Lua VS C++ benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Sep 27 2026, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

CPU INFO:[x86_64][4 cores] Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3687U CPU @ 2.10GHz (Model 58)

* -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.)

show numbers without parallelization

show numbers with parallelization

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	6633ms	183ms	291.4MB	6527ms	87ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	16420ms	378ms	152.3MB	16370ms	30ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 15

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	578ms	29ms	24.9MB	553ms	3ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	1185ms	23ms	17.5MB	1173ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	1.cpp	1.1ms	0.2ms	1.5MB	0ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
lua	1.lua	1.6ms	0.3ms	2.4MB	0ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
cpp	1.cpp	1.7ms	0.3ms	1.5MB	0ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
lua	1.lua	2.2ms	0.4ms	1.8MB	0ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	15068ms	464ms	183.4MB	14980ms	70ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	18968ms	144ms	107.9MB	18917ms	33ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 15

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	2066ms	2.3ms	36.3MB	2040ms	7ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	3347ms	133ms	28.8MB	3327ms	3ms	lua 5.4.6

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	0-i.cpp	219ms	0.7ms	1.0MB	210ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	0-i.cpp	225ms	20ms	1.6MB	217ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	1.cpp	387ms	4.1ms	1.6MB	377ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	1.cpp	734ms	2.2ms	1.1MB	723ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
lua	4.lua	1312ms	8.1ms	1.6MB	1303ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	4.lua	19839ms	364ms	1.8MB	19823ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 500000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	0-i.cpp	24ms	1.0ms	1.6MB	13ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	0-i.cpp	24ms	0.2ms	1.1MB	10ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	1.cpp	42ms	0.7ms	1.5MB	30ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	1.cpp	77ms	0.2ms	1.1MB	70ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
lua	4.lua	139ms	4.9ms	1.5MB	127ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	4.lua	1941ms	5.9ms	1.8MB	1927ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	6-im.cpp	2915ms	1.5ms	5.5MB	11537ms	7ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	6-im.cpp	2917ms	0.5ms	2.4MB	11547ms	3ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	8-m.cpp	2934ms	0.7ms	3.3MB	11603ms	3ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	8-m.cpp	2973ms	15ms	2.4MB	11770ms	3ms	g++ 13.3.0
lua	1.lua	11058ms	4.0ms	2.6MB	11047ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	167091ms	2385ms	2.9MB	167067ms	3ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 4000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	6-im.cpp	734ms	0.8ms	1.4MB	2880ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	8-m.cpp	741ms	3.9ms	3.3MB	2880ms	3ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	8-m.cpp	748ms	5.3ms	1.4MB	2943ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	6-im.cpp	748ms	21ms	3.4MB	2880ms	7ms	clang++ 18.1.3
lua	1.lua	2774ms	9.6ms	2.7MB	2760ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	41466ms	392ms	2.6MB	41447ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 2000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
cpp	6-im.cpp	189ms	0.5ms	1.4MB	713ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	8-m.cpp	192ms	2.2ms	1.4MB	723ms	0ms	g++ 13.3.0
cpp	8-m.cpp	197ms	5.8ms	3.4MB	717ms	0ms	clang++ 18.1.3
cpp	6-im.cpp	198ms	15ms	5.4MB	723ms	3ms	clang++ 18.1.3
lua	1.lua	698ms	2.1ms	1.5MB	687ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	10267ms	17ms	1.7MB	10257ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6