Caution! If you compare across languages like that, not all virtual calls are implemented equally. A C++ virtual call is just a load from a fixed offset in the vtbl followed by an indirect call. This is fairly cheap, on modern CPUs pretty much the same as a non-virtual non-inlined call. A Java/C# interface call involves a lot more stuff, because there's no single fixed vtbl offset that's valid for all classes implementing the interface.