Best Compression Format

[DRAGoN.X]

I ran a test, to see what the best form (and format) of compression would be to back up files. I used a FEAR save folder since that compresses nicely .
Since I don't have anything better to do I decided to test which copression format was king in both speed and size. The options are set to the highest amount of compression. With and without using solid archive.

Here are my results (in KBs) and with out using solid archive (a little more speed):
Original Folder Size: 9.59 MBs
Zip: 1,203 KB
RAR: 1,092 KB
7z: 1,001 KB

If you are planning on NOT locking the archive, 7z format is king on compression. If speed of compression is your goal, Nothing beats Winzip (although the speed difference between them all is minimal)

Results (in KBs) with solid archive (higher compression):
Zip: 1,203 KB (didn't support solid archives!)
RAR: 688 KB
7z: 527 KB

Locking an archive is a good way to get greater compression, although then some restrictions are put on the archive like when you only want 1 file from the archive, all previous must be analized. And solid archives also currupt easier so recovery record it key here.

Looking at the results, 7z is king in compression with Winrar not to far behind. If you want the best of both worlds, Winrar and the rar format is prabably the program/format for you. It compresses rather quick (almost no difference between winzip and winrar, winzip slightly faster), and gives a excelent compression ratio.

To sum it up:
You need best compression: go with 7z.
You want speed!!!!!: go with Winzip or Winrar.

But basically if I had to choose 1, I'd choose Winrar. Winrar is prabably the best program there is for compression, and is widly used, like on GCW .
Furthermore, the features in Winrar are also great like solid archives and sfx's.

Winner: Winrar
Runner Up: 7z
Last Place: Winzip

I'd like to also hear your feedback and experiences with the different archive formats. (Like do you agree with me on this one?)

dragonx
P.S. I only did this since I don't have anything better to do with my free time, like make a Warhammer 40k Dawn of War: WA trainer...

[thebluegr]

Well if you want the best compression around, use UHA. WinUHA is a very good graphical front-end. To be honest though, I prefer RAR as it's very a well-known compression format, compresses well and it's reasonably quick to compress

[kosmiq]

UHA (uwe herklotz archiver, it is if I am not mistaken) is really good at compressin stuff. It has been used by some ripping groups I think. Still WinRAR is widely used and I consider it the best.

Nice little sumup you did as I have been thinking about 7zip for a while...

[izriot]

Hey guys, how could I recover a corrupted 7z archive? It is a 700 MB archive and full of pictures, but at 18% the unpacking stops cause its demadged. Is there any program that can solve this issue?

[Joe Forster/STA]

It is probably 7-Zip itself that should primarily be used to repair its own archives. As I never used this archiver myself, I'm not sure about whether it has "solid" mode enabled by default but, if it does, you can say goodbye to all the files after 18%!

[izriot]

Damn, thats sux... Thanks anyway.

[Bollo]

Well, I'm news to this forum....and seeking I've found this topic...

Well, I you're looking for a program with a good compression and speed I suggest you to use WinRAR....it's the best doing that job.

But if you're looking for the BEST compressor available,regardless the time, you must seek WinRK for compressing multiple files and PAQ8JC for single file compression.
Both programs are the BEST COMPRESSORs that you're asking for.

I'm not a guru in these matters, but if you want more information about compressors you must see this link:

http://www.maximumcompression.com

Sorry if I can't post links to anothers sites.
See ya!

[wacky98]

you must be a genius? you proceeded to oratate how you did comparisons on 3 compression utilities, and clearly showed 7z as the best then pulled a personal preference judgment to say winrar wins for best compression- maybe in the future you can stick to the test instead of just blabbering on to tell the world winrar is your favorite- I mean really whats the point of testing and posting the best if its just an opinion anyway. I bet you are on eof those guys that replies to peoples technical questions by saying " have you tried googleing it? which is how most people end up at various forums in the first place. jeesh.

[Joe Forster/STA]

The word "best" is tricky because it actually defines nothing at all: it doesn't define which point of view you took when you said that object X has the highest quality. If you need speed, ZIP is the "best"; if you need highest compression ratio, probably 7-Zip is the "best"; if you need high compression ratio, high functionality/configurability and being an established de facto standard then RAR is the "best".

ZIP has been around for ages, it's been cleaned out and re-written in the form of free software (Info-Zip); because of its extreme compression speed - almost as fast as simply copying files -, it's ideal for small and/or often rearchived stuff.

RAR is not so old but also has been around for so long that it effectively killed its able competitors: first ARJ and then ACE. Its 2.x DOS versions had a nice Norton-like user interface (yummy!) and the 3.x Windows versions can also be integrated into Windows Explorer. (I don't like GUI's but this is important for the average user.) It has a wide range of compression ratios, from fast & not so good to very slow & squeeze the last bits out. It also has an great amount of configuration options and copies all major functions from ARJ.

I don't know 7-Zip much. Yes, it's free software but it hasn't been around for a long enough to become a de facto standard, unlike ZIP and RAR. One of the reasons for its even higher compression ratio may be using solid archives by default: this is one of the tricks that ACE used to boast its own compression ratios; if you switched it off manually, it wasn't much better - if at all - than RAR anymore! Another reason could be using different adaptivity for the same compression algorithm or using a completely different algorithm, although RAR itself has a lot of them (e.g. one especially for multimedia files; also see UHArc for such purposes!).

As for archiver comparisons, they're like opinions and assholes: everyone has one and noone is interested in that of others...

[jklm862]

You write very well, support you!
<links removed>

[GLH]

banned permanent

[darkwolves]

can anyone tell me how i can properly compress .ttarch2 files and .pak
files?