GetOrder vs. GetDataSet—Direct Connection
Data Access GetOrder GetDataSet Performance Ratio
Computer 1 (MS-10)
Parameterized SP 912.23 273.10 3.34
Parameterized T-SQL 753.10 253.72 2.97
Performance ratio 1.21 1.08
Computer 2 (MS-7)
Parameterized SP 693.80 229.99 3.02
Parameterized T-SQL 621.95 221.56 2.81
Performance ratio 1.12 1.04
Average ratios 1.16 1.06 3.03

Table 3 Compare SQLDataReader to SQLDataAdapter and DataSet. Retrieving a pair of forward-only resultsets with a single ExecuteReader instruction to create an SqlDataReader is three times faster than retrieving a pair of DataTables with an SqlDataAdapter to instantiate a DataSet object. The few lines of code you need to assign resultset values to DALC objects pay major performance dividends.