Or maybe even not completely GC-free [1]. What might be especially helpful is a good JIT that could reoptimize the code on-the-fly, when data patterns changes. Maybe performance level of 'data-guided optimization' provided by (controllable) GC and state-of-the-art JIT could beat down traditional approach someday.

http://lukego.github.io/blog/2013/01/03/snabb-switchs-luajit...