Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Fri Aug 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
javascript 1-m.js 924ms 19ms 173.9MB 1400ms 193ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 1.js 1057ms 11ms 455.9MB 973ms 230ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua 3513ms 23ms 173.0MB 3370ms 130ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4950ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 99ms 1.4ms 76.3MB 80ms 23ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 1.js 128ms 0.9ms 81.6MB 127ms 23ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua 290ms 1.7ms 15.9MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 817ms 0.3ms 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
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
javascript 1.js 11ms 0.5ms 30.6MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 1.js 32ms 0.3ms 50.7MB 18ms 4ms node 24.4.1

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 455ms 5.8ms 138.2MB 590ms 110ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 1.js 563ms 8.0ms 231.0MB 570ms 100ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 40ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.4MB 4923ms 63ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 112ms 1.9ms 82.8MB 100ms 33ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 1.js 157ms 4.3ms 100.8MB 150ms 37ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua 1101ms 8.1ms 31.1MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2192ms 63ms 28.8MB 2170ms 10ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 6.js 460ms 3.5ms 59.2MB 447ms 10ms node 24.4.1
javascript 6.js 596ms 2.0ms 43.5MB 597ms 10ms bun 1.2.19
lua 4.lua 711ms 0.9ms 2.4MB 700ms 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 77ms 1.2ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 79ms 0.9ms 43.5MB 80ms 3ms bun 1.2.19
javascript 6.js 79ms 2.5ms 58.8MB 67ms 7ms node 24.4.1
lua 4.lua 1145ms 12ms 2.3MB 1137ms 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 2185ms 26ms 119.6MB 8307ms 67ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua 4064ms 5.2ms 2.5MB 4053ms 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
javascript 6-m.js 660ms 6.2ms 117.7MB 2340ms 50ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua 1018ms 0.4ms 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 258ms 0.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 273ms 4.5ms 114.4MB 847ms 47ms node 24.4.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7