Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Thu May 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
zig 1.zig 1721ms 8.7ms 49.0MB 1690ms 17ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 3518ms 55ms 172.8MB 3373ms 130ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.8MB 4943ms 40ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 156ms 0.8ms 7.0MB 147ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 290ms 4.0ms 15.8MB 270ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 809ms 8.7ms 16.9MB 790ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2257ms 3.8ms 2.5MB 2227ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 382ms 3.2ms 1.9MB 363ms 3ms zig 0.14.0

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 632ms 6.8ms 1.4MB 2400ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 1765ms 2.1ms 1.0MB 1757ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 2717ms 3.5ms 1.0MB 2707ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 0.7ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 228ms 1.2ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 88ms 1.7ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.1ms 0.2ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.7ms 0.4ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 315ms 1.9ms 67.1MB 830ms 30ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 504ms 5.3ms 28.1MB 477ms 10ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 64ms 1.1ms 54.4MB 133ms 27ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 66ms 1.8ms 15.4MB 50ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 35ms 2.4ms 2.8MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 91ms 1.2ms 2.8MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 1.2ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.5ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 858ms 3.7ms 41.0MB 830ms 13ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4943ms 43ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4940ms 47ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 180ms 6.0ms 11.0MB 163ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1081ms 4.4ms 31.3MB 1053ms 13ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2159ms 20ms 28.8MB 2140ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 1.2ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.0ms 1.1MB 307ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 4.lua 713ms 2.4ms 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
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.3ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 23ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 4.lua 76ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1142ms 41ms 2.3MB 1133ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 271ms 2.6ms 40.2MB 250ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 328ms 2.4ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 54ms 4.4ms 10.9MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2466ms 3.3ms 2.2MB 2437ms 13ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 567ms 2.8ms 1.8MB 553ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3689ms 4.3ms 1.4MB 3683ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 4063ms 2.9ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.5MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 923ms 3.3ms 1.3MB 913ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1023ms 1.2ms 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
zig 1.zig 232ms 0.1ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 262ms 0.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7