HFO-1336mzz-Z with low global warming potential (GWP) was considered as a promising alternative of HCFC-123, HFC-245fa in air conditioning (AC) and heat pump (HP), respectively. In order to understand the operation performances of HFO-1336mzz-Z and HCFC-123, HFC-245fa in different working conditions, an experimental setup for testing the refrigeration cycle performance was built. The cycle performances of HFO-1336mzz-Z and HCFC-123 in AC conditions, HFO-1336mzz-Z and HFC-245fa in HP conditions were investigated by experiment. It was found in AC conditions, the discharge temperatures for the systems with HFO-1336mzz-Z and HCFC-123 were lower than 115 °C, the cooling capacity of the system with HFO-1336mzz-Z was 27% less than that with HCFC-123 at least, and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the system with HFO-1336mzz-Z was 0.1 lower than that with HCFC-123; in HP conditions, the discharge temperature with HFO-1336mzz-Z was lower than that with HFC-245fa, the former was never over 115 °C while the latter was up to 126 °C, the power input to the compressor with HFO-1336mzz-Z was 20% less than that with HFC-245fa in the same HP conditions, the heating capacity of the system with HFO-1336mzz-Z was 30–40% less than that with HFC-245fa.