Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Nim benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Apr 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
nim 2.nim 911ms 3.9ms 34.6MB 893ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 1032ms 45ms 34.9MB 1017ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 3534ms 46ms 173.0MB 3387ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4953ms 33ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 2.nim 88ms 2.3ms 5.5MB 80ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 93ms 2.6ms 5.8MB 80ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 290ms 3.9ms 15.8MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 823ms 10ms 16.9MB 807ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 1.0ms 0.1ms 1.6MB 0ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 1.2ms 0.0ms 1.9MB 0ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 526ms 2.3ms 34.6MB 510ms 3ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 651ms 20ms 35.0MB 633ms 3ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 40ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.4MB 4937ms 47ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 115ms 1.7ms 9.6MB 103ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 135ms 1.5ms 9.9MB 120ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 1141ms 19ms 31.3MB 1117ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2248ms 30ms 28.6MB 2223ms 10ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 2.nim 321ms 1.3ms 1.8MB 310ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 342ms 1.8ms 2.0MB 333ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 4.lua 725ms 7.3ms 2.3MB 713ms 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
nim 2.nim 34ms 0.6ms 1.8MB 30ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 38ms 0.7ms 2.0MB 30ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 4.lua 76ms 3.0ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1139ms 49ms 2.3MB 1127ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 3591ms 2.6ms 1.6MB 3580ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 3601ms 1.6ms 1.4MB 3590ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 4075ms 1.1ms 2.5MB 4063ms 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
nim 1.nim 901ms 1.4ms 1.8MB 890ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 905ms 9.6ms 1.5MB 897ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 1023ms 5.5ms 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
nim 1.nim 227ms 0.3ms 1.5MB 220ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 229ms 1.8ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 260ms 2.7ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7