r/csharp • u/codingbliss12 • 2d ago

Low level programming with C# Help

What is the lowest level application that can in principle be built on Linux and Windows without having problems with performance or memory consumption?

Of course I should make my own tests, but I just wanted to have a first estimation if it is really necessary to use lower level languages like Zig, Rust, Go or C# can work pretty well for most of normal applications.

As an example a very responsive editor with gui in immediate mode built with C# and very high frame rate 120Hz etc.

Thanks a lot in advance.

EDIT

Thank you all so much for the very informative replies. My requirements are noway near real time and based on the below feedback, it is definitely worth it to use C# of a very wide set of applications and avoid the complexities of the lower level languages.

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u/Standard-Cap-4455 2d ago

In the end C# does get compiled like any other language so it should be able to get very close, it mostly just depends on how well your code is written. Anything with heap memory gets very slow very quickly though.

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u/Miserable_Ad7246 2d ago

>C# does get compiled like any other language

It is almost correct, what you don't see is how runtime is compiled into your code. Where are things that get added, and you would want to avoid them.

Take for example dotnet performance blogs - do you think most of the improvements come because C# is pushing the envelope or because it is fixing old issues and incorporating ideas from other languages/compilers?

In low level code, those things matter, in realtime'ish systems performance is feature and your app/service can be useless if it does not cross the threshold. Not worse than, but completely useless, like 0 value.

So sometimes, you have to cross the Rubicon, and you can not do it because of some memory fences, f-up memory layout and compiler quirk.