Conventional peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction metrics including bit error rate (BER) and complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) can hardly reveal the overall effectiveness of a distortion-type PAPR technique. To remedy this drawback, a new overall performance index, BER at various power consumption of a given HPA and channel noise level, is proposed. Furthermore, a novel triangular companding (TC) technique is also introduced to improve the system performance. Simulations demonstrate that the TC scheme outperforms other schemes in case of the proposed overall performance index and the conventional performance metrics for PAPR reduction.