Caching is all about performance, so I carefully track Dalli performance to ensure no regressions. Times are from a Unibody MBP 2.4Ghz Core i5 running Snow Leopard.
You can optionally use kgio to give Dalli a small, 10-20% performance boost: gem install kgio.
memcache-client:
Testing 1.8.5 with ruby 1.9.2p136 (2010-12-25 revision 30365) [x86_64-darwin10.6.0]
user system total real
set:plain:memcache 2.070000 0.340000 2.410000 ( 2.611709)
set:ruby:memcache 1.990000 0.330000 2.320000 ( 2.869653)
get:plain:memcache 2.290000 0.360000 2.650000 ( 2.926425)
get:ruby:memcache 2.360000 0.350000 2.710000 ( 2.951604)
multiget:ruby:memcache 1.050000 0.120000 1.170000 ( 1.285787)
missing:ruby:memcache 1.990000 0.330000 2.320000 ( 2.567641)
mixed:ruby:memcache 4.390000 0.670000 5.060000 ( 5.721000)
incr:ruby:memcache 0.700000 0.120000 0.820000 ( 0.842896)
libmemcached:
Testing 1.1.2 with ruby 1.9.2p136 (2010-12-25 revision 30365) [x86_64-darwin10.6.0]
user system total real
set:plain:libm 0.120000 0.220000 0.340000 ( 0.847521)
setq:plain:libm 0.030000 0.000000 0.030000 ( 0.126944)
set:ruby:libm 0.220000 0.250000 0.470000 ( 1.102789)
get:plain:libm 0.140000 0.230000 0.370000 ( 0.813998)
get:ruby:libm 0.210000 0.240000 0.450000 ( 1.025994)
multiget:ruby:libm 0.100000 0.080000 0.180000 ( 0.322217)
missing:ruby:libm 0.250000 0.240000 0.490000 ( 1.049972)
mixed:ruby:libm 0.400000 0.410000 0.810000 ( 2.172349)
mixedq:ruby:libm 0.410000 0.360000 0.770000 ( 1.516718)
incr:ruby:libm 0.080000 0.340000 0.420000 ( 1.685931)
dalli:
Using kgio socket IO
Testing 1.0.2 with ruby 1.9.2p136 (2010-12-25 revision 30365) [x86_64-darwin10.6.0]
user system total real
set:plain:dalli 0.850000 0.320000 1.170000 ( 1.691393)
setq:plain:dalli 0.500000 0.130000 0.630000 ( 0.651227)
set:ruby:dalli 0.900000 0.330000 1.230000 ( 1.865228)
get:plain:dalli 0.990000 0.390000 1.380000 ( 1.929994)
get:ruby:dalli 0.950000 0.370000 1.320000 ( 1.844251)
multiget:ruby:dalli 0.790000 0.300000 1.090000 ( 1.227073)
missing:ruby:dalli 0.810000 0.370000 1.180000 ( 1.627039)
mixed:ruby:dalli 1.850000 0.710000 2.560000 ( 3.555032)
mixedq:ruby:dalli 1.840000 0.610000 2.450000 ( 2.945982)
incr:ruby:dalli 0.310000 0.120000 0.430000 ( 0.616465)
Testing 1.0.2 with rubinius 1.3.0dev (1.8.7 382e813f xxxx-xx-xx JI) [x86_64-apple-darwin10.6.0] user system total real set:plain:dalli 2.800581 0.329360 3.129941 ( 5.186546) setq:plain:dalli 1.064253 0.138044 1.202297 ( 1.280355) set:ruby:dalli 2.220885 0.262619 2.483504 ( 2.778118) get:plain:dalli 2.291344 0.280490 2.571834 ( 2.948004) get:ruby:dalli 2.148900 0.274477 2.423377 ( 2.425808) multiget:ruby:dalli 1.724193 0.249145 1.973338 ( 2.158673) missing:ruby:dalli 1.881502 0.272610 2.154112 ( 2.208384) mixed:ruby:dalli 4.292620 0.533768 4.826388 ( 4.830238) mixedq:ruby:dalli 4.076032 0.501442 4.577474 ( 4.583800) incr:ruby:dalli 0.691467 0.091475 0.782942 ( 0.931674)
Testing 1.0.2 with rubinius 1.2.0 (1.8.7 release 2010-12-21 JI) [x86_64-apple-darwin10.6.0] user system total real set:plain:dalli 6.586927 0.331545 6.918472 ( 4.628652) setq:plain:dalli 0.930905 0.129008 1.059913 ( 1.016105) set:ruby:dalli 2.702486 0.283004 2.985490 ( 2.690442) get:plain:dalli 2.740202 0.291353 3.031555 ( 2.722746) get:ruby:dalli 1.979379 0.282986 2.262365 ( 2.264118) multiget:ruby:dalli 1.887086 0.249799 2.136885 ( 1.803230) missing:ruby:dalli 1.882662 0.278019 2.160681 ( 2.113429) mixed:ruby:dalli 3.969242 0.553361 4.522603 ( 4.524504) mixedq:ruby:dalli 3.520755 0.475669 3.996424 ( 3.997405) incr:ruby:dalli 0.849998 0.094012 0.944010 ( 0.884001)