Computersight -

These days it’s hard to come by a download that isn’t compressed, and for good reason; Compressed files use less bandwidth and hard drive space. In this article we will take a look at three different compression standards-.Rar, .7z, and .Zip-To determine which format reigns supreme.

In all tests, WinRar is used for the .rar compressions, and 7-Zip is used for both .7z and .zip formats.

Text Compression

In this test, compression levels are set to the maximum levels. Files compressed are a 16MB .txt file, and 10 copies of a 317KB .docx (word) document, for a total of 20,026,356 bytes.

Original size – Compressed size = % Reduction

• .Rar: 20,026,356 Bytes >> 1,731,928 Bytes = 8.64824 %
• .7z: 20,026,356 Bytes >> 172,215 Bytes = .85994%
• .Zip: 20,026,356 Bytes >> 1,972,471 Bytes = 9.84938%

Image Compression

In this test, 491 pictures of a mixture of .jpeg, .gif, .png, and .bmp totaling 51,738,734 bytes are compressed. Again, compression settings are set to their highest

Original size  – Compressed size = % Reduction

• .Rar: 51,738,734 Bytes >> 46,220,909 Bytes = 89.33521%
• .7z: 51,738,734 Bytes >> 45,437,377 Bytes = 87.82081%
• .Zip: 51,738,734 Bytes >> 46,322,811 Bytes = 89.52217%

Audio Compression

This test will throw 14 .mp3 files at our compressors. The total file size is 87,174,801 bytes. Compression settings are maxed out.

Original size – Compressed size = % Reduction

• .Rar: 87,174,801 Bytes >> 86,604,680 Bytes = 99.34600%
• .7z: 87,174,801 Bytes >> 86,958,008 Bytes = 99.75589%
• .Zip: 87,174,801 Bytes >> 86,419,078 Bytes = 99.13309%

Conclusion

The .7z format completely dominated the competition in text compression, giving it a secure victory in this battle. In the tests done, there was little difference between .rar and .zip, with .rar being able to compress about .4% better on average. However, .7z was able to compress on average about 3% better than the .rar format.

Now that the dust is beginning to settle, I am going to uninstall all of the compressors considered for this battle, and only the victor will remain standing in my system.

Download the winner here