File Compression

7Zip is a free archiving tool and strong alternative to popular WinRAR. Integrated benchmark scripts are used in both 7Zip and WinRAR to test the performance of CPUs with multithreading enabled. One real life test with WinRAR is simulated while measuring the time needed to compress a ~1 GB folder with close to 150 smaller files. We can see that multithreading support in "real life" use does not work as well as it does in pure benchmark scripts.

7Zip 32MB

7Zip compressing

WinRAR 3.9 Benchmark

WinRAR 3.9 compressing

TrueCrypt

Free open-source disk encryption software supporting both Windows and Linux platforms, but what's more important it supports hardware accelerated encryption using the new AES-NI instructions implemented in newer Intel processors. Built in benchmark script is used to encrypt and decrypt 100 MB file.