Background
While running benchmark tests this morning, my colleagues and I discovered some strange things concerning performance of C# code vs. VB.NET code.
We started out comparing C# vs. Delphi Prism calculating prime numbers, and found that Prism was about 30% faster. I figured CodeGear optimized code more when generating IL (the exe was about twice as big as C#'s and had all sorts of different IL in it.)
I decided to write a test in VB.NET as well, assuming that Microsoft's compilers would end up writing essentially the same IL for each language. However, the result there was more shocking: the code ran more than three times slower on C# than VB with the same operation!
The generated IL was different, but not extremely so, and I'm not good enough at reading it to understand the differences.
Benchmarks
I've included the code for each below. On my machine, VB finds 348513 primes in about 6.36 seconds. C# finds the same number of primes in 21.76 seconds.
Computer Specs and Notes
- Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 @ 2.4Ghz
Every machine I've tested on there is a noticeable difference in the benchmark results between C# and VB.NET.
Both of the console applications were compiled in Release mode, but otherwise no project settings were changed from the defaults generated by Visual Studio 2008.
VB.NET code
Imports System.Diagnostics
Module Module1
Private temp As List(Of Int32)
Private sw As Stopwatch
Private totalSeconds As Double
Sub Main()
serialCalc()
End Sub
Private Sub serialCalc()
temp = New List(Of Int32)()
sw = Stopwatch.StartNew()
For i As Int32 = 2 To 5000000
testIfPrimeSerial(i)
Next
sw.Stop()
totalSeconds = sw.Elapsed.TotalSeconds
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0} seconds elapsed.", totalSeconds))
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0} primes found.", temp.Count))
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Private Sub testIfPrimeSerial(ByVal suspectPrime As Int32)
For i As Int32 = 2 To Math.Sqrt(suspectPrime)
If (suspectPrime Mod i = 0) Then
Exit Sub
End If
Next
temp.Add(suspectPrime)
End Sub
End Module
C# Code
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace FindPrimesCSharp {
class Program {
List<Int32> temp = new List<Int32>();
Stopwatch sw;
double totalSeconds;
static void Main(string[] args) {
new Program().serialCalc();
}
private void serialCalc() {
temp = new List<Int32>();
sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
for (Int32 i = 2; i <= 5000000; i++) {
testIfPrimeSerial(i);
}
sw.Stop();
totalSeconds = sw.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} seconds elapsed.", totalSeconds));
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} primes found.", temp.Count));
Console.ReadKey();
}
private void testIfPrimeSerial(Int32 suspectPrime) {
for (Int32 i = 2; i <= Math.Sqrt(suspectPrime); i++) {
if (suspectPrime % i == 0)
return;
}
temp.Add(suspectPrime);
}
}
}
Why is C#'s execution of Math.Sqrt() slower than VB.NET?