Battle Free antivirus with low resource usage and a decent protection for a gamer

[RXZ6Q]

Hello,

so my friend just got tired of that buggy Avast! and uninstalled that software.

What would you recommend instead of it? His main focus is on low resource usage. He has a pretty secure browsing-habits, etc... So protection doesn't have to be "perfect," just "decent."

My suggestions would be:

KASPERSKY FREE VS. BITDEFENDER FREE These are my main favorites. Which one and why ?

So, what would YOU recommend?

Any suggestion is welcomed.

 

[gery79]

kaspersky is a better alternative i think......i would say it is pure personal as they offer almost the same features and the same level of protection

 

[Bryan320]

Windows defender is you're friend but if you dont like windows defender kaspersky will protect you just as well.

 

[oldschool]

Bitdefender - simple, lean, fast and great no muss-no fuss protection. Made in Romania too!

Also, very good network protection on unsupported browsers.

 

[videogamer1500]

Fsecure has been very kind to me, but that is a paid av although you are able to get a 6 month free trial by following the giveaway links. Windows Defender is nice and all, but it uses windows update which is a cpu and disc usage hog when it updates. I would personally use Kaspersky, Bitdefender, or Avast as they place the nicest with gaming pcs in my and many fellow Malwaretip users' experiences as free antiviruses.

 

[TairikuOkami]

So, what would YOU recommend?

Panda or Forticlient combined with Hard_Configurator or SysHardener.

 

[amico81]

A Gaming PC? You need an av with small Footprint/Low Impact. You should try Panda, Qihoo360 or Eset. Voodooshield could be another option for standalone. Bitdefender is buggy with the profile settings and a RAM Eater. Kaspersky Cloud with tweaks is ok and free, maybe a light alternative in your system

 

[alakazam]

ZoneAlarm
AdAware
Avira
AhnLab

All of these have free versions of their antivirus software, and offer decent protection. ZoneAlarm is based on Kaspersky, AdAware is based on BitDefender, Avira and AhnLab have their own engines.

 

[Ink]

He has a pretty secure browsing-habits, etc... So protection doesn't have to be "perfect," just "decent."

Which browser and extensions are installed?

Are mods downloaded from the Internet?

 

[MegenM]

I use Bitdefender Premium with automatic profiles enabled. Never gave any problem. So I guess Bitdefender free will also give you the same.

 

[Moonhorse]

I would suggest kaspersky cloud free, but bitdefender isnt bad either

Kaspersky 21. . is pretty awesome

 

[EndangeredPootis]

Bitdefender - simple, lean, fast and great no muss-no fuss protection. Made in Romania too!

Also, very good network protection on unsupported browsers.

The problem is that they use half a gigabyte of RAM, something gamers dont want.

 

[sepik]

There's also McAfee Internet Security 6 month trial available.
When i tested it, it was really light and protection wise it's not that bad.

Kind regards,
-sepik

 

[Jaspion]

I need as little memory and CPU consumption as possible on my laptop. Same principle as a gaming rig. My choice is Comodo. For one, you can set up how often the virus database gets updated, which in turn means unchanged files won't get checked until you update again. You have the Sandbox in case you need to run something suspicious (like a translation installer for a game that has no official translation, etc). You have the FIrewall if you want too. And it's just super light.

 

[SeriousHoax]

No need to go further than Windows Defender in my opinion. Low ram usage + no impact in gaming performance. Another suggestion would be to put his games folders into Windows Defender's exclusion list. About the update thing videogamer1500 mentioned above is not fully correct because Windows Update + Windows Defender update is performed after turning on the PC only. No other updates will be performed throughout the day so updates won't hamper performance.

 

[sepik]

No need to go further than Windows Defender in my opinion. Low ram usage + no impact in gaming performance.

WD is trashing HDD on every computer i've used it. This is especially noticeable when using "low-end" computers. Installed McAfee or F-Secure, boot times were way faster and overall the system was a lot faster/responsive. One example i came across, for example, when working with MS Office. Why in earth, when i'm doing some productive work, WD trashed and eats a lot CPU? I'm tired of it. Tested F-Secure and McAfee solved the problem and now i can do some productive work...

Kind regards,
-sepik

 

[marcopaone]

F-Secure/Eset

 

[SeriousHoax]

WD is trashing HDD on every computer i've used it. This is especially noticeable when using "low-end" computers. Installed McAfee or F-Secure, boot times were way faster and overall the system was a lot faster/responsive. One example i came across, for example, when working with MS Office. Why in earth, when i'm doing some productive work, WD trashed and eats a lot CPU? I'm tired of it. Tested F-Secure and McAfee solved the problem and now i can do some productive work...

Kind regards,
-sepik

I agree with HDD impact in general but we're talking about impact while gaming here only. The HDD impact may cause a bit slower loading time though personally I never had such issue but it may happen that's why I suggested him to put games folders into exclusion so that Windows Defender never touch those folders and won't cause any performance impact. About boot time in my experience on my low end system, literally nothing is faster than Windows Defender. My PC opens the fastest with Windows Defender than any other AV. This is should be true for almost every users because WD is integrated into the system so don't impact boot time. Tests performed by MRG Effitas also confirms this:

https://www.mrg-effitas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MRG_Effitas_2020Q1_360.pdf

Also he suggested a free AV so I didn't recommend any paid suites like F-Secure, McAfee, ESET etc.

 

[sepik]

to put games folders into exclusion so that Windows Defender never touch those folders and won't cause any performance impact

So, you mean, that with WD, you should exclude a game folder? That's a some sort of a security risk? With many of the avs, after the full scan, file hashes are calculated, so the next scans are faster.

 

[Kongo]

Cylance is probably the lightest AV out there, at least on my system. I hated it in the beginning cause of the false positive rate, but now its acceptable.