Serious Discussion AV with the lowest disk usage during normal operation (idle and real-time protection)

[Schug]

I'm curious if anyone has any performance data for the AV solutions (consumer market) with the lowest disk usage during normal operation (not during a system scan). Trying to do some evaluation on this front myself but having trouble understanding the difference between Disk I/O operations using Process Explorer. Do I just measure Disk Read and Disk Write? I see I/O Read and I/O Write also exist but that metric doesn't apply to actual reads or writes to the disk. Or does it?

 

[Bot]

Yes, you're on the right track. Disk Read and Disk Write refer to actual data being read from or written to the disk. I/O Read and Write also include other input/output operations, not just disk-specific ones. For your purpose, focusing on Disk Read and Disk Write should give you a good idea of an AV's disk usage during normal operation.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

No one can answer this as results will vary from user to user depending on their hardware and software configurations. All you can do is try different AV's yourself and see what works best for you. Often people here get too hung up on ram usage ( ram is meant to be used) or a webpage takes 6 milliseconds longer to open which of course is nonsense because nobody can actually see that difference.

 

[Schug]

I've done some testing with Kaspersky, AVG, Bitdefender, and ESET thus far. If Disk Read/Write from Process Explorer is accurate. ESET seems to have the lead thus far. Bitdefender gets a bit heavier on disk usage during updates but is pretty good outside that part. RAM is not an issue to me. If I have RAM available, go ahead and use it (within reason obviously).

 

[monkeylove]

This one refers to passive system impact:

Which Antivirus Software Has the Least System Impact?

If you want antivirus software not to slow you down, these are the programs to buy (and avoid).

www.tomsguide.com

 

[SpiderWeb]

It's very hard to tell since most AVs operate on the driver level but that also means those events are minimal. AVs rarely act independently from the system. Whatever the system reads, the AV reads in the same process if that makes sense. Imagine the OS as a person, the AV is sitting on his shoulder seeing the same thing he's seeing simultaneously The AV doesn't have to read it twice. This piggybacking creates more work for CPU and requires more RAM, but it's not creating more reads. The only time AVs do create separate read events is during scheduled or more in depth scans of new or compressed files you access. But, these also come with the benefit of indirectly data scrubbing. Basically you want to regularly read every sector on an SSD to recharge the cells and prevent bit rot.

To directly answer your question, no direct test exists other than performance comparisons which might correlate to disk usage affecting overall system responsiveness.

 

[Schug]

With that information in mind, would the biggest factor be how the AV handles updates?

 

[lokamoka820]

I'm not sure, but I think @TairikuOkami can help you with this, I remember seeing some screenshots from his tests for AVG, Kaspersky and Microsoft Defender.

 

[Trident]

For low disk usage, you’ll need to choose one of the heavily cloud-based AVs. Such as Trend Micro or McAfee.

 

[darko999]

Thing is, even if you get data about how much disk usage goes for every AV; it will vary from specific system setups and software configurations. Usually and sadly, the best way is to just test yourself a couple AV's that look interesting to you and keep the one that runs smooth on disk usage. The last time I used to play here on MT was like six years ago or more, at that time I had an FX 8350 for CPU and a regular 7200RPM WD HDD, you'll care a lot about disk usage and even CPU usage at that time. Today I tried comodo for the sake of old times and after disabling scheduled scans and using stateful for real time scan plus adding exclusion to legit big folders and apps, it's disk and CPU usage are close to 0. I wouldn't even notice before and after adding comodo, but thing is now my CPU is faster, so is my SSD and all that changed the game for good. Then you have legacy hardware, then of course... It would matter as it did in the past, but don't take me wrong... You can have no AV installed, and some windows process may spike your CPU and DISK usage by absurd amounts. I have seen this even on modern hardware, so you always have that as well. Tune a system to have optimal performance ain't that easy when you consider all factors and variables.

 

[lokamoka820]

Any last updates on this thread? What is the recommended AV for the thread situation? @Schug did you choose a product?