Comparing pike -x benchmark for 7.6 and 7.7 shows a performance decrease in most areas. I read this as - possibly a performance issue somewhere central, affecting most tests - a performance issue in append array, since it's almost twice as slow. - a performance issue with sort integers, as it's 1.3 times as slow.
Ackermann.................. 1.089 Append array............... 1.985 Append mapping............. 1.002 Append multiset............ 0.967 Array & String Juggling.... 0.992 Clone null-object.......... 1.013 Clone object............... 1.046 Compile & Exec............. 1.062 Compile.................... 1.138 GC......................... 1.050 Insert in mapping.......... 0.993 Insert in multiset......... 0.995 Loops Nested (global)...... 0.658 Loops Nested (local)....... 0.635 Loops Recursed............. 1.000 Matrix multiplication...... 0.874 Read binary INT128......... 0.997 Read binary INT16.......... 1.042 Read binary INT32.......... 1.004 Sort equal integers........ 1.356 Sort ordered integers...... 1.253 Sort unordered integers.... 1.362 Sort unordered objects..... 1.032