Optimum cycle ratio (OCR) algorithms are fundamental to the performance analysis of (digital or manufacturing) systems with cycles. Some applications in the computer-aided design field include cycle time and slack optimization for circuits, retiming, timing separation analysis, and rate analysis. There are many OCR algorithms, and since a superior time complexity in theory does not mean a superior time complexity in practice, or vice-versa, it is important to know how these algorithms perform in practice on real circuit benchmarks. A recent published study experimentally evaluated almost all the known OCR algorithms, and determined the fastest one among them. This article improves on that study in the following ways: (1) it focuses on the fastest OCR algorithms only; (2) it provides a unified theoretical framework and a few new results; (3) it runs these algorithms on the largest circuit benchmarks available; (4) it compares the algorithms in terms of many properties in addition to running times such as operation counts, convergence behavior, space requirements, generality, simplicity, and robustness; (5) it analyzes the experimental results using statistical techniques and provides asymptotic time complexity of each algorithm in practice; and (6) it provides clear guidance to the use and implementation of these algorithms together with our algorithmic improvements.