Is there really a difference between WinRAR compression methods?

There are many reasons why we can make the decision to use a file compressor. And it is that programs such as WinRAR, can help us when it comes to saving space on disk drives, or to share a good number of files at once on the Internet.

This is something that is extensible for the vast majority of current file compressors. These types of programs have been accompanying us for many years offering their services and advantages. In addition, and how could it be otherwise, they have not stopped evolving in terms of functionality. The truth is that the user interface that they offer us is not too important here, but the additional functions that they offer are. To say that its developers are fully aware that users seek to go a step beyond compression as such.

difference between WinRAR compression methods

That is why their projects offer us some features of interest and utility such as integration with the operating system itself . This allows us to speed up the work with these applications and work with them more comfortably. For example, if we focus on the case of Windows, WinRAR allows us to access some of its most used functions directly from File Explorer . This allows us to compress and customize this movement directly with the right mouse button.

And when we talk about customizing, we refer to the possibility of making various adjustments when compressing the files that we have marked. For example, here we have the possibility to choose the compression level and method that we are going to use for the selected files.

Difference between Very fast and Best compression of WinRAR

For example, if we refer to the aforementioned WinRAR, which is one of the most widespread proposals of this type, we find a drop-down list in the Compression methods field. When opening it we see several options where the compression level that we are going to use, or the speed of the process, is prioritized. Depending on how fast we are or how much space we want to save, we choose one of the levels shown here.

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But at this point we may wonder if there really is a difference between one compression method or another in terms of its level. We have tried both extremes, that is, using the fastest method, or the supposedly most effective one when performing compression. Likewise, we have carried out compression tasks with different file formats trying to cover the most commonly used ones. Here we refer to high quality 4K videos, in AVI format, images or text documents .

Once these tests have been carried out, we can affirm that the difference between both methods or compression levels is minimal . This means that carrying out a change in the configuration of the program in this sense is not worth it . By default, the WinRAR compression method is called Normal, so we will hardly notice a difference if we leave it that way. In the same way, we are going to point out that here we have used the native format of the program for these tasks, that is, the RAR file type.