Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Java benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon Jun 23 2025, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[x86_64][4 cores] AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor (Model 1)

* -m in a file name stands for multi-threading or multi-processing

* -i in a file name stands for direct intrinsics usage. (Usage of simd intrinsics via libraries is not counted)

* -ffi in a file name stands for non-stdlib FFI usage

* (You may find time < time(user) + time(sys) for some non-parallelized programs, the overhead is from GC or JIT compiler, which are allowed to take advantage of multi-cores as that's more close to real-world scenarios.)

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2.java 460ms 10ms 573.4MB 563ms 83ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 468ms 7.1ms 643.1MB 657ms 120ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2.java 476ms 4.7ms 636.3MB 577ms 107ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 1176ms 4.0ms 1040.7MB 573ms 763ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 3539ms 82ms 172.9MB 3403ms 123ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2-m.java 124ms 0.8ms 96.2MB 163ms 30ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 125ms 2.0ms 167.1MB 157ms 30ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 147ms 1.3ms 215.1MB 227ms 50ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 297ms 5.1ms 15.9MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 313ms 2.8ms 241.6MB 160ms 207ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 823ms 6.8ms 16.9MB 807ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1.3ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.3ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
java 1.java 64ms 2.4ms 52.4MB 66ms 18ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 72ms 4.4ms 44.7MB 78ms 16ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 73ms 4.9ms 43.8MB 76ms 20ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 192ms 4.4ms 42.8MB 80ms 136ms openjdk/zgc 21

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 399ms 2.4ms 541.9MB 497ms 87ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 408ms 5.6ms 680.1MB 483ms 90ms openjdk 21
java 1-m.java 440ms 67ms 657.5MB 653ms 120ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 1057ms 29ms 961.6MB 450ms 737ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4953ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4937ms 50ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1-m.java 162ms 3.2ms 158.1MB 240ms 33ms openjdk 23
java 1-m.java 165ms 0.9ms 206.3MB 233ms 43ms openjdk 21
java 1-m.java 213ms 5.0ms 253.5MB 343ms 70ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 415ms 9.6ms 341.9MB 217ms 273ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 1200ms 56ms 31.1MB 1170ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2310ms 37ms 28.6MB 2290ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 441ms 5.0ms 45.2MB 473ms 17ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 449ms 1.1ms 47.9MB 480ms 20ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 450ms 4.6ms 81.4MB 480ms 23ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 573ms 3.6ms 44.8MB 497ms 140ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 715ms 2.7ms 2.4MB 707ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 1253ms 11ms 668.0MB 1373ms 93ms openjdk 21
java 2.java 1255ms 4.2ms 766.6MB 1373ms 100ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 3285ms 47ms 2400.8MB 1683ms 1837ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 4.lua 75ms 1.4ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 1.java 118ms 2.7ms 81.6MB 150ms 27ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 124ms 1.2ms 48.5MB 157ms 23ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 135ms 27ms 45.4MB 153ms 13ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 249ms 2.6ms 44.8MB 167ms 143ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 295ms 10ms 352.2MB 433ms 50ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 313ms 6.2ms 395.9MB 450ms 63ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 705ms 8.5ms 535.8MB 483ms 417ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 1160ms 15ms 2.3MB 1153ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2-m.java 1986ms 16ms 47.3MB 7597ms 23ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 1998ms 10ms 48.7MB 7633ms 23ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 2113ms 11ms 45.6MB 7603ms 150ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 2529ms 6.7ms 95.2MB 9463ms 47ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 4070ms 8.1ms 2.5MB 4060ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.4MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2-m.java 602ms 2.8ms 48.8MB 2140ms 20ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 605ms 4.7ms 47.7MB 2143ms 23ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 745ms 4.0ms 45.6MB 2200ms 147ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 772ms 10ms 94.7MB 2710ms 40ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 1046ms 19ms 2.4MB 1037ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2-m.java 247ms 2.2ms 47.7MB 747ms 20ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 257ms 13ms 48.3MB 773ms 20ms openjdk 23
lua 1.lua 258ms 1.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2-m.java 294ms 26ms 93.1MB 890ms 33ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2-m.java 386ms 9.7ms 45.6MB 763ms 153ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7