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 1.42 152,192 1397 3.40 100% 48% 48% 44% C++ g++ 1.86 203,856 1315 4.49 99% 50% 48% 44% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 8.73 696 910 34.46 100% 95% 100% 100% C++ g++ 10.71 1,708 980 42.33 100% 96% 100% 100% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 3.59 168,896 809 11.86 77% 74% 98% 82% C++ g++ 3.96 113,236 809 12.86 74% 84% 98% 69% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 7.30 8 1391 7.41 0% 1% 100% 0% C++ g++ 7.70 1,612 1879 7.81 100% 0% 1% 1% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.75 2,608 452 1.80 67% 0% 2% 33% C++ g++ 1.82 4,312 513 1.87 1% 1% 2% 100% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.98 988 569 7.89 99% 99% 100% 99% C++ g++ 1.99 2,408 1044 7.89 99% 99% 99% 99% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.46 2,948 2268 5.84 100% 99% 100% 99% C++ g++ 1.46 2,024 2711 4.40 75% 76% 75% 76% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.92 551,900 820 2.58 20% 99% 14% 1% C++ g++ 1.89 499,672 2093 1.94 100% 2% 1% 1% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 1.64 27,024 1135 6.53 99% 99% 100% 100% C++ g++ 1.51 26,256 1791 6.01 100% 99% 99% 99% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load C gcc 4.84 130,192 1506 16.00 98% 83% 63% 87% C++ g++ 3.88 156,164 1631 12.09 72% 92% 71% 77% C gcc gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2) 9.3.0 C++ g++ g++ (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2) 9.3.0 all C gcc programs & measurements all C++ g++ programs & measurements