Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Nim 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
nim 2.nim 819ms 29ms 34.4MB 800ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 968ms 6.2ms 35.2MB 950ms 3ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 2079ms 56ms 49.0MB 2047ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 2.nim 77ms 2.5ms 5.5MB 70ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 93ms 2.5ms 5.8MB 80ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 152ms 1.7ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2256ms 12ms 2.5MB 2227ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 380ms 2.7ms 1.9MB 363ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 634ms 3.4ms 1.4MB 2393ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1791ms 48ms 1.0MB 1780ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2728ms 20ms 1.0MB 2720ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 0.4ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 228ms 1.0ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 88ms 0.6ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 189ms 1.3ms 1.5MB 180ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 242ms 1.4ms 1.8MB 230ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 539ms 0.9ms 1.8MB 447ms 80ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 562ms 2.0ms 1.5MB 467ms 77ms nim 2.2.4

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 10ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 21ms 1.0ms 1.5MB 10ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 26ms 0.3ms 1.6MB 20ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 56ms 0.7ms 1.9MB 40ms 7ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 58ms 0.5ms 1.5MB 43ms 0ms nim 2.2.4

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 0.9ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 1.nim 1.0ms 0.0ms 1.5MB 0ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 1.1ms 0.0ms 1.8MB 0ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 321ms 1.7ms 67.1MB 853ms 20ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 504ms 4.0ms 27.9MB 480ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 65ms 0.5ms 54.4MB 127ms 37ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 67ms 2.4ms 15.4MB 50ms 3ms zig 0.14.1

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 36ms 0.2ms 2.8MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 111ms 2.3ms 1.9MB 103ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 114ms 1.1ms 1.6MB 110ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim timeout 0.0ms 1.3MB 4990ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim timeout 0.0ms 1.5MB 4990ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 90ms 0.4ms 2.8MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 326ms 1.8ms 1.6MB 317ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 335ms 2.3ms 1.6MB 327ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim timeout 0.0ms 1.3MB 4990ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim timeout 0.0ms 1.5MB 4990ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 14ms 0.1ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 49ms 0.7ms 1.5MB 40ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 51ms 2.1ms 1.5MB 43ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 477ms 2.9ms 1.3MB 470ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 486ms 13ms 1.5MB 477ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 249ms 1.1ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 1.nim 387ms 1.2ms 4.8MB 380ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 578ms 3.9ms 4.5MB 567ms 0ms nim 2.2.4

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.3ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 1.nim 19ms 0.4ms 1.9MB 10ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 26ms 0.6ms 1.6MB 20ms 0ms nim 2.2.4

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 550ms 7.5ms 34.9MB 533ms 7ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 626ms 13ms 35.2MB 607ms 3ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 877ms 11ms 41.0MB 850ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 117ms 1.4ms 9.6MB 107ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 133ms 1.2ms 9.9MB 120ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 178ms 3.0ms 11.0MB 163ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 1.0ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.5ms 1.1MB 307ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 319ms 1.6ms 1.8MB 310ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 341ms 1.3ms 2.0MB 330ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.0ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 33ms 0.1ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 2.nim 35ms 0.5ms 1.8MB 30ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 2.nim 37ms 0.7ms 2.0MB 30ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 274ms 3.8ms 40.2MB 257ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 1.nim 281ms 9.2ms 41.5MB 270ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 314ms 3.5ms 41.8MB 303ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 2.zig 325ms 2.5ms 6.0MB 313ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 50ms 2.9ms 10.9MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
nim 1.nim 51ms 1.7ms 11.5MB 40ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 64ms 3.6ms 11.8MB 53ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.8ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2453ms 3.5ms 2.2MB 2427ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 564ms 2.2ms 1.8MB 553ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 3588ms 2.7ms 1.6MB 3580ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 3609ms 14ms 1.4MB 3603ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 3691ms 6.4ms 1.4MB 3683ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 899ms 0.7ms 1.5MB 890ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 904ms 2.9ms 1.3MB 893ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.3ms 1.3MB 913ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 226ms 0.3ms 1.5MB 220ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.4
nim 1.nim 229ms 0.9ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms nim 2.2.4
zig 1.zig 233ms 1.3ms 1.3MB 223ms 0ms zig 0.14.1