Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Javascript 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
javascript 1-m.js 998ms 4.7ms 166.9MB 1570ms 240ms bun 1.2.17
javascript 1.js 1086ms 11ms 469.4MB 990ms 243ms node 24.3.0
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
javascript 1.js 99ms 2.6ms 77.4MB 80ms 23ms bun 1.2.17
javascript 1.js 131ms 1.8ms 80.9MB 130ms 33ms node 24.3.0
lua 1.lua 289ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 260ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
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
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.5ms 31.3MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.17
javascript 1.js 32ms 0.5ms 50.6MB 18ms 6ms node 24.3.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 483ms 5.4ms 139.7MB 633ms 127ms bun 1.2.17
javascript 1.js 598ms 14ms 230.0MB 600ms 117ms node 24.3.0
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
javascript 1.js 120ms 0.5ms 84.5MB 107ms 33ms bun 1.2.17
javascript 1.js 165ms 0.4ms 100.0MB 160ms 33ms node 24.3.0
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
javascript 6.js 456ms 3.7ms 58.6MB 447ms 3ms node 24.3.0
javascript 6.js 602ms 8.9ms 45.0MB 607ms 3ms bun 1.2.17
lua 4.lua 715ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 710ms 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
javascript 6.js 80ms 0.7ms 58.6MB 67ms 10ms node 24.3.0
lua 4.lua 81ms 9.6ms 2.3MB 73ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 82ms 1.0ms 45.0MB 87ms 3ms bun 1.2.17
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
javascript 6-m.js 2192ms 31ms 119.8MB 8330ms 63ms node 24.3.0
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
javascript 6-m.js 668ms 9.4ms 118.0MB 2350ms 63ms node 24.3.0
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
lua 1.lua 258ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 278ms 3.8ms 114.6MB 847ms 60ms node 24.3.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7