Four Ways to Compile C for Windows:
https://nullprogram.com/blog/2016/06/13/
Pelles C statement:
 

Quote

If performance isn’t of high importance, and you don’t require specific code generation options, then Pelles C is a nice choice for Windows builds.

So that statement is true? Are performances lower if I use Pelles C???
 

 

Unless you're coding media en-/decoders, high-frequency trading algorithms, coinminers or similar things where every single bit of performance counts, you will not see a difference.

 

Downside to that article is the lack of actual info comparing the compilers across the board, it's also from 2016 so there has been time for each compiler to mature even more to skew his previous results.

C++ has gained a lot of new features over the last few years from the various C++ community meetings. (C++14, C++17, C++20 etc.) Microsofts compiler for C++ has matured a lot in the last few years with tons of new features and performance optimizations. Your best bet in terms of performance would be to use a mature compiler until something else is literally branded to be faster / better optimized than the rest. 

Pelles is still being updated from the looks of it, they do claim partial C++17 support as well. So it's not out of the picture at all, just that it is a lot less mature than the other options as compilers go.

Mingw/GCC is open source and has a lot of community backing. It is designed and made for Linux, but has Windows libraries as well.

Microsoft's is closed source but developed by a professional team of developers. It's designed for Windows.