Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Jun 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
javascript 1-m.js 907ms 13ms 181.8MB 1350ms 187ms bun 1.2.15
javascript 1.js 1049ms 5.1ms 469.9MB 970ms 217ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua 3411ms 55ms 172.9MB 3287ms 110ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 100ms 1.6ms 77.6MB 80ms 27ms bun 1.2.15
javascript 1.js 123ms 1.2ms 80.3MB 127ms 20ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua 287ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 267ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 818ms 12ms 16.9MB 803ms 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 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 1.js 12ms 0.4ms 31.5MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.15
javascript 1.js 30ms 0.6ms 49.8MB 18ms 6ms node 24.1.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 463ms 1.1ms 136.5MB 613ms 113ms bun 1.2.15
javascript 1.js 558ms 2.7ms 230.3MB 553ms 113ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4927ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 114ms 2.2ms 85.0MB 100ms 30ms bun 1.2.15
javascript 1.js 156ms 1.2ms 100.3MB 150ms 33ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua 1103ms 2.6ms 31.0MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2131ms 17ms 28.6MB 2113ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6.js 456ms 3.2ms 57.9MB 447ms 7ms node 24.1.0
javascript 6.js 597ms 2.9ms 45.0MB 600ms 0ms bun 1.2.15
lua 4.lua 713ms 2.3ms 2.3MB 707ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
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 0.3ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 78ms 2.2ms 58.2MB 67ms 7ms node 24.1.0
javascript 6.js 80ms 0.6ms 45.0MB 90ms 3ms bun 1.2.15
lua 4.lua 1123ms 35ms 2.3MB 1117ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6-m.js 2185ms 14ms 119.3MB 8240ms 53ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua 4062ms 9.7ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.5MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6-m.js 653ms 1.5ms 117.6MB 2320ms 57ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua 1019ms 1.0ms 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
lua 1.lua 259ms 2.2ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 270ms 2.9ms 117.4MB 843ms 47ms node 24.1.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7