You can avoid time discrepancies due to gc and allocs by using Benchmark#bmbm:
require 'benchmark'
array = (1..1000000).map { rand }
Benchmark.bmbm do |x|
x.report("sort!") { array.dup.sort! }
x.report("sort") { array.dup.sort }
end
Rehearsal -----------------------------------------
sort! 1.490000 0.010000 1.500000 ( 1.490520)
sort 1.460000 0.000000 1.460000 ( 1.463025)
-------------------------------- total: 2.960000sec
user system total real
sort! 1.460000 0.000000 1.460000 ( 1.460465)
sort 1.450000 0.010000 1.460000 ( 1.448327)