Turck vs APC benchmark

A quick comparison of Turck MMCache versus the current APC for running MediaWiki.

Methodology edit

Test methodology: 'ab -n 100' simple single-thread benchmark from another machine on the local network. Used a copy of w:en:Zuiderzee Works. Tests done both 'straight' (parser cache hit) and with ?action=purge (to force rendering). Each pass involved restarting the web server with the configuration, then for each of the cache-hit and forced-render versions running the ab twice. First run was discarded, second run recorded.

This was done for each of turck, no opcode cache, and APC, then a second set afterwards.

As connection and transfer times are negligible on the local network (within margin of rounding error), only the 'Total' line was recorded here.

Details edit

machine: 2.0 GHz Athlon XP 2400+, 512MB
os: Ubuntu Linux "Hoary Hedgehog"
MediaWiki CVS HEAD as of 2005-09-20; configured with memcached backing
Apache 2.0.53 from Ubuntu package
PHP 4.3.10 from Ubuntu package
memcached 1.1.11 from Ubuntu package
Turck 2.4.6 from Ubuntu package
APC 3.0.8 compiled and installed with PEAR installer

Results edit

                          Connnection Times (ms)
                      min  mean[+/-sd] median   max
turck cache 1:         64    77   27.6     68   231
turck cache 2:         66    75   24.9     68   203
  apc cache 2:         69    78   21.4     72   193
  apc cache 1:         69    78   22.5     72   237
plain cache 1:        202   221   38.0    207   367
plain cache 2:        202   221   39.4    207   391

                          Connnection Times (ms)
                      min  mean[+/-sd] median   max
turck purge 2:        309   330   31.0    317   429
turck purge 1:        311   331   33.5    318   507
  apc purge 2:        326   337   17.7    332   467
  apc purge 1:        329   349   38.7    335   518
plain purge 1:        463   492   48.5    469   652
plain purge 2:        464   498   47.7    472   691

Conclusions edit

APC seems to be doing pretty well in performance; in my quick tests above it comes quite close to the traditional leader (Turck), but it's actively maintained. The current version of APC is claimed to work on PHP 5 and 5.1 as well.

I haven't tested for stability, fragility, etc, nor have I tested yet on PHP 5 or on x86_64; these should get done. Also comparison against the current eAccelerator might be worthwhile.