Lua VS Rust benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Jul 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
rust 4.rs 1316ms 18ms 33.6MB 1293ms 10ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 5.rs 1480ms 41ms 33.8MB 1457ms 7ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 3.rs 1534ms 41ms 49.8MB 1507ms 17ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 3562ms 89ms 173.0MB 3437ms 113ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4953ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
rust 4.rs 123ms 1.4ms 5.6MB 110ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 5.rs 126ms 1.2ms 5.8MB 117ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 3.rs 135ms 4.9ms 7.8MB 123ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 289ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 260ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 828ms 3.7ms 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
rust 1.rs 1.2ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 0ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 1.rs 1.2ms 0.0ms 1.9MB 0ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.1ms 2.0MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 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
rust 1.rs 720ms 21ms 33.8MB 697ms 10ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 40ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4923ms 60ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
rust 1.rs 154ms 3.2ms 9.8MB 143ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 1431ms 31ms 31.3MB 1400ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2403ms 38ms 28.8MB 2383ms 3ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
rust 4-i.rs 164ms 0.2ms 1.8MB 160ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 7-i.rs 219ms 1.1ms 1.8MB 210ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 1.rs 229ms 0.5ms 1.8MB 220ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 3.rs 279ms 0.7ms 1.9MB 270ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 2.rs 279ms 0.5ms 1.6MB 270ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 4.lua 715ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 710ms 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
rust 4-i.rs 18ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 10ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 7-i.rs 24ms 0.5ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 1.rs 25ms 0.4ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 2.rs 30ms 0.2ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 3.rs 30ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
lua 4.lua 81ms 9.6ms 2.3MB 73ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1148ms 64ms 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
rust 8-m.rs 493ms 0.8ms 2.5MB 1907ms 3ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 493ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 1910ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 8.rs 994ms 2.7ms 2.4MB 983ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 1927ms 5.1ms 1.9MB 1917ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 2-m.rs 2073ms 4.7ms 2.4MB 8130ms 10ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 4063ms 3.7ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 4274ms 5.2ms 2.0MB 4267ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
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
rust 8-m.rs 127ms 0.4ms 2.3MB 467ms 3ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 128ms 0.8ms 2.3MB 467ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 8.rs 251ms 0.7ms 2.1MB 240ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 491ms 1.9ms 1.8MB 480ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 2-m.rs 521ms 0.5ms 2.1MB 2023ms 3ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 1020ms 2.2ms 2.4MB 1010ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 1070ms 2.2ms 1.9MB 1060ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
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
rust 8-m.rs 36ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 110ms 3ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 36ms 0.4ms 2.0MB 110ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 8.rs 65ms 0.9ms 2.0MB 60ms 0ms rustc 1.90.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 125ms 1.8ms 1.8MB 120ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
rust 2-m.rs 134ms 0.5ms 2.1MB 497ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua 258ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 270ms 1.5ms 1.9MB 260ms 0ms rustc 1.88.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7