Comparing FLOAT and REAL to DECIMAL and NUMERIC is not really fair. The former are approximate numeric data types and the latter are exact numeric data types. I am leaving MONEY and SMALLMONEY out of it because those should never be used. For example if you're currently using FLOAT and REAL to sum the precent-segments of a set where the percentage sum should equal 100.00 then if you switch to an exact data type you will start having issues, e.g. coming up with 99.76 or some non-trivial amount away from 100.00. Just throwing it out there, be sure you test to ensure you have chosen the right data type for the job.