I normally use WinRAR over 7-Zip simply because it’s faster and only a little less efficient with compression. I did a few tests on different file types and sizes comparing the 7-Zip and WinRAR default settings on their normal compression and their best compression, and in a lot of cases WinRAR was 50% faster and in some it was actually 100% faster.But, I do like FOSS more. So here are my questions:
- Is there a way to make 7-Zip speed-up? I’d like it to at least be on par with WinRAR’s speed
- Is there a way to make recovery segments in 7-Zip like you can in WinRAR? I didn’t see any, but I guess it could be a command line thing.
- I tested WinRAR and 7-Zip using the latest stable version of each (4-dot-something with 7-Zip). Is the 9.x beta release noticeably faster at compression?
I’m talking about faster at a comparable setting in WinRAR, not just lowering to bare minimum compression.
If it matters, I use a quad core Intel i7 720 (1.6 GHz)/(2.8 GHz) with 4 GB DDR3 RAM, and the 64-bit version of 7-Zip, and dual-boot Debian x64 5.0.4 and Windows 7 Home.
Solution:
If you get the 7-Zip 9.13 beta you can change the archive type to LZMA2 and thus be able to use as many threads as you like, though the memory usage goes up phenomenally.
Install the beta, right click the stuff you want to archive then under the 7-Zip contect menu click “Add to archive…” and you will get something similar to the window below. On the left hand side under Compression Method you should find “LZMA2” which will allow you to change the number of threads which will be an option a bit further down.
This has the potential of vastly increasing performance on >2 core processors as it can be better tuned to your system, and the normal compression method can only handle 2 threads maximum.
The “/1” you see to the right of the number of threads selection box in the image is the number of processors in your system and thus the recommended number of threads. My i7 is a quad core processor but has hyperthreading (which does actually help here btw) so it shows as “/8”
