Lua VS Java benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Jun 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
java 2.java 455ms 6.3ms 576.1MB 557ms 80ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 462ms 6.4ms 643.1MB 673ms 90ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2.java 470ms 9.4ms 639.7MB 570ms 97ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 1207ms 20ms 1063.7MB 580ms 793ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 3411ms 55ms 172.9MB 3287ms 110ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2.java 124ms 1.6ms 167.0MB 157ms 27ms openjdk 21
java 2.java 129ms 5.5ms 98.0MB 163ms 23ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 143ms 3.2ms 224.5MB 217ms 53ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 287ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 267ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 299ms 4.1ms 241.7MB 157ms 197ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 818ms 12ms 16.9MB 803ms 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 1.3ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 1.java 62ms 2.4ms 52.7MB 68ms 18ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 69ms 6.7ms 43.8MB 78ms 12ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 73ms 1.7ms 44.5MB 74ms 16ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 184ms 2.0ms 42.9MB 80ms 132ms openjdk/zgc 21

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 398ms 1.9ms 544.5MB 497ms 87ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 399ms 2.7ms 679.6MB 473ms 90ms openjdk 21
java 1-m.java 404ms 8.2ms 633.5MB 610ms 97ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 1023ms 11ms 974.0MB 463ms 707ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4927ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1-m.java 166ms 3.4ms 158.5MB 247ms 40ms openjdk 23
java 1-m.java 170ms 12ms 206.5MB 243ms 43ms openjdk 21
java 1-m.java 213ms 7.0ms 253.5MB 357ms 53ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 412ms 7.1ms 341.9MB 213ms 277ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua 1103ms 2.6ms 31.0MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2131ms 17ms 28.6MB 2113ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 1.java 441ms 1.8ms 45.4MB 480ms 13ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 444ms 1.2ms 48.2MB 480ms 20ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 447ms 3.2ms 81.7MB 483ms 23ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1.java 567ms 1.6ms 45.0MB 490ms 140ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 713ms 2.3ms 2.3MB 707ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2.java 1230ms 1.5ms 567.4MB 1367ms 73ms openjdk 21
java 2.java 1245ms 7.7ms 792.1MB 1367ms 93ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 3242ms 30ms 2411.5MB 1663ms 1800ms openjdk/zgc 21
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
lua 4.lua 75ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 1.java 115ms 2.7ms 81.5MB 143ms 27ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 1-m.java 117ms 1.5ms 45.3MB 157ms 20ms openjdk 21
java 1.java 118ms 3.8ms 48.1MB 157ms 17ms openjdk 23
java 1.java 241ms 4.9ms 44.6MB 157ms 140ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 289ms 5.6ms 371.1MB 420ms 57ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 305ms 7.2ms 418.7MB 450ms 57ms openjdk 23
java 2.java 680ms 10ms 526.8MB 463ms 403ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 4.lua 1123ms 35ms 2.3MB 1117ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
java 2-m.java 1986ms 9.7ms 47.8MB 7600ms 27ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 1987ms 18ms 48.7MB 7617ms 30ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 2117ms 11ms 45.8MB 7620ms 153ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 2514ms 6.9ms 94.5MB 9423ms 43ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 4062ms 9.7ms 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
java 2-m.java 599ms 0.5ms 47.8MB 2133ms 23ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 614ms 4.8ms 49.0MB 2180ms 20ms openjdk 23
java 2-m.java 737ms 1.7ms 45.5MB 2183ms 140ms openjdk/zgc 21
java 2-m.java 761ms 25ms 95.2MB 2687ms 37ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
lua 1.lua 1019ms 1.0ms 2.4MB 1010ms 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
java 2-m.java 249ms 6.5ms 47.4MB 737ms 17ms openjdk 21
java 2-m.java 257ms 2.4ms 48.6MB 783ms 20ms openjdk 23
lua 1.lua 259ms 2.2ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
java 2-m.java 310ms 29ms 95.0MB 947ms 40ms graal/jvm 17.0.8
java 2-m.java 377ms 11ms 45.3MB 767ms 143ms openjdk/zgc 21
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7