Battle Lightest antivirus 2014

[Dani Santos]

what is for you the lightest antivirus this year?

 

[Chromatinfish 123]

I got surprised lots of friends mention ESET as a light AV .... I know it s one of the bests regarding performance and impact on system's function.
But this topic is about "Resourse Usage" and ESET is not good(usually uses more than 70mb of RAM) AFAIK.

I think Webroot and Avast are the best in this area.

Avast:

View attachment 15957

ESET actually caches the signatures into the memory so the RAM usage is the same as Kaspersky and Bitdefender, but needs less strength to actually scan as retrieving anything from the memory is much faster than retrieving from the Hard Disk Drive. However, I agree that Webroot is the lightest AV ever, even outpacing Microsoft Security Essentials. Remember, lightness isn't just on RAM, it's a combination of:
-CPU usage
-RAM usage
-Hard Drive space
-If it slows down the computer or not

 

[Jaspion]

More or less in order: Windows default (of course), probably Webroot (hearsay, haven't tested), Eset, Avira, Baidu, avast!, Comodo, Qihoo, Panda.

Unthreat could be in this list too (used it for a very short time, was light, but I noticed random slowdowns and therefore would need more testing to say if Unthreat was to blame for it).

Avoid ZoneAlarm Firewall + Antivirus and Forticlient.

Notice I'm referring only to the use of the antivirus real-time protection modules of each application in terms of speed while doing file operations, opening programs, installing programs, etc. For example, Forticlient's web shield is highly effective but not very heavy, and can be used without the program's file shield; whereas avast! can become heavier with the use of additional shields, Comodo can make your PC experience slower by displaying a number of popups, etc. So take my words with a grain of salt, and a shot of tequila if you will. Do your own testing too, there's nothing like personal experience.

 

[Arakasi]

But this topic is about "Resourse Usage" and ESET is not good(usually uses more than 70mb of RAM) AFAIK

Resource usage ? Ok lets switch the topic to resource usage.
So ESET is using a lot of RAM eh ?? ESET and other vendors are using 90 and 120MB of ram respectively ??
Then that means the hard disk is getting blasted out the yin yang. Ram is faster then Hard disks.
So the computer is going to run smoother because its in memory or cached.

 

[Deleted member 21043]

Running Tiranium at the moment on an old xp laptop with only half a gig of ram and it`s feeling very light.

Webroot though would be the lightest ever, ever,ever.

Regards Eck

It's most likely the .NET memory management. When you make applications in .NET, it can automatically manage the memory usage (without the developer controlling a thing (not sure if you even can )).

The more memory your system/apps need, the less memory a .NET app should use. Bringing down the usage of Tiranium, lower.
I noticed it awhile ago when I made a app in .NET as a test, and noticed it went down 20mb RAM after opening Chrome. Then I did some searching, and learnt it is automatically implemented in .NET framework. It's a feature, a positive one, too.

 

[phyniks]

ESET actually caches the signatures into the memory so the RAM usage is the same as Kaspersky and Bitdefender, but needs less strength to actually scan as retrieving anything from the memory is much faster than retrieving from the Hard Disk Drive. However, I agree that Webroot is the lightest AV ever, even outpacing Microsoft Security Essentials. Remember, lightness isn't just on RAM, it's a combination of:
-CPU usage
-RAM usage
-Hard Drive space
-If it slows down the computer or not

I 100% agree with you.... as I said about ESET:

I got surprised lots of friends mention ESET as a light AV .... I know it s one of the bests regarding performance and impact on system's function.
.
.
.

But look at the topic:

I think it s better everyone take a screenshot of its task manager....I ve done that with Avast

 

[soinvisage]

tiranium with 4go ram perfect for me

 

[Dubseven]

It's most likely the .NET memory management. When you make applications in .NET, it can automatically manage the memory usage (without the developer controlling a thing (not sure if you even can )).

The more memory your system/apps need, the less memory a .NET app should use. Bringing down the usage of Tiranium, lower.
I noticed it awhile ago when I made a app in .NET as a test, and noticed it went down 20mb RAM after opening Chrome. Then I did some searching, and learnt it is automatically implemented in .NET framework. It's a feature, a positive one, too.

