7-Zip for Windows goes massively parallel with first ‘Threadripper Edition’ — five years after Threadripper debut, Version 25.00 the first to support more than 64 threads

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Devs unshackle the software from its 64 CPU threads limit, starting from release 25.00.

7-Zip
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Popular free and open source archive application, 7-Zip, has completed a major milestone leap that will be welcomed by PC power-users. Version 25.00 of the application, released via GitHub this weekend, is the first Windows release to support processing across more than 64 threads. In addition to its newfound massively parallel CPU processing support, this ‘Threadripper Edition’ offers significantly faster bzip2 compression for all users.

Before version 25.00, 7-Zip was perfectly acceptable for PC owners packing the best CPUs aimed at consumers. Its multithreaded processing capabilities comfortably coped with the likes of the Ryzen 9950X with 16C/32T, and the Core Ultra 9 285K with 24C/24T. These are the top consumer processors targeting PC DIY enthusiasts.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SomeoneElse23
    From my testing, the more threads, the more memory. Yeah it'll go incredibly fast, with incredible memory.

    Still, that's pretty neat.
    Reply
  • DS426
    SomeoneElse23 said:
    From my testing, the more threads, the more memory. Yeah it'll go incredibly fast, with incredible memory.

    Still, that's pretty neat.
    Indeed, and generally as core counts increase, memory does as well.

    I like Dave Plummer. Great YouTube channel.
    Reply
  • twin_savage
    Whenever I'm using LZMA2 compression with 7zip I keep the thread count ≤3 because of the space efficiency lost after 3 threads are used.
    I never see anyone talk about this and thought I was going crazy after noticing it.
    Reply
  • SomeoneElse23
    twin_savage said:
    Whenever I'm using LZMA2 compression with 7zip I keep the thread count ≤3 because of the space efficiency lost after 3 threads are used.
    I never see anyone talk about this and thought I was going crazy after noticing it.
    It depends a lot on the data being compressed. Like a highly optimized program, testing and benchmarking helps.

    I have an automated nightly backup process that uses 7-zip to squeeze a 14gb tar down to 2.7gb. With lots of testing on a 5950x with lots of memory on a fast NVMe, I found a "sweet spot" with a custom dictionary size.

    I found that more cores means more memory usage, faster compression, but the same output size. That made it somewhat easy to test.

    It takes more than hour to run on a slower machine with 3 threads, but it works, every single night, squeezing 14gb down to 2.7gb.
    Reply
  • shortaru
    "Must have" is a * statement. 😂

    Just because you don't like WinRAR doesn't mean your pet compression software is the only viable option.

    I've not used 7-zip since the year it came out (wasn't all that impressed with the release), and jumped back into the arms of my beloved WinRAR and haven't looked back.

    Prima facie evidence of the inaccuracy of your precious 7-zip being a "must have".

    TBF, I'm not saying 7-zip is not a better program overall than WinRAR by NOW due to the fact that WinRAR isn't exactly huge on evolution, but that's EXACTLY why I prefer it. It's the overselling I took exception with.
    Reply
  • SomeoneElse23
    All programmers have their quirks. 7-zip is no exception. For example, he insists * as a wildcard is an archaic idea. As such, his command line logic is, in my perspective, a bit backwards.

    However, others have cracked that nut, and you can find websites that clearly document what does what.

    With a little time and experimentation, however, the 7zip command line is incredibly powerful.

    The user interface for 7zip is a bit, um, nerdy and not friendly. WinRAR probably has the upper hand there. I personally tried WinRAR way back when it was created, and was not impressed. Haven't looked at it since.
    Reply