Lua VS Java benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Jul 01 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 476ms 14ms 573.9MB 563ms 97ms openjdk 21
java 2.java 481ms 2.8ms 624.6MB 587ms 103ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 481ms 16ms 643.1MB 673ms 133ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2.java 1212ms 29ms 1064.1MB 593ms 787ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 3562ms 89ms 173.0MB 3437ms 113ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4953ms 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 127ms 4.0ms 96.1MB 163ms 30ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 127ms 1.6ms 167.1MB 160ms 33ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 148ms 3.7ms 215.1MB 223ms 53ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 289ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 260ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 301ms 3.4ms 241.5MB 157ms 200ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 828ms 3.7ms 16.9MB 810ms 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 1.4ms 0.1ms 2.0MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 1.java 68ms 2.0ms 53.3MB 70ms 20ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 68ms 4.0ms 43.9MB 80ms 14ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 72ms 5.5ms 44.8MB 78ms 16ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 196ms 9.1ms 42.9MB 88ms 144ms openjdk/zgc 21

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 406ms 6.2ms 680.0MB 477ms 93ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 408ms 5.0ms 542.5MB 507ms 90ms openjdk 23
java 1-m.java 413ms 4.2ms 629.7MB 610ms 117ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 1046ms 24ms 955.8MB 473ms 713ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 40ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4923ms 60ms 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 166ms 1.8ms 206.4MB 237ms 40ms openjdk 21
java 1-m.java 170ms 2.7ms 159.0MB 250ms 43ms openjdk 23
java 1-m.java 225ms 12ms 254.0MB 373ms 67ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 419ms 13ms 341.6MB 220ms 280ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 1431ms 31ms 31.3MB 1400ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2403ms 38ms 28.8MB 2383ms 3ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 443ms 3.6ms 45.4MB 480ms 13ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 446ms 6.4ms 47.9MB 480ms 20ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 455ms 2.3ms 81.4MB 487ms 30ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 580ms 0.9ms 44.8MB 493ms 150ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 715ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 710ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 1243ms 4.5ms 648.2MB 1370ms 90ms openjdk 21
java 2.java 1261ms 7.3ms 751.2MB 1393ms 93ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 3304ms 20ms 2374.4MB 1653ms 1870ms 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 81ms 9.6ms 2.3MB 73ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 1.java 122ms 0.7ms 45.1MB 160ms 20ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 124ms 0.3ms 47.8MB 157ms 23ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 127ms 6.3ms 81.5MB 160ms 30ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 251ms 6.5ms 45.0MB 157ms 150ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 303ms 5.7ms 354.8MB 453ms 53ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 317ms 4.5ms 410.3MB 467ms 63ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 682ms 14ms 525.1MB 473ms 400ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 1148ms 64ms 2.3MB 1137ms 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 1982ms 6.2ms 48.1MB 7593ms 27ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 2009ms 7.3ms 48.4MB 7680ms 23ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 2122ms 15ms 45.7MB 7580ms 150ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 2530ms 11ms 95.0MB 9480ms 43ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 4063ms 3.7ms 2.5MB 4053ms 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 606ms 2.2ms 47.4MB 2137ms 20ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 616ms 6.8ms 48.8MB 2170ms 27ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 737ms 15ms 45.4MB 2170ms 150ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 765ms 14ms 93.1MB 2683ms 40ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 1020ms 2.2ms 2.4MB 1010ms 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 254ms 8.5ms 47.8MB 757ms 17ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 255ms 3.4ms 48.9MB 757ms 23ms openjdk 23
lua 1.lua 258ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2-m.java 318ms 15ms 93.3MB 973ms 43ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2-m.java 390ms 8.2ms 45.4MB 777ms 147ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7