Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Lua benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Wed Jan 22 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 1729ms 12ms 49.1MB 1700ms 13ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 3542ms 27ms 172.9MB 3407ms 117ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4943ms 40ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 146ms 1.2ms 7.1MB 137ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 291ms 1.8ms 15.8MB 267ms 3ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 819ms 1.8ms 16.9MB 803ms 7ms lua 5.4.7

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2269ms 5.3ms 2.5MB 2230ms 23ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 384ms 2.4ms 1.9MB 370ms 3ms zig 0.13.0

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 661ms 18ms 3.5MB 2427ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 3-i.zig 1788ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 1777ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 2476ms 64ms 1.1MB 2467ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 2868ms 9.8ms 1.1MB 2857ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 2.2ms 3.5MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 3-i.zig 149ms 0.2ms 1.1MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 199ms 5.9ms 1.1MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 239ms 0.8ms 1.1MB 230ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 87ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 10ms 0.1ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.0ms 0.1ms 1.3MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.1ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.8ms 0.4ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 788ms 2.8ms 20.8MB 767ms 7ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 89ms 1.6ms 7.5MB 73ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 35ms 1.1ms 2.9MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 97ms 2.2ms 2.9MB 83ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 0.6ms 1.4MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.8ms 4.2MB 237ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.2ms 1.3MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 831ms 6.3ms 41.1MB 800ms 17ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.5MB 4940ms 47ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4933ms 47ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 170ms 0.9ms 11.1MB 153ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 1152ms 5.2ms 31.1MB 1120ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2299ms 31ms 28.6MB 2263ms 20ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 274ms 0.5ms 1.1MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 313ms 0.7ms 1.3MB 300ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 4.lua 725ms 27ms 2.3MB 717ms 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 2.zig 29ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.3ms 1.3MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 4.lua 74ms 1.2ms 2.3MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua 1103ms 17ms 2.3MB 1090ms 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 268ms 1.7ms 40.3MB 247ms 3ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 334ms 8.4ms 6.1MB 323ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 50ms 1.6ms 11.0MB 37ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 1.4ms 2.4MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2472ms 10ms 2.3MB 2437ms 17ms zig 0.13.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 566ms 0.6ms 1.8MB 553ms 0ms zig 0.13.0

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 473ms 1.2ms 3.9MB 1583ms 7ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 916ms 1.6ms 1.5MB 903ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 3670ms 6.3ms 1.5MB 3660ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 4060ms 12ms 2.5MB 4047ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.5MB 4987ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 125ms 0.3ms 3.7MB 273ms 3ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 231ms 2.4ms 1.4MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 921ms 1.9ms 1.4MB 910ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 1017ms 2.5ms 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 2-m.zig 39ms 1.5ms 3.7MB 33ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 2.zig 60ms 0.8ms 1.4MB 50ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
zig 1.zig 232ms 0.8ms 1.4MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.13.0
lua 1.lua 257ms 0.2ms 2.3MB 247ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4987ms 0ms lua 5.4.7