Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Crystal benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Thu May 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
crystal 1.cr 1235ms 5.9ms 64.2MB 1210ms 10ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 1721ms 8.7ms 49.0MB 1690ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 107ms 1.5ms 11.0MB 93ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 156ms 0.8ms 7.0MB 147ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 57ms 0.6ms 6.4MB 40ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 2257ms 3.8ms 2.5MB 2227ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 23ms 1.1ms 5.1MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 382ms 3.2ms 1.9MB 363ms 3ms zig 0.14.0

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 632ms 6.8ms 1.4MB 2400ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 1765ms 2.1ms 1.0MB 1757ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 2480ms 8.8ms 2.9MB 2470ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 2717ms 3.5ms 1.0MB 2707ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 0.7ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 206ms 3.4ms 2.9MB 197ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 228ms 1.2ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 88ms 1.7ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 550ms 2.8ms 3.5MB 447ms 90ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 694ms 0.9ms 14.6MB 577ms 103ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 58ms 0.8ms 3.6MB 40ms 3ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 75ms 0.4ms 4.9MB 50ms 10ms crystal 1.16.2

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.1ms 0.2ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 1.9ms 0.1ms 2.9MB 0ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 315ms 1.9ms 67.1MB 830ms 30ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 504ms 5.3ms 28.1MB 477ms 10ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 64ms 1.1ms 54.4MB 133ms 27ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 66ms 1.8ms 15.4MB 50ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 35ms 2.4ms 2.8MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 37ms 0.6ms 3.0MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 65ms 1.4ms 3.0MB 57ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 91ms 1.2ms 2.8MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 99ms 0.9ms 3.0MB 90ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 187ms 2.0ms 3.0MB 180ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 1.2ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 17ms 0.3ms 3.0MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 30ms 1.3ms 3.0MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.5ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 314ms 1.1ms 9.3MB 300ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 17ms 0.4ms 5.6MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 846ms 6.4ms 64.2MB 823ms 10ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 858ms 3.7ms 41.0MB 830ms 13ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 175ms 0.8ms 22.2MB 160ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 180ms 6.0ms 11.0MB 163ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 1.2ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.0ms 1.1MB 307ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 343ms 0.7ms 3.3MB 330ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 2.cr 344ms 2.9ms 3.3MB 333ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.3ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 23ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 37ms 0.5ms 3.3MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 38ms 1.1ms 3.3MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 271ms 2.6ms 40.2MB 250ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 328ms 2.4ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 348ms 4.1ms 8.3MB 340ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 427ms 4.1ms 43.0MB 413ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 54ms 4.4ms 10.9MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 88ms 2.4ms 4.5MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
crystal 1.cr 89ms 0.3ms 13.2MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1973ms 67ms 6.3MB 1947ms 17ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 2466ms 3.3ms 2.2MB 2437ms 13ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 457ms 15ms 5.1MB 443ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2
zig 1.zig 567ms 2.8ms 1.8MB 553ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3689ms 4.3ms 1.4MB 3683ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 3764ms 9.2ms 4.6MB 3750ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 923ms 3.3ms 1.3MB 913ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 950ms 8.9ms 4.4MB 940ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 232ms 0.1ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 241ms 2.8ms 3.9MB 230ms 0ms crystal 1.16.2