Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Wed Jan 22 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
javascript 1-m.js 950ms 61ms 187.4MB 1437ms 247ms bun 1.1.45
javascript 1-m.js 1251ms 9.3ms 276.4MB 2177ms 160ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua 3542ms 27ms 172.9MB 3407ms 117ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4943ms 40ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 95ms 0.8ms 79.4MB 77ms 23ms bun 1.1.45
javascript 1.js 127ms 2.0ms 82.4MB 117ms 33ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua 291ms 1.8ms 15.8MB 267ms 3ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 819ms 1.8ms 16.9MB 803ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.8ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.5ms 32.3MB 0ms 10ms bun 1.1.45
javascript 1.js 31ms 0.6ms 52.0MB 14ms 8ms node 23.6.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 485ms 10ms 141.8MB 623ms 127ms bun 1.1.45
javascript 1.js 526ms 3.4ms 134.5MB 583ms 83ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.5MB 4940ms 47ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4933ms 47ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 119ms 1.0ms 87.0MB 107ms 27ms bun 1.1.45
javascript 1.js 157ms 2.1ms 102.3MB 137ms 47ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua 1152ms 5.2ms 31.1MB 1120ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2299ms 31ms 28.6MB 2263ms 20ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6.js 459ms 2.4ms 59.7MB 447ms 7ms node 23.6.0
javascript 6.js 658ms 0.3ms 45.6MB 653ms 7ms bun 1.1.45
lua 4.lua 725ms 27ms 2.3MB 717ms 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
lua 4.lua 74ms 1.2ms 2.3MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 77ms 1.0ms 59.8MB 60ms 10ms node 23.6.0
javascript 6.js 85ms 2.1ms 45.4MB 83ms 3ms bun 1.1.45
lua 4.lua 1103ms 17ms 2.3MB 1090ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6-m.js 2158ms 5.7ms 116.7MB 8230ms 53ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua 4060ms 12ms 2.5MB 4047ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.5MB 4987ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6-m.js 642ms 4.1ms 114.0MB 2290ms 50ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua 1017ms 2.5ms 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
lua 1.lua 257ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 247ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 263ms 2.0ms 113.2MB 823ms 40ms node 23.6.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4987ms 0ms lua 5.4.7