Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Javascript benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Mar 25 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 977ms 25ms 178.7MB 1493ms 240ms bun 1.2.6
javascript 1-m.js 1281ms 9.6ms 272.7MB 2213ms 177ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua 3609ms 57ms 172.8MB 3463ms 133ms 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
javascript 1.js 104ms 4.1ms 79.9MB 83ms 27ms bun 1.2.6
javascript 1.js 129ms 2.8ms 78.7MB 133ms 20ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua 296ms 4.6ms 15.6MB 273ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 822ms 9.4ms 16.9MB 810ms 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 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 1.js 13ms 0.4ms 32.9MB 0ms 0ms bun 1.2.6
javascript 1.js 32ms 0.2ms 48.1MB 18ms 4ms node 23.10.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1-m.js 493ms 5.5ms 143.4MB 640ms 137ms bun 1.2.6
javascript 1.js 552ms 10ms 130.6MB 640ms 70ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.5MB 4950ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4927ms 60ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
javascript 1.js 120ms 0.9ms 87.8MB 107ms 33ms bun 1.2.6
javascript 1.js 165ms 1.9ms 98.3MB 163ms 37ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua 1193ms 7.0ms 31.3MB 1163ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2269ms 74ms 28.6MB 2247ms 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 459ms 1.2ms 56.0MB 443ms 10ms node 23.10.0
lua 4.lua 717ms 7.0ms 2.3MB 703ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 798ms 23ms 46.0MB 793ms 7ms bun 1.2.6
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 2.5ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6.js 79ms 0.5ms 56.1MB 67ms 7ms node 23.10.0
javascript 6.js 101ms 1.0ms 45.9MB 97ms 10ms bun 1.2.6
lua 4.lua 1108ms 50ms 2.3MB 1100ms 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 2183ms 18ms 114.0MB 8280ms 57ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua 4066ms 6.0ms 2.5MB 4057ms 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 654ms 3.0ms 114.4MB 2323ms 53ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua 1030ms 16ms 2.4MB 1020ms 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 261ms 2.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
javascript 6-m.js 278ms 5.0ms 111.3MB 840ms 50ms node 23.10.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7