Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Jul 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 2079ms 56ms 49.0MB 2047ms 17ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 3562ms 89ms 173.0MB 3437ms 113ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4953ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 152ms 1.7ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 289ms 0.8ms 15.8MB 260ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 828ms 3.7ms 16.9MB 810ms 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 2256ms 12ms 2.5MB 2227ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 380ms 2.7ms 1.9MB 363ms 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 634ms 3.4ms 1.4MB 2393ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1791ms 48ms 1.0MB 1780ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2728ms 20ms 1.0MB 2720ms 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 0.4ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 228ms 1.0ms 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 88ms 0.6ms 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 0.9ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.1ms 2.0MB 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 321ms 1.7ms 67.1MB 853ms 20ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 504ms 4.0ms 27.9MB 480ms 13ms 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 65ms 0.5ms 54.4MB 127ms 37ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 67ms 2.4ms 15.4MB 50ms 3ms 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 36ms 0.2ms 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 90ms 0.4ms 2.8MB 80ms 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 14ms 0.1ms 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 249ms 1.1ms 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 0.3ms 1.1MB 0ms 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 877ms 11ms 41.0MB 850ms 13ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 40ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4923ms 60ms 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 3.0ms 11.0MB 163ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1431ms 31ms 31.3MB 1400ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2403ms 38ms 28.8MB 2383ms 3ms 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 0.3ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.5ms 1.1MB 307ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 4.lua 715ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 710ms 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 22ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.0ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 33ms 0.1ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 4.lua 81ms 9.6ms 2.3MB 73ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1148ms 64ms 2.3MB 1137ms 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 274ms 3.8ms 40.2MB 257ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 325ms 2.5ms 6.0MB 313ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 50ms 2.9ms 10.9MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.8ms 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 2453ms 3.5ms 2.2MB 2427ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 564ms 2.2ms 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 3691ms 6.4ms 1.4MB 3683ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 4063ms 3.7ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
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
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.3ms 1.3MB 913ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 1020ms 2.2ms 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 233ms 1.3ms 1.3MB 223ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
lua 1.lua 258ms 0.3ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7