Wrong and right. The memory management is very nice on .NET allowing to dispose some items automatically, but this not works on managed threads, subs and modules that requires the developer to dispose, clear and remove everything manually like C++.
The designs and user-subs use a lot of memory on .NET, and the forms opening use a lot of CPU and memory that is complex to dispose after.
The C++ will be ALWAYS the best in memory and CPU usage.

############
For me, the most lightest antivirus i seen was Kompas

 

[Chromatinfish 123]

I 100% agree with you.... as I said about ESET:

But look at the topic:

View attachment 15979

I think it s better everyone take a screenshot of its task manager....I ve done that with Avast

Sorry, but doesn't it say RAM & CPU?
Anyways, I still should agree that ESET isn't the lightest ever. Webroot is, no fight, with Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender) and Avira Free. Avast strikes a balance between protection and performance (fairly light) and so does ESET. Kaspersky was a little RAM-hoggy but is bearable and in my experience, Bitdefender was very heavy. Also, Lavasoft was quite light. Yes, I have used everything that I described.

 

[WinXPert]

@Jaspion mentioned Panda, it uses as much RAM as MBAM

 

[Deleted member 21043]

Wrong and right. The memory management is very nice on .NET allowing to dispose some items automatically, but this not works on managed threads, subs and modules that requires the developer to dispose, clear and remove everything manually like C++.
The designs and user-subs use a lot of memory on .NET, and the forms opening use a lot of CPU and memory that is complex to dispose after.
The C++ will be ALWAYS the best in memory and CPU usage.

############
For me, the most lightest antivirus i seen was Kompas

If you are disposing items, then yes, that will also improve the memory usage.

C is also good for memory and CPU usage. In fact, C is better in general because it's a lower level language than C++

 

[Behold Eck]

With out any main player AV installed, this is what I use instead Threatfire

Cool,thats what I run on my win7 64 bit along with Sandboxie...of course.

Regards Eck

 

[Deleted member 21043]

Wrong and right. The memory management is very nice on .NET allowing to dispose some items automatically, but this not works on managed threads, subs and modules that requires the developer to dispose, clear and remove everything manually like C++.
The designs and user-subs use a lot of memory on .NET, and the forms opening use a lot of CPU and memory that is complex to dispose after.
The C++ will be ALWAYS the best in memory and CPU usage.

############
For me, the most lightest antivirus i seen was Kompas

"For me, the lightest Antivirus I have seen is Kompas"*. Kompas is still going, so it is "is", unless they have changed and are no longer light. I removed the "most" before "lightest", because it made the sentence incorrect.

 

[Jaspion]

I'm not bashing or anything, but maybe isn't Kompas light because it has few signatures (since it hasn't been building its database since the 90's or something)?

 

[Deleted member 21043]

I'm not bashing or anything, but maybe isn't Kompas light because it has few signatures (since it hasn't been building its database since the 90's or something)?

I don't know. If Dubseven says that Kompas is light, that's his opinion. You may think Kompas isn't very light. Everyone has different views on everything

 

[Jaspion]

I don't know. If Dubseven says that Kompas is light, that's his opinion. You may think Kompas isn't very light. Everyone has different views on everything

Sure, but he's not the first I see saying that.

 

[Neno]

Norton 360 and Webroot, though I never had any slowdowns with Avira either.

 

[Dubseven]

I'm not bashing or anything, but maybe isn't Kompas light because it has few signatures (since it hasn't been building its database since the 90's or something)?

Yes you're right, their database is light (small) but this thread is about the most lightest antivirus, that's Kompas is.

 

[Deleted member 178]

you want to play in the major league? use Appguard or ExeRadarPro, no real-time engine, no hassle, no resources eaters.

 

[RmG152]

In w8 you need to go to "details" and show "working set" column to know truly memory usage. (I don't know if in w7 it's the same)

Extra: you can enable Maximum (or peak, I don't know how task manager name it in english) working set, to know max memory used by soft.

 

[Arakasi]

In addition having a small database for the engine to reference isn't going to effect what local resources the program is using when referring to cloud and white/blacklisting. If it is referencing the signatures on the locally stored files, it for surely depend on throughput between cpu, ram and hard disk, not really how large the db files are. Unless you are lacking in amount of RAM you have