With the sizes of drives today, saving 20k, or even 100k just isn’t that big of a deal.

I agree the 7zip is a great tool, but to make multiple blog posts pimping it?
I sure hope they are paying you, or you’re getting something out of it.

Speed :
1-WinRar > Zip
2-WinRar > Rar
3-7-zip > Lzma

Compression Ratio:

1-7-zip > Lzma (Ultra method)
2-WinRar > Rar(Solid-on and best method)
3-WinRar > zip

user friendly:
1-WinRar
2-Winzip
3-7-zip

but remember it’s not the whole story i tested some files that compressed better than 7-zip and WinRar by a zip archiver(general Deflate algorithm used in many formats like Cab,ace and ….) , there are lots of factors like different file type , security , recover ability , good interface , open sourceand license type,cost and …

but because Rar and 7z format are too near in comparing so the most important factors and :
1-Cost 2-Compression Ratio 3-speed
and in most 7-zip is a winner

For 7zip, Winrar and new Winzip formats.

If the “other” person that will receive your file doesn’t have some of this, they’ll have to download the app or you have to send them a self-extracting which will be filtered by most of the e-mail servers. So in the end most of the times you end up with a standard ZIP.

And the most important thing is that output size always depend on the input type.

Just testing (that’s why I’ve searched for this)
14 Nintendo DS roms 488MB
7zip 215MB (much better CPU performance)
ZipX 217MB
RAR 223MB
ZIP 265MB

I became a fan of 7z because it compress like hell.

Winzip is ordinary and if you do ZIP files with it, it’s a little better result over XP own zip, with better performance.

To me is like this:
Winzip 12.1 vs. Winrar 3.9 vs 7zip 4.65

Winzip > compresses JPEG in 20%, ugly, good speed for standard ZIP format, bad for everything else. Bad splitting files.

7zip > compresses everything but JPEG better than the rest, good interface. Lacks of many tools. Best Speed. Non-Invasive, free. Good security, allows to hide the file names with password, not just the contents.

Winrar > good compression but no luck against 7zip and the new Winzip. The slowest on Best compression mode. THE BEST on Tools. Best splitting, allows to re-compress any file to the actual Winrar version. Allows to decompress a list of files, allows to compress a list of files to independent RAR files (maybe allows 3rd party too?). Non-Invasive. Good security, allows to hide the file names with password, not just the contents.

Curious how that compares to WinZip / 7Zip