Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

C VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Jul 13 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.)

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1.c 1.0ms 0.0ms 1.3MB 0ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 1.c 1.2ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1.c 1.2ms 0.0ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 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
c 1-m.c 172ms 4.3ms 23.6MB 400ms 10ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1-m.c 295ms 5.0ms 25.7MB 1007ms 33ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1-m.c 28ms 0.6ms 12.6MB 57ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1-m.c 37ms 1.7ms 15.0MB 107ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1-mffi.c 223ms 10ms 7.6MB 830ms 13ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1-mffi.c 266ms 5.3ms 6.5MB 813ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1-ffi.c 330ms 1.2ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 1-mffi.c 331ms 2.9ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 1-ffi.c 453ms 1.4ms 6.7MB 443ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1-ffi.c 544ms 3.5ms 6.6MB 533ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1-mffi.c 16ms 0.5ms 4.5MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1-ffi.c 16ms 0.1ms 3.0MB 10ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 1-mffi.c 16ms 0.4ms 3.0MB 10ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 1-mffi.c 19ms 2.4ms 3.6MB 47ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1-ffi.c 22ms 0.6ms 3.5MB 10ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1-ffi.c 26ms 0.6ms 3.8MB 20ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 8-i.c 267ms 0.8ms 1.5MB 260ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 8-i.c 301ms 1.4ms 2.1MB 290ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 309ms 1.5ms 2.3MB 300ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 313ms 1.4ms 2.3MB 303ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 313ms 1.7ms 1.5MB 307ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 5.c 316ms 0.6ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5.c 316ms 2.1ms 1.5MB 310ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 2.c 319ms 2.0ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 8-i.c 336ms 1.3ms 2.3MB 330ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
lua 4.lua 713ms 3.7ms 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
c 8-i.c 29ms 0.3ms 1.5MB 20ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 8-i.c 32ms 0.5ms 2.1MB 20ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 33ms 0.4ms 1.5MB 30ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 5.c 33ms 0.6ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 34ms 0.7ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 34ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5.c 35ms 0.6ms 1.5MB 30ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1
c 8-i.c 36ms 0.5ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 36ms 3.1ms 2.1MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 4.lua 74ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1154ms 10ms 2.3MB 1143ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1.c 267ms 3.7ms 41.0MB 253ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1.c 277ms 11ms 40.9MB 257ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1.c 282ms 4.5ms 40.3MB 267ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1.c 56ms 2.7ms 11.8MB 43ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1.c 59ms 2.7ms 11.7MB 47ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 1.c 64ms 1.3ms 11.0MB 50ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 3-m.c 735ms 1.2ms 2.0MB 2887ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 969ms 27ms 2.0MB 3773ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 996ms 15ms 2.0MB 3907ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 1002ms 1.1ms 3.1MB 3943ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 1119ms 3.6ms 3.4MB 4407ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 1141ms 0.4ms 2.0MB 4510ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 1326ms 1.0ms 3.1MB 5233ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 1841ms 29ms 3.3MB 7233ms 7ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 1.lua 4063ms 4.0ms 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
c 3-m.c 194ms 0.5ms 2.0MB 740ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 245ms 0.6ms 2.0MB 947ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 258ms 0.9ms 2.1MB 990ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 260ms 1.0ms 3.3MB 990ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 287ms 0.9ms 3.3MB 1103ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 298ms 7.7ms 2.0MB 1147ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 341ms 2.4ms 3.3MB 1313ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 468ms 9.9ms 3.3MB 1807ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 1.lua 1029ms 1.6ms 2.4MB 1020ms 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
c 3-m.c 55ms 1.3ms 2.3MB 197ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 72ms 0.1ms 2.0MB 260ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 73ms 8.3ms 2.0MB 250ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 75ms 7.4ms 3.3MB 257ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 78ms 0.6ms 3.3MB 280ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 81ms 1.3ms 2.0MB 293ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 95ms 6.8ms 3.1MB 340ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 124ms 3.1ms 3.3MB 450ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 1.lua 257ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7