Lua VS Wasm 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
wasm 5.rs 1828ms 60ms 33.1MB 1810ms 10ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 4.rs 1855ms 21ms 33.1MB 1833ms 10ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 3.rs 1870ms 21ms 49.2MB 1847ms 10ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 5.rs 171ms 2.0ms 19.2MB 160ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 4.rs 179ms 1.6ms 19.2MB 167ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 3.rs 187ms 5.5ms 21.1MB 167ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 1.rs 7.0ms 0.7ms 17.4MB 0ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
wasm 1.rs 906ms 18ms 41.1MB 880ms 10ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 1.rs 198ms 6.2ms 23.1MB 180ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 1.rs 411ms 4.6ms 17.1MB 400ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 2.rs 583ms 2.7ms 17.0MB 570ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 1.rs 49ms 0.3ms 17.2MB 37ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
wasm 2.rs 66ms 0.5ms 17.0MB 53ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 2.rs 3604ms 8.1ms 16.9MB 3590ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
lua 1.lua 4066ms 6.0ms 2.5MB 4057ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
wasm 7.rs 4908ms 6.3ms 17.4MB 4897ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 2.rs 907ms 1.1ms 16.7MB 893ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
lua 1.lua 1030ms 16ms 2.4MB 1020ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
wasm 7.rs 1232ms 0.2ms 16.9MB 1220ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
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
wasm 2.rs 235ms 0.3ms 17.0MB 220ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
lua 1.lua 261ms 2.6ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
wasm 7.rs 316ms 1.5ms 16.7MB 300ms 0ms wasmtime 31.0.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.1MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7