Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Nim 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
nim 2.nim 909ms 6.8ms 34.6MB 893ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 952ms 13ms 34.9MB 937ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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
nim 2.nim 89ms 2.7ms 5.5MB 80ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 93ms 1.8ms 5.8MB 80ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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
nim 1.nim 1.1ms 0.0ms 1.4MB 0ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 1.2ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 0ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
nim 1.nim 545ms 5.4ms 34.6MB 527ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 618ms 12ms 34.9MB 597ms 3ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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
nim 1.nim 116ms 0.7ms 9.6MB 100ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 134ms 1.4ms 9.9MB 120ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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
nim 2.nim 320ms 3.2ms 1.8MB 310ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 347ms 6.4ms 2.0MB 337ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 4.lua 717ms 7.0ms 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
nim 2.nim 35ms 1.0ms 1.8MB 30ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 2.nim 37ms 1.3ms 2.0MB 30ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
lua 4.lua 77ms 2.5ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
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
nim 1.nim 3592ms 5.8ms 1.6MB 3583ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 3603ms 11ms 1.4MB 3593ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
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
nim 1.nim 901ms 1.0ms 1.8MB 890ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 902ms 2.9ms 1.5MB 890ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
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
nim 1.nim 227ms 0.4ms 1.5MB 220ms 0ms nim/clang 2.2.2
nim 1.nim 228ms 0.8ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms nim 2.2.2
lua 1.lua 261ms 2.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7