An Early Look At Some PHP 7.4 Performance Benchmarks

Written by Michael Larabel in Programming on 22 May 2019 at 10:59 AM EDT. 3 Comments
PROGRAMMING
The initial PHP 7.4 Alpha 1 release is just two weeks away already... Curious about the performance of this yearly update to PHP7, I ran some benchmarks on the latest development code as of this morning compared to the earlier PHP7 releases and even PHP-8.0 that is in development on Git master.

PHP 7.4 has been working on preloading options, short closures, custom object serialization, FFI work that didn't end up making it for PHP 7.3, the null coalescing assignment operator has been added, and various other changes. The PHP 7.4 alpha releases are supposed to kick off on 6 June while the betas will then fire up starting on 18 July followed by at least six release candidates beginning at the end of August. If all goes well, PHP 7.4.0 will make its debut around the end of November or early December. PHP-7.4 has been branched since January while PHP-8.0 development is on Git master for that next major PHP8 release with JIT functionality and other changes in the works.
PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

Curious about the pre-alpha performance state of PHP 7.4, I ran some quick benchmarks today against PHP 7.3.6, 7.2.18, 7.1.29, and 7.0.32 built from Git and each release built in the same manner.
PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

PHPBench's performance with 7.4 at this stage is right on par with PHP 7.3 stable, which is already about 30% faster than where it was at with PHP 7.0... Of course, an even greater gain compared to the old days of PHP 5.5.
PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

PHP 7.4 if anything was just slightly faster than PHP 7.3 in the micro-benchmarks while PHP-8.0 performance is similar, at least until the JIT code is stabilized and flipped on by default.
PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

In the Phoronix Test Suite's internal PHP self-benchmarks, PHP 7.4 is indeed riding around the PHP 7.3 performance level -- at least in this pre-alpha state. There's been some remarkable gains since PHP 7.0 and more so since the slow PHP5 releases.
PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

PHP 7.4 Comparison Performance Benchmarks

More tests on PHP 7.4 will be coming as its release approaches later this year.
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About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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