Test System And Methodology
Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz) |
Motherboard | MSI P965 Neo |
Memory | Two Mushkin 1GB XP2-5300 DDR2 Memory Modules |
Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT (256MB) |
Hard Drive | 400GB Seagate Barracuda
7200.10 (SATA) 700GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA) |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista |
To reduce the effect of the hard drive read-write delays on the results, the test files were placed on one hard drive and compression performed on the second hard drive. A special partition was created on both drives to ensure that only the outermost tracks are used for the tests.
A Seiko WO73-4000 stopwatch was used to time all compression test runs, even if the compression software comes with its own timer. It starts from the moment the compression job begins and ends when the compressed file is fully written to the destination partition.
Test Settings
In this comparison guide, we are going to run three different kinds of tests :
- Fastest compression
- Default compression
- Best compression
The test results will help you decide which data compressor is best for you. Some people may prefer very quick compression while others may prefer to wait for the smallest file size possible. And there may be those who prefer to leave it at the default setting. Okay, maybe they just don't know better.
Fastest Compression |
Default Compression |
Best Compression |
|
---|---|---|---|
7-Zip |
Compression Level : Fastest Compression Method : LZMA Dictionary Size : 4MB Word Size : 32 Solid Archive Multi-Threading |
Compression Level : Normal Compression Method : LZMA Dictionary Size : 4MB Word Size : 32 Solid Archive Multi-Threading |
Compression Level : Ultra Compression Method : LZMA Dictionary Size : 64MB Word Size : 64 Solid Archive Multi-Threading |
ARJ32 |
arj32 a -m4 |
arj32 a -m1 |
arj32 a -m1 -jm |
bzip2 |
bzip2 -z -1 -v |
bzip2 -z -5 -v |
bzip2 -z -9 -v |
gzip |
gzip -1 -v |
gzip -5 -v |
gzip -9 -v |
SBC
Archiver |
sbc c -m1 |
sbc c -m2 |
sbc c -m3 |
Squeez |
Format : SQX Version 2.0 Compression Rate : Fast Dictionary Size : 4MB Multimedia Compression On EXE Compression On Solid Archive |
Format : SQX Version 2.0 Compression Rate : Normal Dictionary Size : 4MB Multimedia Compression On EXE Compression On Solid Archive |
Format : SQX Version 2.0 Compression Rate : Ultra Dictionary Size : 4MB Multimedia Compression On EXE Compression On Solid Archive |
StuffIt
Deluxe |
StuffIt X format Method 1 : Fastest Compression Memory Value : 15 Optimizers On Block Mode On Redundancy Off Don't Compress JPEG |
StuffIt X format Method 3 : Best Size/Speed Memory Value : 21 Optimizers On Block Mode On Redundancy Off Compress JPEG Using Fastest Compression |
StuffIt X format Method 5 : Chooses Method By File Type Memory Value : 23 Optimizers On Block Mode On Redundancy Off Compress JPEG Creating Smaller Archives |
WinAce |
Compression : Super Fast Dictionary : 4096KB Ace 2.0 Compression Solid Archive |
Compression : Normal Dictionary : 4096KB Ace 2.0 Compression Solid Archive |
Compression : Maximum Dictionary : 4096KB Ace 2.0 Compression Solid Archive |
WinRAR |
Compression Method : Fastest Solid Archive Text Compression : Auto Audio Compression : Auto True Color Compression : Auto Dictionary Size : 4096 KB Enable delta compression |
Compression Method : Fastest
Solid Archive Text Compression : Auto Audio Compression : Auto True Color Compression : Auto Dictionary Size : 4096 KB Enable delta compression |
Compression Method : Best
Solid Archive Text Compression : Auto Audio Compression : Auto True Color Compression : Auto Dictionary Size : 4096 KB Enable delta compression |
WinRK |
Profile : Fastest (rolz3) Use SMP encoding and decoding SMP worker thread count : 2 |
Profile : Normal (rolz3) Use SMP encoding and decoding SMP worker thread count : 2 |
Profile : Best asymmetric (rolz3) Use SMP encoding and decoding SMP worker thread count : 2 |
WinZip |
Compression : Super Fast |
Compression : Enhanced Deflate |
Compression : Optimize For Maximum Compression |
The Results
Fastest Compression |
Default Compression |
Best Compression |
Aggregated Results |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Audio
Files - WAV (Highly Compressible) |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Audio
Files - MP3 (Poorly Compressible) |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Documents |
Coming Soon! |
|||
E-Books |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Movies
- DivX |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Movies
- MPEG |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Pictures
- PSD (Highly Compressible) |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Pictures
- JPEG ( Poorly Compressible) |
Coming Soon! |
|||
Aggregrated
Results (Combination Of All Filesets) |
Coming Soon! |
<<< Investigating Their Performance, The Benchmark Fileset : Previous Page | Next Page : Fast: Audio Files - WAV (Highly Compressible) >>>