To find the default version for save, go to MATLAB preferences -> General -> MAT files. I installed it in MATLAB version 7.3 or later. If you want to see how to change it, see here .
I will just give a short example here for the sake of completeness:
a=randn(100,10);
save('saved_a.mat','-v7.3') %or '-v7, -v6' for example
EDIT: I'm not sure what is the standard MAT file for each MATLAB version, since in my R2013b I had version 7 as the default version. It was supposed to be version 7.3.
, R2006b 7.3. 7 MATLAB 7 ( R14). 6 MATLAB 5. - 4. MAT .. .