Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon Mar 31 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 1822ms 94ms 49.0MB 1787ms 20ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 3623ms 23ms 173.0MB 3477ms 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
zig 1.zig 154ms 1.6ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 292ms 3.1ms 15.9MB 267ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 824ms 5.5ms 16.9MB 807ms 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 2250ms 2.7ms 2.5MB 2220ms 13ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 380ms 1.3ms 1.9MB 360ms 0ms 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 634ms 1.8ms 1.4MB 2393ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 1767ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 1760ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 2716ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 2710ms 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 0.8ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.6ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 229ms 0.5ms 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 89ms 0.3ms 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 1.1MB 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 1.0ms 0.0ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.6ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 499ms 8.5ms 26.3MB 477ms 7ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 66ms 2.2ms 15.4MB 53ms 3ms 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 34ms 0.8ms 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 92ms 0.9ms 2.8MB 83ms 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 0.7ms 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 2.2ms 4.0MB 237ms 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 0.4ms 1.1MB 0ms 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 855ms 3.1ms 41.0MB 827ms 13ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.4MB 4923ms 63ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 173ms 2.3ms 11.0MB 160ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1392ms 85ms 31.1MB 1360ms 13ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2291ms 16ms 28.6MB 2270ms 10ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 199ms 0.7ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 316ms 1.3ms 1.1MB 303ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 4.lua 713ms 1.8ms 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 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.4ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 4.lua 75ms 1.1ms 2.4MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1112ms 26ms 2.3MB 1103ms 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 263ms 1.5ms 40.1MB 250ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 322ms 3.8ms 6.0MB 313ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 52ms 1.4ms 10.8MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 1.3ms 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 2465ms 18ms 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 569ms 2.6ms 1.6MB 560ms 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 3705ms 29ms 1.4MB 3693ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 4068ms 9.8ms 2.5MB 4057ms 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
zig 1.zig 922ms 1.2ms 1.3MB 910ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 1021ms 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
zig 1.zig 234ms 0.8ms 1.3MB 223ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
lua 1.lua 261ms 2.8ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7