Lua VS Javascript 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
javascript 1-m.js 961ms 19ms 189.3MB 1440ms 253ms bun 1.2.11
javascript 1-m.js 1237ms 36ms 250.6MB 2120ms 157ms node 23.11.0
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
javascript 1.js 101ms 3.1ms 79.5MB 77ms 30ms bun 1.2.11
javascript 1.js 125ms 2.3ms 78.7MB 127ms 27ms node 23.11.0
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
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
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.3ms 33.4MB 0ms 10ms bun 1.2.11
javascript 1.js 30ms 0.8ms 47.7MB 18ms 2ms node 23.11.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 487ms 5.6ms 135.7MB 657ms 133ms bun 1.2.11
javascript 1.js 533ms 5.3ms 130.5MB 620ms 57ms node 23.11.0
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
javascript 1.js 115ms 2.7ms 87.3MB 100ms 30ms bun 1.2.11
javascript 1.js 158ms 1.6ms 98.3MB 160ms 33ms node 23.11.0
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
javascript 6.js 457ms 5.8ms 56.0MB 443ms 10ms node 23.11.0
javascript 6.js 609ms 19ms 45.5MB 600ms 3ms bun 1.2.11
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
lua 4.lua 76ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 76ms 0.8ms 55.8MB 67ms 3ms node 23.11.0
javascript 6.js 80ms 2.5ms 45.6MB 73ms 3ms bun 1.2.11
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
javascript 6-m.js 2187ms 17ms 115.2MB 8297ms 57ms node 23.11.0
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
javascript 6-m.js 649ms 2.4ms 112.8MB 2323ms 50ms node 23.11.0
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
lua 1.lua 262ms 0.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 270ms 4.4ms 109.9MB 840ms 50ms node 23.11.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7