Haripriya Naidu runs an experiment:
Instead of looking at which option is faster, you may want to look at which option is better suited for a given context. Let’s take a look at 2 common options to insert data and analyze them.
INSERT INTO TARGETTABLE SELECT * FROM SOURCETABLE OR SELECT * INTO TARGETTABLE FROM SOURCETABLE
Click through for a comparison of the two, not just for which is faster but also the pros and cons of each approach.