Hi! I hope correctly has understood what are you about, so what I get:

Code:
 
alias hash {
  hmake test 10
  var %x = 0
  var %ms = $ticks  
  while (%x < 1000) {
    hadd test %x 0
    inc %x 1
  }
  echo -s end(hadd test) (time elapsed: $calc(($ticks - %ms) / 1000) secs)
  hfree test
}

alias _var {
  var %x = 0
  var %ms = $ticks
  while (%x < 1000) {
    set %test_ $+ %x 0
    inc %x 1
  }
  echo -s end(setvar test) (time elapsed: $calc(($ticks - %ms) / 1000) secs)
  unset %test_*
}

alias file {
  var %x = 0
  var %ms = $ticks 
  while (%x < 1000) {
    write test.txt 0
    inc %x
  }
  echo -s end(filewrite test) (time elapsed: $calc(($ticks - %ms) / 1000) secs)
  write -c test.txt
}


results are as follows:
hash tables: 0.1 - 0.12 seconds
variables: 0.35 - 0.38 seconds
fwrite: ~8.5 seconds

It shows that the hash tables realy are faster (about 3x times faster that the /set command, and fwrite totally sucks).