Lua VS Nim 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
nim	2.nim	1224ms	7.0ms	35.9MB	1200ms	7ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	2.nim	1502ms	17ms	35.0MB	1483ms	3ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	2.nim	117ms	20ms	7.3MB	95ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	2.nim	124ms	5.3ms	5.9MB	110ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	1.nim	1.5ms	0.1ms	1.3MB	0ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
lua	1.lua	1.6ms	0.3ms	2.4MB	0ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	2.2ms	0.4ms	1.8MB	0ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
nim	1.nim	2.5ms	0.5ms	2.1MB	0ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
nim	1.nim	790ms	8.4ms	36.7MB	777ms	3ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	1.nim	970ms	6.2ms	35.1MB	950ms	7ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	1.nim	143ms	4.6ms	11.5MB	123ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	1.nim	183ms	6.8ms	9.5MB	170ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	2.nim	494ms	1.4ms	2.1MB	480ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	2.nim	542ms	9.6ms	1.4MB	530ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	2.nim	55ms	2.9ms	2.1MB	47ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
nim	2.nim	58ms	1.0ms	1.3MB	50ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
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
nim	1.nim	11029ms	35ms	1.3MB	11017ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
nim	1.nim	11039ms	7.6ms	3.4MB	11027ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
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
nim	1.nim	2764ms	2.5ms	1.4MB	2753ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
nim	1.nim	2767ms	4.2ms	2.1MB	2753ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
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
nim	1.nim	695ms	0.3ms	1.3MB	683ms	0ms	nim/clang 2.2.4
nim	1.nim	696ms	2.1ms	2.1MB	687ms	0ms	nim 2.2.4
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