Performance

This page documents the performance optimizations employed by NamedSignal, as well as benchmarks and comparisons to other Signal libraries.

Optimizations

Linked Lists for O(1) Disconnection

Connections use doubly linked lists to maintain order while allowing constant-time disconnections.

While they are slower to iterate than an array, they avoid the very expensive shifting required by arrays when disconnecting.

Multi Thread Recycling

Every thread created for invocation is reused whenever possible, this cuts down on the overhead for spawning new threads.

Dual Layer Thread Cache

Inspired by CPU cache architecture, NamedSignal implements 2 layers of thread caching, a "fast" L1 cache (a local variable), and a "slow" thread pool (an array).

Accessing an upvalue is faster than indexing an array, so performance is slightly improved for non-yielding invocation.

Maximum Coroutine Library Use

task.spawn is much slower (~2-4x) than coroutine.resume, so the latter is used in place of the former wherever possible.

task.spawn is still used for listener invocation when USE_TASK_LIBRARY is true and available, as it provides error information in output.

Avoiding The OOP API Internally

When a function that is part of the OOP interface is depended on internally, it's instead defined as a const function, which skips the __index lookup and allows the Luau compiler to perform function inling.

Benchmarks

Test Details

NOTE

This benchmark only tests the standard API of most Signals, therefore many of NamedSignal's methods are not included.

A proper benchmark is in the works!

For now testing uses Gohan's Certification's Speed Certification.

Machine Details

Specifications of the hardware and software the following benchmark results are from.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core Processor (8C/16T)
• RAM: 32 GB 3200MT/s DDR4 (4x8G)
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 25H2
• Roblox Studio: Version 0.716.0.7160873

Results

NamedSignal

⚪ | Speed Certification     |  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:2020
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:1965
☑ | Create         | -0.5μs  | Baseline: 0.5μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.1μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Connect        | -0.6μs  | Baseline: 0.7μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.2μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Once           | -0.4μs  | Baseline: 0.6μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.2μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Fire_None      | +0.0μs  | Baseline: 0.1μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.1μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Fire_One       | -0.1μs  | Baseline: 0.5μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.4μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Fire_Many      | +0.0μs  | Baseline: 0.3μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.3μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Fire_OneYield  | -1.3μs  | Baseline: 1.9μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.6μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Fire_ManyYield | -0.7μs  | Baseline: 1.2μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.5μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | Disconnect     | -0.1μs  | Baseline: 0.2μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 0.1μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
☑ | DisconnectAll  | -6.6μs  | Baseline: 7.7μs  ▶ {...} | Results: 1.1μs  ▶ {...}  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:222
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:1965
✅ | Speed Certified         |  -  Server - Signal_Certifications:122