Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Crystal 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
crystal 1.cr 1276ms 8.3ms 64.0MB 1257ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 1906ms 32ms 49.0MB 1873ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 105ms 2.2ms 10.9MB 90ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 153ms 1.1ms 7.0MB 140ms 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 59ms 1.7ms 6.4MB 43ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 2275ms 0.2ms 2.5MB 2243ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 22ms 0.7ms 5.1MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 384ms 2.2ms 1.9MB 370ms 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 637ms 0.7ms 1.4MB 2403ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 1766ms 4.1ms 1.0MB 1753ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 2508ms 6.1ms 2.8MB 2493ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 2713ms 3.8ms 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 0.8ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 148ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 207ms 1.2ms 2.8MB 200ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 230ms 0.3ms 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 1.2ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 555ms 3.0ms 3.4MB 450ms 90ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 694ms 0.6ms 14.4MB 573ms 107ms crystal 1.15.1

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 59ms 0.3ms 3.4MB 40ms 7ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 75ms 1.4ms 4.8MB 57ms 7ms crystal 1.15.1

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.0ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 2.0ms 0.5ms 2.8MB 0ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 500ms 4.6ms 26.3MB 480ms 7ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 66ms 0.7ms 15.3MB 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 33ms 0.3ms 2.8MB 23ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 37ms 1.3ms 2.9MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 65ms 2.1ms 2.9MB 57ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 95ms 2.4ms 2.8MB 87ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 103ms 1.4ms 2.9MB 90ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 186ms 1.8ms 2.9MB 177ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 1.3ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 17ms 0.5ms 2.9MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 31ms 1.7ms 2.9MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.1ms 4.0MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 313ms 0.7ms 9.2MB 300ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.2ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 18ms 0.5ms 6.3MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 864ms 6.5ms 64.0MB 843ms 10ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 878ms 6.2ms 41.0MB 853ms 10ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 157ms 3.4ms 22.1MB 143ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 181ms 5.2ms 11.0MB 167ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 280ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.2ms 1.1MB 303ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 344ms 4.8ms 3.3MB 333ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 1.cr 345ms 2.6ms 3.3MB 333ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.4ms 1.1MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 38ms 1.5ms 3.1MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
crystal 2.cr 38ms 0.5ms 3.1MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 283ms 4.4ms 40.1MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 301ms 3.6ms 8.1MB 290ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 2.zig 331ms 3.8ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 440ms 6.5ms 42.3MB 430ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 56ms 2.5ms 10.8MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 2.cr 77ms 2.1ms 4.4MB 67ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 91ms 3.7ms 13.0MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1886ms 42ms 6.2MB 1853ms 17ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 2466ms 27ms 2.2MB 2440ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 479ms 12ms 5.0MB 463ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1
zig 1.zig 569ms 3.4ms 1.8MB 557ms 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 3697ms 9.3ms 1.4MB 3690ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 3792ms 11ms 4.5MB 3783ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.3ms 1.3MB 917ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 952ms 1.2ms 4.3MB 940ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 234ms 0.2ms 1.3MB 230ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
crystal 1.cr 248ms 11ms 3.8MB 237ms 0ms crystal 1.15.1