I was inspired by an article I found on Medium called "How Fast Is C++ Compared to Python?". In the article, the author compares Python to C++ by benchmarking how quickly basic programs can generate all possible DNA k-mers for a fixed value of “k”. Like the article, the only goal was to compare these languages when they are going through exactly the same algorithm and instructions.
I ran the code in this repo on a MacBook Pro with the following specs:
- Chip: Apple M1 Pro
- Memeory: 32 GB
- OS Version: 12.5.1
The versions of the languages that were used are:
- Rust:
rustc 1.63.0 (4b91a6ea7 2022-08-08) - C++:
Apple clang version 13.1.6 (clang-1316.0.21.2.5) - Golang:
go version go1.19.1 darwin/amd64
I wanted to benchmark the binary each language would output. Below are the build commands I used for each language
- Rust:
cargo build --release - C++:
g++ -o ./k_mer ./k_mer.cpp - Golang:
Go build -ldflags "-s -w"
Each binary was timed using the time utility.
| K-mer | Number of Combinations | Rust Runtime (sec) | C++ Runtime (sec) | Golang Runtime (sec) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 67,108,864 | 6.438 | 6.334 | 7.480 |
| 14 | 268,435,456 | 26.102 | 25.308 | 30.196 |
| 15 | 1,073,741,824 | 104.963 | 101.485 | 119.602 |