Lua VS C# 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.)

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 1.cs 931ms 8.3ms 181.9MB 933ms 137ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 942ms 11ms 168.9MB 943ms 137ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 1685ms 22ms 103.4MB 1870ms 203ms mono 6.12.0
lua 1.lua 3544ms 45ms 172.9MB 3407ms 123ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4947ms 40ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 1.cs 118ms 10ms 31.4MB 80ms 27ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 141ms 3.1ms 44.2MB 120ms 13ms mono 6.12.0
csharp 1.cs 191ms 3.1ms 51.1MB 157ms 30ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 1.lua 290ms 5.5ms 15.7MB 267ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 814ms 5.2ms 16.9MB 797ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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
csharp 1.cs 6.3ms 0.2ms 9.4MB 0ms 0ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 33ms 1.2ms 21.3MB 20ms 0ms mono 6.12.0
csharp 1.cs 35ms 1.0ms 26.0MB 20ms 8ms dotnet 9.0.302

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 2.cs 526ms 4.9ms 121.3MB 493ms 87ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 564ms 6.4ms 142.8MB 523ms 117ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 2.cs 679ms 6.1ms 137.4MB 627ms 103ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 711ms 59ms 163.7MB 657ms 127ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 1278ms 6.5ms 140.5MB 1483ms 150ms mono 6.12.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4933ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 2.cs 133ms 7.7ms 56.9MB 103ms 33ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 154ms 2.2ms 73.2MB 117ms 47ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 2.cs 257ms 2.2ms 76.0MB 230ms 33ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 1.cs 265ms 3.1ms 69.4MB 233ms 40ms mono 6.12.0
csharp 1.cs 278ms 5.2ms 90.1MB 253ms 50ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 1.lua 1101ms 2.2ms 31.1MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2187ms 8.5ms 28.6MB 2170ms 3ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 9.cs 368ms 4.8ms 27.9MB 340ms 7ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 8.cs 372ms 3.5ms 9.9MB 357ms 0ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 8.cs 419ms 3.4ms 27.9MB 403ms 7ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 4.lua 713ms 3.7ms 2.3MB 703ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
csharp 8.cs 1250ms 3.2ms 22.1MB 1233ms 0ms mono 6.12.0
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
csharp 8.cs 46ms 1.1ms 9.9MB 40ms 0ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
lua 4.lua 74ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
csharp 9.cs 91ms 0.6ms 28.3MB 73ms 7ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 8.cs 97ms 3.8ms 27.6MB 80ms 7ms dotnet 9.0.302
csharp 8.cs 165ms 0.7ms 22.6MB 150ms 0ms mono 6.12.0
lua 4.lua 1154ms 10ms 2.3MB 1143ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
csharp 3-m.cs 1869ms 0.3ms 10.3MB 7317ms 7ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 3-m.cs 1921ms 2.8ms 30.3MB 7360ms 10ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 1.lua 4063ms 4.0ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
csharp 3-m.cs 4724ms 142ms 25.7MB 18023ms 13ms mono 6.12.0
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
csharp 3-m.cs 494ms 15ms 10.5MB 1790ms 3ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 3-m.cs 536ms 5.0ms 30.0MB 1870ms 10ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 1.lua 1029ms 1.6ms 2.4MB 1020ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
csharp 3-m.cs 1202ms 28ms 25.4MB 4503ms 10ms mono 6.12.0
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
csharp 3-m.cs 128ms 0.7ms 10.3MB 450ms 3ms dotnet/aot 9.0.302
csharp 3-m.cs 179ms 3.7ms 28.5MB 503ms 10ms dotnet 9.0.302
lua 1.lua 257ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
csharp 3-m.cs 352ms 12ms 25.4MB 1193ms 10ms mono 6.12.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7