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 an OS X 10.5 Core 2 Duo machine: Ruby 1.8.7p174 Loaded memcached 0.17 Loaded binary42-remix-stash 0.9.5 Loaded memcache-client 1.7.5 Loops is 40000 Stack depth is 0 Small value size is: 13 bytes Large value size is: 4158 bytes user system total real set:libm 1.360000 2.120000 3.480000 ( 8.952505) set:libm:binary 1.180000 2.100000 3.280000 ( 7.692065) set:libm:noblock 0.590000 0.240000 0.830000 ( 1.863921) set:libm:noblock_binary 0.470000 0.220000 0.690000 ( 1.678243) set:libm:udp 1.140000 1.150000 2.290000 ( 4.835305) set:ruby 15.440000 6.330000 21.770000 ( 22.136843) set:stash 5.780000 2.040000 7.820000 ( 13.748268) get:libm 1.600000 2.000000 3.600000 ( 8.112166) get:libm:binary 1.360000 2.150000 3.510000 ( 7.829266) get:libm:noblock 1.820000 2.630000 4.450000 ( 8.971191) get:libm:noblock_binary 1.560000 2.650000 4.210000 ( 8.114088) get:libm:udp 1.350000 1.140000 2.490000 ( 4.878485) get:ruby 18.640000 6.370000 25.010000 ( 25.925459) get:stash 5.120000 1.990000 7.110000 ( 11.850485) get-multi:libm 1.770000 1.320000 3.090000 ( 4.790793) get-multi:libm:binary 1.730000 1.740000 3.470000 ( 5.655120) get-multi:libm:noblock 1.820000 1.330000 3.150000 ( 4.841084) get-multi:libm:noblock_binary 1.740000 1.760000 3.500000 ( 5.616970) get-multi:libm:udp 1.690000 0.960000 2.650000 ( 3.551923) get-multi:ruby 21.380000 4.400000 25.780000 ( 26.017883) append:libm 1.500000 2.180000 3.680000 ( 14.658051) append:libm:binary 1.300000 2.110000 3.410000 ( 13.626305) append:libm:noblock 1.850000 2.870000 4.720000 ( 45.167145) append:libm:noblock_binary 1.640000 2.870000 4.510000 ( 44.614596) append:libm:udp 1.260000 1.170000 2.430000 ( 11.556293) append:ruby 16.770000 7.310000 24.080000 ( 29.525815) delete:libm 1.890000 2.080000 3.970000 ( 8.368548) delete:libm:binary 1.730000 2.090000 3.820000 ( 7.799952) delete:libm:noblock 0.850000 0.890000 1.740000 ( 2.530108) delete:libm:noblock_binary 0.710000 0.780000 1.490000 ( 2.390600) delete:libm:udp 1.700000 1.310000 3.010000 ( 6.508360) delete:ruby 15.670000 6.330000 22.000000 ( 22.226087) delete:stash 4.970000 2.010000 6.980000 ( 11.726916) get-missing:libm 2.070000 2.060000 4.130000 ( 8.937420) get-missing:libm:binary 2.010000 2.090000 4.100000 ( 8.506150) get-missing:libm:noblock 2.270000 2.770000 5.040000 ( 9.485592) get-missing:libm:noblock_binary 2.220000 2.760000 4.980000 ( 9.226826) get-missing:libm:udp 1.830000 1.300000 3.130000 ( 7.135699) get-missing:ruby 16.130000 6.380000 22.510000 ( 22.888698) get-missing:stash 5.030000 2.030000 7.060000 ( 11.556793) append-missing:libm 2.210000 2.070000 4.280000 ( 10.386632) append-missing:libm:binary 2.000000 2.060000 4.060000 ( 9.135312) append-missing:libm:noblock 2.400000 2.740000 5.140000 ( 10.821778) append-missing:libm:noblock_binary 2.200000 2.770000 4.970000 ( 9.699192) append-missing:libm:udp 1.970000 1.320000 3.290000 ( 7.668878) append-missing:ruby 15.970000 6.470000 22.440000 ( 22.912466) set-large:libm 1.460000 2.210000 