[dba-Tech] Rar vs winzip

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Fri Feb 8 20:05:20 CST 2008


I am zipping up some of my big databases in order to get a backup without
the size.  I have always used Winzip but also have RAR installed so I
decided to try both.  I have a quad core on the SQL Server, and it turns out
that Winzip uses a bit of each core but mostly one.  RAR OTOH seems to use
LOTS of all 4 cores, and compresses about 4 times faster than Winzip, I
assume as a result of more efficient usage of the additional processing
power in the additional cores.

OTOH you can winzip and do other things.  RAR tends to suck about 80% of all
4 cores so it is pretty slow doing anything else.  But if you need to zip
something up as quickly as possible then RAR seems to be the one to use.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 




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