Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon May 19 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 983ms 44ms 182.9MB 1513ms 227ms bun 1.2.13
javascript 1.js 1066ms 5.1ms 468.4MB 1000ms 220ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua 3557ms 39ms 172.9MB 3410ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4953ms 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 0.9ms 77.4MB 83ms 23ms bun 1.2.13
javascript 1.js 130ms 2.5ms 80.7MB 130ms 27ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua 292ms 2.5ms 15.8MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 818ms 6.5ms 17.0MB 800ms 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 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.6ms 31.9MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.13
javascript 1.js 32ms 0.5ms 50.0MB 16ms 8ms node 24.0.2

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 486ms 0.8ms 138.7MB 660ms 113ms bun 1.2.13
javascript 1.js 579ms 3.1ms 229.5MB 577ms 120ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4930ms 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 119ms 4.5ms 85.8MB 107ms 30ms bun 1.2.13
javascript 1.js 163ms 3.2ms 100.3MB 160ms 33ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua 1219ms 43ms 31.1MB 1187ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2203ms 7.2ms 28.6MB 2187ms 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 458ms 3.2ms 58.0MB 443ms 10ms node 24.0.2
javascript 6.js 604ms 7.0ms 44.5MB 603ms 3ms bun 1.2.13
lua 4.lua 714ms 3.6ms 2.3MB 703ms 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 1.4ms 2.4MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 80ms 1.6ms 58.2MB 70ms 7ms node 24.0.2
javascript 6.js 82ms 2.8ms 44.5MB 77ms 3ms bun 1.2.13
lua 4.lua 1124ms 44ms 2.3MB 1113ms 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 2184ms 8.5ms 118.8MB 8193ms 60ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua 4074ms 26ms 2.5MB 4067ms 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 663ms 3.7ms 117.6MB 2293ms 53ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua 1025ms 6.0ms 2.4MB 1013ms 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 1.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 269ms 2.4ms 112.1MB 823ms 50ms node 24.0.2
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7