19,616 825 4.60
* Swift 5.15 19,440 1533 5.14
* Swift #3 2.18 31,248 2097 5.40
Swift #8 18.86 19,972 828 18.86
C clang #4   Make Error  
k-nucleotide
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang 6.30 129,228 1512 13.92
* Swift #2 14.54 260,820 1373 55.20
Swift #8 181.50 627,328 658 180.87
Swift #7 233.16 627,092 607 232.52
Swift   Make Error  
reverse-complement
source secs mem gz cpu secs
* C clang #7 0.45 499,996 1899 0.63
C clang #9 0.46 499,976 1551 0.70
C clang #2 1.16 994,536 757 1.69
C clang #5 2.08 994,108 654 2.07
* Swift 1.95 798,228 1293 2.39
* C clang #4 3.74 500,452 716 3.74
C clang #6 1.03 703,416 828 4.07
binary-trees
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang #2 1.66 170,236 816 5.36
C clang #3 1.89 134,272 842 5.88
C clang 17.79 264,064 660 17.79
C clang #8 19.63 285,536 607 19.62
C clang #5 9.25 351,328 914 33.65
Swift 18.28 737,152 720 54.20
Swift #8 54.90 402,048 567 54.89
Swift #4 17.49 707,456 772 55.84
Swift #5 18.89 738,048 813 56.25
Swift #2 18.29 707,456 822 58.16
Swift #3 18.18 707,584 868 58.24
* Swift #9   Make Error  
pidigits
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang #2 0.74 19,772 422 0.74
C clang 0.74 19,772 459 0.74
* Swift #2 0.75 19,440 606 0.75
regex-redux
source secs mem gz cpu secs
C clang #5 0.82 154,568 1403 2.82
C clang #2 3.22 103,364 1121 3.22
C clang #4 0.98 154,488 1237 3.82
C clang #3 1.75 105,848 1273 4.31
Swift #2 38.80 686,136 678 38.80
Swift 23.40 891,792 721 39.65
Swift #4 18.30 1,064,768 751 41.36
Swift

Swift version 6.0
(swift-6.0-RELEASE)
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

C clang

Ubuntu clang version 18.1.8 (11)