Compression level 11
Benchmark index · Median overview · ← Level 10 · Level 12 →
Recorded run: long-20261109 (2026-11-09). Raw results · Environment · Run analysis.
Median across all datasets
Each of the 8 datasets has equal weight, including empty and tiny input. Speed / C = C mean latency / implementation mean latency; output / C = implementation bytes / C bytes. We take the median of these 8 per-dataset ratios separately for speed and size. 1× matches C; higher speed and lower output are better. These are medians across datasets, not median sample latencies, and do not imply statistical significance.
| Implementation | Median speed / C ↑ | Median output / C ↓ | Datasets |
|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 1.000× | 1.000× | 8 |
| mzstd | 1.164× | 1.000× | 8 |
Measurement setup and interpretation
zstd 1.5.7 (the C library built by zstd-ffi) and mzstd at the recorded
working tree compress identical bytes at this level. Every frame was checked byte-identical
to zstd’s and decoded back to its input before any timing.
These are cold native API measurements: construction, allocation, compression, and disposal. Complete known input; 50 samples, 3 s warmup, at least 6 s measurement. Host: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, Linux KVM guest with two vCPUs: the encoder suite, then the decoder suite, each in one Criterion process pinned to vCPU 1; nothing else ran in the guest. Other tenants loaded the host: a fixed C decode varied by 8-43% (p10-p90 wall time) through the day, so sampling was lengthened to average over the noise. unset; Cargo release defaults (bench profile), runtime SIMD dispatch (AVX-512 level on this host; the decoder runs its block loops at the AVX2 level).
Chart whiskers and table intervals describe 95% confidence bounds on mean timing. They do not capture all host or allocator variation. Throughput bounds are transformed latency bounds. Output / input is compressed bytes divided by input bytes; smaller is better, and values above 100% mean expansion. For empty input, throughput and output / input are undefined (—). See the run analysis for measurement limitations.
Dataset details
Ordered by mzstd speed / C, highest first; all 8 datasets are shown. This order uses recorded mean latency, not statistical significance. Bars start at zero.
empty · repeated-1m · tiny-text · binary-64k · random-1m · alice29 · text-1m · random-64k
empty
Empty input; measures API overhead. Input: 0 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 6.068×; output: 9 / 9 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, ns | 95% mean interval, ns | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 2,473 | 2,397–2,549 | — | 9 | — | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 407.5 | 381.7–434 | — | 9 | — | 6.068× |
repeated-1m
1 MiB of repeated a bytes. Input: 1,048,576 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 2.231×; output: 49 / 49 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 613.3 | 599.5–629.9 | 1,630.62 | 49 | 0.005% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 274.9 | 269.2–281.1 | 3,637.48 | 49 | 0.005% | 2.231× |
tiny-text
44-byte quick-brown-fox sentence. Input: 44 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 2.015×; output: 53 / 53 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 4.308 | 4.142–4.486 | 9.74 | 53 | 120.455% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 2.139 | 2.046–2.241 | 19.62 | 53 | 120.455% | 2.015× |
binary-64k
64 KiB of structured binary bytes: ((i / 16) XOR i) modulo 256. Input: 65,536 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 1.189×; output: 1,276 / 1,276 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 31.6 | 31.19–32.2 | 1,977.85 | 1,276 | 1.947% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 26.58 | 25.91–27.36 | 2,351.27 | 1,276 | 1.947% | 1.189× |
random-1m
1 MiB of deterministic xorshift64 pseudorandom bytes. Input: 1,048,576 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 1.140×; output: 1,048,609 / 1,048,609 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 480.7 | 472.3–488.3 | 2,080.19 | 1,048,609 | 100.003% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 421.6 | 412.4–430.3 | 2,371.70 | 1,048,609 | 100.003% | 1.140× |
alice29
Alice in Wonderland text from the Canterbury corpus (testdata/alice29.txt). Input: 152,089 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 1.072×; output: 51,491 / 51,491 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 7,332 | 7,201–7,466 | 19.78 | 51,491 | 33.856% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 6,837 | 6,722–6,972 | 21.21 | 51,491 | 33.856% | 1.072× |
text-1m
Alice text repeated cyclically to 1 MiB. Input: 1,048,576 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 1.041×; output: 52,034 / 52,034 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 3,803 | 3,670–3,940 | 262.94 | 52,034 | 4.962% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 3,654 | 3,536–3,773 | 273.64 | 52,034 | 4.962% | 1.041× |
random-64k
64 KiB prefix of the deterministic pseudorandom corpus. Input: 65,536 bytes.
mzstd speed / C: 1.011×; output: 65,546 / 65,546 bytes.
Exact measurements and confidence bounds
| Implementation | Mean, µs | 95% mean interval, µs | MiB/s | Output bytes | Output / input | Speed / C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd C | 95.91 | 92.19–99.96 | 651.68 | 65,546 | 100.015% | 1.000× |
| mzstd | 94.83 | 89.56–100.3 | 659.11 | 65,546 | 100.015% | 1.011× |