Benchmark: Math.pow vs ** vs * and Random

Tests:

pow
var tmp = Math.pow(Math.random(), 21);
**
var tmp = Math.random() ** 21;
*
var n = Math.random(); var tmp = n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n * n;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
pow
**
*

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 years ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.110 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 96 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
pow	3729924.5 Ops/sec
**	7121568.0 Ops/sec
*	7099699.5 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 2 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'd be happy to explain the benchmark and its results.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark is designed to compare the performance of three different mathematical operations: `Math.pow`, exponentiation (`**`), and multiplication (`*`) with repeated exponentiation, using random numbers. The goal is to determine which operation is the fastest on a modern computer.

**Test Cases**

There are three test cases:

1. `pow`: This test case uses the `Math.pow` function to calculate the power of a randomly generated number (21 times).
2. **: This test case uses exponentiation (`**`) to calculate the power of a randomly generated number (21 times). The `**` operator is often used for exponentiation, but it's not explicitly defined in JavaScript, so the engine may choose an optimized implementation.
3. *: This test case uses repeated multiplication to calculate the 21st power of a randomly generated number.

**Options Compared**

The benchmark compares three different approaches:

* `Math.pow`: A built-in function for calculating powers.
* Exponentiation (`**`): An operator that can be used for exponentiation, but its performance may vary depending on the engine's optimization.
* Repeated multiplication (`*`): A straightforward approach to calculating powers by multiplying a number by itself repeatedly.

**Pros and Cons**

Here are some pros and cons of each approach:

* `Math.pow`:
	+ Pros: Built-in function, well-optimized, and easy to read.
	+ Cons: May have overhead due to the use of a built-in function.
* Exponentiation (`**`):
	+ Pros: Can be optimized by the engine, easy to read, and concise.
	+ Cons: Performance may vary depending on the engine's optimization.
* Repeated multiplication:
	+ Pros: Simple and straightforward, no overhead due to built-in functions.
	+ Cons: May have performance overhead due to repeated multiplications.

**Libraries**

None of the test cases use any external libraries.

**Special JS Features or Syntax**

The `**` operator is not explicitly defined in JavaScript, but it's often used for exponentiation. The engine may choose an optimized implementation for this operator.

**Other Alternatives**

If you were to rewrite this benchmark with different approaches, you might consider:

* Using a different library or framework for mathematical operations (e.g., `big-integer` for large numbers).
* Implementing your own exponentiation function using bitwise operations.
* Using a just-in-time (JIT) compiler or a compiler framework like Webpack to optimize the code.

Keep in mind that the performance results may vary depending on the specific use case, hardware, and software environment.

Related benchmarks:

Math.pow vs ** vs * and Random (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: pow vs ** vs *

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

pow

**

*

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 2 months ago):