Results: Proprietary Formats, HT Enabled
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We start with the proprietary compression formats supported by all four file archiving and compression tools in our round-up, using both the default settings as well as the best settings we could find in each tool's GUI.
There’s a clear winner in this benchmark, and it's 7-Zip. The tool not only compresses files faster than any of its competitors, but it also manages to achieve the highest compression ratio. Even with the LZMA2 algorithm set to Fastest Compression, which prioritizes speed over compression ratio, 7-Zip produces noticeably smaller archive files than the competition, while finishing a full 19 seconds faster! Only LMZA’s Best setting pushes 7-Zip’s compression time all the way down to the bottom of the list. In return, though, it generates the smallest archive files. MagicRAR simply cannot compete with any of the more widely-known tools, at any setting.