Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Jun 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
zig 1.zig 1718ms 14ms 49.0MB 1683ms 20ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 3411ms 55ms 172.9MB 3287ms 110ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 150ms 2.1ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 287ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 267ms 7ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 818ms 12ms 16.9MB 803ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2257ms 7.3ms 2.5MB 2230ms 10ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 384ms 5.4ms 1.9MB 370ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 638ms 2.2ms 1.4MB 2400ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1764ms 0.6ms 1.0MB 1753ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2716ms 5.8ms 1.0MB 2707ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 0.3ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 229ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 87ms 1.4ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 10ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.1ms 0.4ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1.3ms 0.1ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 314ms 1.1ms 66.5MB 827ms 30ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 500ms 5.4ms 28.0MB 483ms 7ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 63ms 0.5ms 54.3MB 123ms 33ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 66ms 1.0ms 15.5MB 50ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 35ms 0.8ms 2.8MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 95ms 3.4ms 2.8MB 87ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 15ms 0.4ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.8ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

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 0.14.1

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 856ms 8.4ms 41.0MB 830ms 10ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4927ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 178ms 3.3ms 11.0MB 167ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1103ms 2.6ms 31.0MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2131ms 17ms 28.6MB 2113ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 1.0ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.5ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 0.7ms 1.1MB 310ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 4.lua 713ms 2.3ms 2.3MB 707ms 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
zig 3.zig 21ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 4.lua 75ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1123ms 35ms 2.3MB 1117ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 255ms 8.2ms 40.2MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 328ms 2.8ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 55ms 1.4ms 10.9MB 43ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 81ms 1.1ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2458ms 11ms 2.3MB 2430ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 565ms 4.7ms 1.8MB 553ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3684ms 1.8ms 1.4MB 3670ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 4062ms 9.7ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.5MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 927ms 2.1ms 1.3MB 920ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1019ms 1.0ms 2.4MB 1010ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
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
zig 1.zig 232ms 0.3ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 259ms 2.2ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7