Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon Apr 14 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 1036ms 29ms 187.6MB 1633ms 273ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 1-m.js 1296ms 2.8ms 272.7MB 2237ms 170ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua 3698ms 5.1ms 172.9MB 3550ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4950ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 102ms 0.7ms 79.0MB 77ms 30ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 1.js 130ms 3.3ms 78.4MB 137ms 23ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua 305ms 9.6ms 15.8MB 283ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 819ms 2.0ms 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 1.5ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.7ms 0.3ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.4ms 33.3MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 1.js 33ms 1.0ms 47.8MB 18ms 4ms node 23.11.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 519ms 4.4ms 144.8MB 687ms 143ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 1.js 576ms 13ms 130.3MB 670ms 63ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms 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
javascript 1.js 120ms 1.1ms 86.9MB 110ms 30ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 1.js 166ms 1.7ms 98.2MB 167ms 40ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua 1626ms 22ms 31.1MB 1600ms 13ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2403ms 68ms 28.8MB 2380ms 10ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6.js 462ms 6.7ms 56.1MB 447ms 10ms node 23.11.0
javascript 6.js 601ms 3.1ms 45.5MB 593ms 7ms bun 1.2.9
lua 4.lua 711ms 0.5ms 2.4MB 700ms 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 2.0ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 81ms 0.6ms 45.6MB 73ms 10ms bun 1.2.9
javascript 6.js 81ms 0.3ms 56.1MB 70ms 10ms node 23.11.0
lua 4.lua 1133ms 38ms 2.3MB 1123ms 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 2192ms 18ms 115.7MB 8290ms 60ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua 4064ms 3.3ms 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
javascript 6-m.js 668ms 7.2ms 113.6MB 2350ms 57ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua 1022ms 2.6ms 2.4MB 1013ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 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 260ms 3.0ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 277ms 3.0ms 109.7MB 853ms 53ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7