[afdbcreid]

Julia is not a systems language. Also its design (GC, dynamic typing) does not allow it to reach exactly the same level as C++.

[postflopclarity]

you are right one has to be careful to avoid the GC and dynamic dispatch, but if you do it can for sure reach the same level as C++. with tightly optimized Julia code there is little to no overhead over any other low-level language.

[rirze]

Julia only cares about numerical performance, and in that regime, it’s pretty fast.

So not generally fast, no.