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

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Kaspersky Free
Bitdefender Free
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RXZ6Q

Level 4
Thread author
Verified
Mar 30, 2016
169
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 :D These are my main favorites. Which one and why :)?

So, what would YOU recommend?

Any suggestion is welcomed.
 

videogamer1500

Level 2
Verified
Apr 4, 2019
57
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.
 
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amico81

Level 21
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 10, 2017
1,061
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

Level 9
Verified
Mar 25, 2014
398
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.
 
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Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
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?
 

Jaspion

Level 17
Verified
Jun 5, 2013
835
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.
 
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SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
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

Level 11
Verified
Well-known
Aug 21, 2018
505
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
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
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:
Also he suggested a free AV so I didn't recommend any paid suites like F-Secure, McAfee, ESET etc.
 

sepik

Level 11
Verified
Well-known
Aug 21, 2018
505
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.
 
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