Lua VS Rust benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon May 19 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 1281ms 13ms 33.8MB 1260ms 7ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 5.rs 1340ms 6.3ms 33.8MB 1317ms 10ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 3.rs 1496ms 49ms 49.8MB 1463ms 17ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 3557ms 39ms 172.9MB 3410ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 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 118ms 0.3ms 5.6MB 110ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 5.rs 128ms 5.4ms 5.8MB 117ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 3.rs 142ms 6.5ms 7.8MB 130ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 292ms 2.5ms 15.8MB 270ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 818ms 6.5ms 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
rust 1.rs 1.2ms 0.0ms 1.8MB 0ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 1.rs 1.7ms 0.6ms 1.8MB 0ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
rust 1.rs 698ms 4.2ms 33.8MB 673ms 10ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4930ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
rust 1.rs 153ms 2.6ms 9.8MB 143ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 1219ms 43ms 31.1MB 1187ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2203ms 7.2ms 28.6MB 2187ms 7ms 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 0.6ms 1.8MB 160ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 7-i.rs 218ms 0.5ms 1.8MB 210ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 1.rs 229ms 1.1ms 1.8MB 220ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 2.rs 279ms 0.0ms 1.8MB 270ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 3.rs 279ms 0.5ms 1.8MB 270ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
lua 4.lua 714ms 3.6ms 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
rust 4-i.rs 18ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 10ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 7-i.rs 24ms 0.4ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 1.rs 25ms 0.4ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 2.rs 30ms 0.0ms 1.6MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 3.rs 30ms 0.1ms 1.8MB 20ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
lua 4.lua 75ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1124ms 44ms 2.3MB 1113ms 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 0.6ms 2.5MB 1910ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 493ms 0.7ms 2.1MB 1910ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 8.rs 993ms 1.0ms 2.3MB 983ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 1961ms 4.4ms 1.9MB 1950ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 2-m.rs 2070ms 3.8ms 2.3MB 8130ms 10ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 4074ms 26ms 2.5MB 4067ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 4266ms 1.8ms 2.1MB 4257ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
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 0.5ms 2.3MB 467ms 3ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 128ms 0.3ms 2.1MB 467ms 3ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 8.rs 251ms 0.6ms 2.0MB 240ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 493ms 1.4ms 1.8MB 480ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 2-m.rs 521ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 2030ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 1025ms 6.0ms 2.4MB 1013ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 1069ms 4.4ms 2.0MB 1063ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
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 35ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 107ms 3ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7-m.rs 36ms 0.6ms 2.0MB 113ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 8.rs 65ms 0.9ms 1.9MB 60ms 0ms rustc 1.89.0-nightly
rust 7.rs 128ms 2.5ms 1.8MB 120ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
rust 2-m.rs 134ms 0.7ms 2.1MB 490ms 3ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua 259ms 1.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
rust 2.rs 269ms 1.2ms 1.9MB 260ms 0ms rustc 1.87.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7