Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS C 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
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4953ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

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
lua 1.lua 818ms 6.5ms 17.0MB 800ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 1.c 0.9ms 0.0ms 1.4MB 0ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 1.c 1.2ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1.c 1.3ms 0.0ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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

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
lua 1.lua 2203ms 7.2ms 28.6MB 2187ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 8-i.c 266ms 0.1ms 1.5MB 260ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 8-i.c 301ms 2.3ms 2.1MB 290ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 308ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 300ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 313ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 300ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 315ms 2.1ms 1.5MB 307ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 5.c 316ms 0.9ms 1.5MB 310ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 5.c 317ms 1.4ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 320ms 3.6ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 8-i.c 337ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 330ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
lua 4.lua 714ms 3.6ms 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 0.6ms 1.5MB 20ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 8-i.c 33ms 0.7ms 2.1MB 23ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 33ms 0.4ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 33ms 0.1ms 2.3MB 27ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 34ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 27ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 34ms 1.0ms 1.5MB 30ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 5.c 34ms 0.7ms 1.5MB 30ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 8-i.c 36ms 0.4ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 38ms 2.0ms 2.1MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 4.lua 75ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1124ms 44ms 2.3MB 1113ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 3-m.c 736ms 1.0ms 2.3MB 2893ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 952ms 1.7ms 2.0MB 3753ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 989ms 1.3ms 2.1MB 3890ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 1001ms 0.7ms 3.1MB 3933ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 1118ms 0.5ms 3.3MB 4400ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 1174ms 26ms 2.3MB 4553ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 1341ms 14ms 3.3MB 5260ms 3ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 1846ms 16ms 3.3MB 7243ms 10ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 3-m.c 195ms 2.3ms 2.0MB 737ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 246ms 1.4ms 2.0MB 947ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 258ms 0.3ms 3.4MB 987ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 259ms 0.8ms 2.1MB 993ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 289ms 1.6ms 3.3MB 1107ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 298ms 7.8ms 2.0MB 1143ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 340ms 1.4ms 3.3MB 1310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 466ms 4.2ms 3.4MB 1800ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 1.lua 1025ms 6.0ms 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
c 3-m.c 57ms 1.9ms 2.3MB 193ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 72ms 3.1ms 3.4MB 250ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 73ms 0.8ms 2.0MB 260ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 73ms 7.6ms 2.0MB 260ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 78ms 1.0ms 3.1MB 277ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 81ms 0.3ms 2.0MB 290ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 92ms 0.5ms 3.1MB 330ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 124ms 1.7ms 3.3MB 457ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
lua 1.lua 259ms 1.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7