Here are some benchmarks for various architectures and operating systems. You can easily run your own benchmarks, as long as you have memcached itself on your system: $ ruby -e 'system("ruby #{File.dirname(`gem which memcached`.split("\n"). last)}/../test/profile/benchmark.rb")' == x86-64 OS X These benchmarks were run on 64-bit Intel OS X 10.5 (25,000 iterations): user system total real set:plain:noblock:memcached:net 0.650000 0.250000 0.900000 ( 2.165262) set:plain:noblock:memcached:uds 0.580000 0.140000 0.720000 ( 1.023195) set:plain:memcached:net 1.540000 2.440000 3.980000 ( 9.317136) set:plain:memcached:uds 1.230000 1.400000 2.630000 ( 4.919294) set:plain:memcache-client 21.030000 8.650000 29.680000 ( 31.999873) set:ruby:noblock:memcached:net 1.160000 0.250000 1.410000 ( 2.685066) set:ruby:noblock:memcached:uds 1.080000 0.160000 1.240000 ( 1.496034) set:ruby:memcached:net 2.250000 2.660000 4.910000 ( 10.650423) set:ruby:memcached:uds 1.930000 1.590000 3.520000 ( 6.051250) set:ruby:memcache-client 22.000000 8.780000 30.780000 ( 32.554235) get:plain:memcached:net 1.860000 2.720000 4.580000 ( 9.813708) get:plain:memcached:uds 1.540000 1.540000 3.080000 ( 5.065145) get:plain:memcache-client 25.040000 8.780000 33.820000 ( 35.932318) get:ruby:memcached:net 2.380000 2.780000 5.160000 ( 10.395301) get:ruby:memcached:uds 1.960000 1.590000 3.550000 ( 5.531036) get:ruby:memcache-client 25.490000 8.790000 34.280000 ( 36.092947) multiget:ruby:memcached:net 1.300000 0.970000 2.270000 ( 3.424010) multiget:ruby:memcached:uds 1.280000 0.720000 2.000000 ( 2.375904) multiget:ruby:memcache-client 13.380000 3.170000 16.550000 ( 17.743902) missing:ruby:memcached:net 2.450000 2.600000 5.050000 ( 9.982122) missing:ruby:memcached:uds 2.080000 1.600000 3.680000 ( 5.168750) missing:ruby:memcached:inline 2.370000 2.480000 4.850000 ( 10.374502) missing:ruby:memcached_UDS:inline 2.020000 1.600000 3.620000 ( 5.315222) missing:ruby:memcache-client 21.200000 8.220000 29.420000 ( 30.533481) mixed:ruby:noblock:memcached:net 4.590000 6.050000 10.640000 ( 20.344957) mixed:ruby:noblock:memcached:uds 3.650000 2.650000 6.300000 ( 10.304713) mixed:ruby:memcached:net 4.580000 4.920000 9.500000 ( 19.785283) mixed:ruby:memcached:uds 3.850000 2.920000 6.770000 ( 10.850842) mixed:ruby:memcache-client 47.790000 16.510000 64.300000 ( 67.698660) hash:hsieh 0.050000 0.000000 0.050000 ( 0.051601) hash:fnv1_32 0.090000 0.000000 0.090000 ( 0.091872) hash:fnv1a_32 0.140000 0.000000 0.140000 ( 0.137040) hash:fnv1_64 0.240000 0.000000 0.240000 ( 0.246802) hash:fnv1a_64 0.130000 0.000000 0.130000 ( 0.133671) hash:murmur 0.090000 0.000000 0.090000 ( 0.095826) hash:default 0.120000 0.000000 0.120000 ( 0.124794) hash:jenkins 0.100000 0.010000 0.110000 ( 0.111693) hash:md5 0.230000 0.000000 0.230000 ( 0.229894) hash:crc 0.090000 0.000000 0.090000 ( 0.093286) == x86-64 Linux These benchmarks were run on Xeon RHEL4 (25,000 iterations): user system total real set:plain:noblock:memcached:net 0.560000 0.370000 0.930000 ( 1.492691) set:plain:noblock:memcached:uds 0.500000 0.120000 0.620000 ( 0.837311) set:plain:memcached:net 1.070000 1.350000 2.420000 ( 4.655494) set:plain:memcached:uds 1.030000 0.590000 1.620000 ( 3.126471) set:plain:memcache-client 19.270000 1.500000 20.770000 ( 24.860087) set:ruby:noblock:memcached:net 1.090000 0.120000 1.210000 ( 2.583293) set:ruby:noblock:memcached:uds 1.100000 0.120000 1.220000 ( 1.501633) set:ruby:memcached:net 1.760000 1.410000 3.170000 ( 5.481738) set:ruby:memcached:uds 1.750000 0.590000 2.340000 ( 4.040445) set:ruby:memcache-client 19.490000 1.430000 20.920000 ( 24.545314) get:plain:memcached:net 1.160000 1.200000 2.360000 ( 4.515177) get:plain:memcached:uds 1.110000 0.630000 1.740000 ( 3.039308) get:plain:memcache-client 22.100000 1.440000 23.540000 ( 26.822877) get:ruby:memcached:net 1.770000 1.110000 2.880000 ( 5.029304) get:ruby:memcached:uds 1.680000 0.600000 2.280000 ( 3.241249) get:ruby:memcache-client 22.770000 1.430000 24.200000 ( 28.643709) multiget:ruby:memcached:net 1.030000 0.420000 1.450000 ( 2.132928) multiget:ruby:memcached:uds 1.080000 0.250000 1.330000 ( 1.914999) multiget:ruby:memcache-client 13.410000 0.520000 13.930000 ( 15.359580) missing:ruby:memcached:net 1.760000 1.290000 3.050000 ( 5.029804) missing:ruby:memcached:uds 1.730000 0.620000 2.350000 ( 3.772379) missing:ruby:memcached:inline 1.750000 1.220000 2.970000 ( 5.029707) missing:ruby:memcached_UDS:inline 1.620000 0.670000 2.290000 ( 3.612413) missing:ruby:memcache-client 19.310000 1.360000 20.670000 ( 24.277446) mixed:ruby:noblock:memcached:net 3.530000 2.310000 5.840000 ( 10.037807) mixed:ruby:noblock:memcached:uds 3.270000 1.000000 4.270000 ( 6.980218) mixed:ruby:memcached:net 3.760000 2.510000 6.270000 ( 10.478885) mixed:ruby:memcached:uds 3.740000 1.190000 4.930000 ( 7.898747) mixed:ruby:memcache-client 45.900000 2.870000 48.770000 ( 56.733674) hash:hsieh 0.040000 0.000000 0.040000 ( 0.041816) hash:md5 0.120000 0.000000 0.120000 ( 0.121045) hash:fnv1_32 0.060000 0.000000 0.060000 ( 0.062099) hash:fnv1a_32 0.060000 0.000000 0.060000 ( 0.063173) hash:fnv1a_64 0.070000 0.000000 0.070000 ( 0.071170) hash:default 0.080000 0.000000 0.080000 ( 0.081224) hash:jenkins 0.050000 0.000000 0.050000 ( 0.053789) hash:fnv1_64 0.090000 0.000000 0.090000 ( 0.089719) hash:crc 0.080000 0.000000 0.080000 ( 0.079723) hash:murmur 0.050000 0.000000 0.050000 ( 0.048248)