COMPRESSION BENCHMARKS BY THE ZOMBIE -- version 2 -- 10/11/94

=============================================================



   Zombie  here...   As  a  service  to  PC  users,  I  ran in-depth

benchmarks on the latest version  of  compression  formats  used  by

Shez.   You  can't  trust  the  benchmarks  supplied  by compression

program packages --  they're  always  biased (some programs compress

certain file types better than others).  I'll be  running  tests  on

ARC,  ARJ,  HAP,  LZH,  PAK, RAR, SQZ, UC2, ZIP, and ZOO unbiasedly.

I'll re-run the test every once in a while.



* ALL tests are performed FULLY on a ramdrive, on  a  486/66,  under

  DOS 6.0.



* Timing is done by the computer, from start of execution to finish,

  and is accurate to the centisecond.



* 4  megs  worth of files, in 20 commonly  used formats, picked in a

  random fashion, are used in the tests.





Here are the file types and sizes used in the variety test:



/-----------+--------+------------\

| Extension | Number | Total size |

+-----------+--------+------------+

|    ANS    |   12   |     20K    |

|    ARJ    |    3   |    208K    |

|    CHR    |    2   |     23K    |

|    COM    |    2   |     87K    |

|    DLL    |    2   |     52K    |

|    DOC    |    6   |    216K    |

|    EXE    |    4   |    294K    |

|    FLI    |    3   |    196K    |

|    FON    |    4   |     97K    |

|    GIF    |    5   |    461K    |

|    ICO    |   21   |     72K    |

|    JPG    |    3   |    158K    |

|    LBM    |    3   |     87K    |

|    MOD    |    3   |    285K    |

|    OBJ    |    6   |     16K    |

|    OVR    |    2   |    335K    |

|    SYS    |    4   |     62K    |

|    TGA    |    1   |    924K    |

|    VOC    |    5   |    211K    |

|    ZIP    |    5   |    157K    |

\-----------+--------+------------/





And here are the results:



/---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------\

| Program tested      | Version | Filesize  | Compress | Extract  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| ARC normal comp     |  6.02   | 3,287,567 | 0:29.77  | 0:10.32  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| ARJ normal comp     |  2.41a  | 2,722,525 | 0:36.58  | 0:08.90  |

| ARJ max comp        |  2.41a  | 2,721,961 | 0:40.75  | 0:08.90  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| HAP normal comp     |  3.00   | 2,760,526 | 5:19.40  | 2:47.36  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| LZH normal comp     |  2.55b  | 2,752,088 | 0:37.63  | 0:10.10  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| PAK normal comp     |  2.51   | 2,958,526 | 0:42.29  | 0:10.82  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| RAR normal comp     |  1.52   | 2,693,710 | 0:35.76  | 0:10.33  |

| RAR max comp        |  1.52   | 2,689,205 | 0:45.91  | 0:10.27  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| SQZ normal comp     | 1.08.3  | 2,699,798 | 0:40.75  | 0:10.93  |

| SQZ max comp        | 1.08.3  | 2,696,238 | 0:55.47  | 0:10.87  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| UC2 normal comp     |   2.0   | 2,677,838 | 1:26.78  | 0:14.94  |

| UC2 multimedia comp |   2.0   | 2,534,122 | 1:57.15  | 0:14.56  |

| UC2 max comp        |   2.0   | 2,525,476 | 3:35.91  | 0:15.32  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| ZIP normal comp     |  2.04g  | 2,718,718 | 0:28.12  | 0:05.39  |

| ZIP max comp        |  2.04g  | 2,701,994 | 0:39.38  | 0:05.33  |

+---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+

| ZOO normal comp     |  2.10   | 3,220,726 | 1:14.43  | 0:13.29  |

| ZOO max comp        |  2.10   | 2,755,649 | 1:18.11  | 0:15.21  |

\---------------------+---------+-----------+----------+----------/





MOST COMPRESSION          LEAST  TIME

================          ===========

 1.UC2 2,525,476           1.ZIP 0:28

 2.RAR 2,689,205           2.ARC 0:29

 3.SQZ 2,696,238           3.RAR 0:35

 4.ZIP 2,701,994           4.ARJ 0:36

 5.ARJ 2,721,961           5.LZH 0:37

 6.LZH 2,752,088           6.SQZ 0:40

 7.ZOO 2,755,649           7.PAK 0:42

 8.HAP 2,760,526           8.ZOO 1:14

 9.PAK 2,958,526           9.UC2 1:26

10.ARC 3,287,567          10.HAP 5:19





   These results don't hold true all the time  --  they're  only  an

average.   UC2  got the best compression by far, but was the slowest

(with the exception of HAP, which  took over 5 minutes to compress).

RAR & ZIP get good compression and good time -- ZIP is  also  widely

supported.   ARJ  is  in  the  middleground, but has the most useful

features.  LZH falls just short of  ARJ in compression and time, and

is still used for some compatibility problems.  I personally use UC2

for backing up, and ZIP for anything coming or going.



   If anyone wants the batch of  files  I  used in the tests, or the

versions  of  any  archivers  used  in  this  test,  email   me   at

tzombie@inca.gate.net



    ____________

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--{  The Zombie  }--

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