Lua VS Ruby 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
lua 1.lua 3557ms 39ms 172.9MB 3410ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
ruby 1-m.rb 4550ms 58ms 807.5MB 6423ms 470ms truffleruby 24.2.1
ruby 1.rb 4702ms 91ms 150.6MB 4603ms 87ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4953ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 1.rb timeout 0.0ms 70.4MB 4947ms 40ms ruby 3.4.4

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 292ms 2.5ms 15.8MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
ruby 1.rb 493ms 7.5ms 20.3MB 467ms 10ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
ruby 1-m.rb 536ms 62ms 418.0MB 1057ms 167ms truffleruby 24.2.1
lua 1.lua 818ms 6.5ms 17.0MB 800ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 1.rb 939ms 7.1ms 19.5MB 917ms 13ms ruby 3.4.4

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
ruby 1.rb 35ms 0.5ms 141.3MB 14ms 24ms truffleruby 24.2.1
ruby 1.rb 51ms 1.3ms 12.9MB 36ms 2ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
ruby 1.rb 51ms 1.6ms 12.8MB 38ms 4ms ruby 3.4.4

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
ruby 1-m.rb 3839ms 65ms 570.9MB 9800ms 350ms truffleruby 24.2.1
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
ruby 1.rb timeout 0.0ms 94.1MB 4943ms 47ms ruby 3.4.4
ruby 1.rb timeout 0.0ms 97.2MB 4943ms 43ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1219ms 43ms 31.1MB 1187ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
ruby 1-m.rb 2093ms 126ms 535.8MB 5357ms 270ms truffleruby 24.2.1
lua 1.lua 2203ms 7.2ms 28.6MB 2187ms 7ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 1.rb 3224ms 7.7ms 38.3MB 3190ms 17ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
ruby 1.rb 4324ms 12ms 37.6MB 4293ms 13ms ruby 3.4.4

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 4.lua 714ms 3.6ms 2.3MB 703ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
ruby 2.rb 816ms 4.0ms 312.1MB 1050ms 113ms truffleruby 24.2.1
lua 4.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 2.rb timeout 0.0ms 12.8MB 4987ms 0ms ruby 3.4.4
ruby 2.rb timeout 0.0ms 13.5MB 4980ms 7ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4

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
ruby 2-m.rb 308ms 14ms 317.9MB 567ms 110ms truffleruby 24.2.1
ruby 2.rb 1025ms 1.2ms 13.5MB 1003ms 10ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
lua 4.lua 1124ms 44ms 2.3MB 1113ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 2.rb 2921ms 95ms 12.8MB 2903ms 3ms ruby 3.4.4

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 12.9MB 4980ms 3ms ruby 3.4.4
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 13.5MB 4980ms 3ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 442.8MB 5163ms 247ms truffleruby 24.2.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1025ms 6.0ms 2.4MB 1013ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
ruby 4.rb 4839ms 22ms 427.6MB 5120ms 207ms truffleruby 24.2.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 12.9MB 4980ms 3ms ruby 3.4.4
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 13.5MB 4983ms 3ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4

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
ruby 4.rb 1449ms 47ms 375.2MB 1810ms 133ms truffleruby 24.2.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 12.9MB 4980ms 0ms ruby 3.4.4
ruby 4.rb timeout 0.0ms 13.6MB 4980ms 7ms ruby/yjit 3.4.4