3.670000 ( 9.517034) set-large:libm:binary 1.260000 2.270000 3.530000 ( 9.098769) set-large:libm:noblock 0.980000 0.890000 1.870000 ( 3.304075) set-large:libm:noblock_binary 0.840000 0.890000 1.730000 ( 3.444305) set-large:libm:udp 1.250000 1.330000 2.580000 ( 6.924254) set-large:ruby 16.960000 6.490000 23.450000 ( 23.964380) get-large:libm 2.280000 2.450000 4.730000 ( 9.908532) get-large:libm:binary 2.080000 2.530000 4.610000 ( 8.966637) get-large:libm:noblock 2.410000 2.850000 5.260000 ( 11.066391) get-large:libm:noblock_binary 2.200000 2.910000 5.110000 ( 10.328922) get-large:libm:udp 2.010000 1.430000 3.440000 ( 6.679192) get-large:ruby 21.790000 7.370000 29.160000 ( 29.578987) get-large:stash 5.430000 2.020000 7.450000 ( 11.967011) set-ruby:libm 1.800000 1.990000 3.790000 ( 9.511387) set-ruby:libm:binary 1.610000 2.000000 3.610000 ( 8.502297) set-ruby:libm:noblock 0.910000 0.200000 1.110000 ( 2.083001) set-ruby:libm:noblock_binary 0.750000 0.210000 0.960000 ( 1.895510) set-ruby:libm:udp 1.530000 1.170000 2.700000 ( 6.148442) set-ruby:ruby 16.290000 6.400000 22.690000 ( 23.672254) set-ruby:stash 5.570000 2.020000 7.590000 ( 13.381661) get-ruby:libm 1.920000 1.950000 3.870000 ( 9.042716) get-ruby:libm:binary 1.640000 1.980000 3.620000 ( 7.987886) get-ruby:libm:noblock 2.140000 2.600000 4.740000 ( 10.280036) get-ruby:libm:noblock_binary 1.870000 2.590000 4.460000 ( 9.213013) get-ruby:libm:udp 1.660000 1.170000 2.830000 ( 5.762381) get-ruby:ruby 19.760000 6.500000 26.260000 ( 27.573109) get-ruby:stash 5.480000 2.010000 7.490000 ( 12.349059) set-ruby-large:libm 33.820000 2.340000 36.160000 ( 43.061537) set-ruby-large:libm:binary 33.430000 2.260000 35.690000 ( 41.940845) set-ruby-large:libm:noblock 34.170000 0.930000 35.100000 ( 35.632694) set-ruby-large:libm:noblock_binary 34.010000 0.930000 34.940000 ( 35.383141) set-ruby-large:libm:udp 33.150000 1.430000 34.580000 ( 39.521448) set-ruby-large:ruby 48.830000 6.560000 55.390000 ( 55.750071) set-ruby-large:stash 38.660000 2.230000 40.890000 ( 46.957838) get-ruby-large:libm 23.570000 2.340000 25.910000 ( 32.166590) get-ruby-large:libm:binary 23.420000 2.510000 25.930000 ( 31.953854) get-ruby-large:libm:noblock 23.840000 3.040000 26.880000 ( 32.919639) get-ruby-large:libm:noblock_binary 23.570000 2.970000 26.540000 ( 32.210027) get-ruby-large:libm:udp 23.210000 1.460000 24.670000 ( 29.284808) get-ruby-large:ruby 41.170000 7.560000 48.730000 ( 49.507358) get-ruby-large:stash 25.760000 2.540000 28.300000 ( 33.998493) hash:fnv1a_64 0.240000 0.000000 0.240000 ( 0.247813) hash:murmur 0.190000 0.000000 0.190000 ( 0.193039) hash:default 0.220000 0.000000 0.220000 ( 0.216573) hash:jenkins 0.220000 0.000000 0.220000 ( 0.222694) hash:md5 0.390000 0.000000 0.390000 ( 0.395159) hash:crc 0.210000 0.000000 0.210000 ( 0.216457) hash:hsieh 0.100000 0.000000 0.100000 ( 0.104386) hash:fnv1_32 0.220000 0.000000 0.220000 ( 0.216769) hash:fnv1a_32 0.230000 0.000000 0.230000 ( 0.237016) hash:fnv1_64 0.450000 0.010000 0.460000 ( 0.454704)