Lua VS C 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
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
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

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 0.14.0
c 1.c 1.2ms 0.0ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 1.c 1.3ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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

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 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
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
c 8-i.c 267ms 0.0ms 1.5MB 260ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 8-i.c 302ms 1.1ms 2.1MB 290ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 309ms 1.2ms 2.3MB 300ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 313ms 1.1ms 2.3MB 300ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 2.c 315ms 3.3ms 1.5MB 307ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 5.c 315ms 1.3ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5.c 316ms 1.7ms 1.5MB 307ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 2.c 318ms 1.3ms 2.1MB 310ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 8-i.c 337ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 330ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
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
c 8-i.c 29ms 0.3ms 1.5MB 20ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 8-i.c 33ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 23ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 2.c 33ms 0.5ms 1.5MB 27ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 2.c 33ms 0.5ms 2.3MB 27ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 33ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 27ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5.c 34ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5.c 35ms 0.4ms 1.5MB 30ms 0ms zigcc 0.14.0
c 2.c 35ms 1.6ms 2.1MB 30ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 8-i.c 36ms 0.1ms 2.3MB 30ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
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

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
c 3-m.c 739ms 2.6ms 2.0MB 2903ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 958ms 3.1ms 2.0MB 3763ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 997ms 13ms 2.0MB 3907ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 1028ms 44ms 3.3MB 4000ms 10ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 1124ms 4.6ms 3.3MB 4410ms 3ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 1146ms 2.8ms 2.0MB 4513ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 1331ms 1.7ms 3.1MB 5233ms 10ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 1851ms 34ms 3.3MB 7240ms 17ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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
c 3-m.c 195ms 2.1ms 2.0MB 740ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 246ms 0.9ms 2.0MB 940ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 260ms 2.9ms 2.0MB 993ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 261ms 6.0ms 3.3MB 993ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 288ms 1.3ms 3.1MB 1107ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 298ms 5.3ms 2.0MB 1147ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 347ms 7.1ms 3.3MB 1323ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 486ms 22ms 3.1MB 1843ms 7ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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
c 3-m.c 56ms 0.5ms 2.0MB 200ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 70ms 0.6ms 3.3MB 243ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 4-m.c 72ms 0.5ms 2.0MB 260ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 6-im.c 75ms 11ms 2.0MB 257ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 4-m.c 79ms 3.5ms 3.3MB 280ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 5-im.c 81ms 1.2ms 2.0MB 293ms 0ms gcc 15.1.0
c 5-im.c 91ms 0.1ms 3.1MB 330ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
c 3-m.c 124ms 3.0ms 3.3MB 450ms 0ms clang 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
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