Battle Performance delta between ESET Premium and McAffee latest

[Trident]

McAfee was that security solution for me, and although I liked the performance and simplicity, I ended up hating how intrusive it behaved on my machine—too many pop-ups trying to sell that piece of junk System Optimizer. As for Norton and Avast, I’ve been a user for years and usually switch between them based on the deals I find. Since both are priced very similarly in my region, I’m choosing Avast for my renewal simply because I prefer the interface.

There is nothing wrong in having preferences.

 

[devjitdutta2025]

I’m using Norton Gamers on my MSI laptop which came preinstalled while I use ESET IS on my gaming PC. Both of them are extremely light and you won’t even notice them running. But the biggest problem with Norton is their ads. My God, even after you disable them in the settings, they will continue to bother you. I won’t renew Norton again unless they fix their nagging. ESET has never shown me any ads till date.

 

[devjitdutta2025]

AVG of 3 Runs:

Norton: 11,161 (WINNER SO FAR)
AVAST: 11,094
ESET: 11,058
Bitdefender: 10,473 (avg of 4 runs)
McAfee: 10,211

Musingly, kind of surprised by McAfee against BitDefender, and ironic to be cheering for Gen.

The only viable contender left is Kaspersky. I already guessed that Norton/Avast/AVG would have the same performance.

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

Personally, there aren't many antiviruses left that I feel I can seriously consider, especially now that Kaspersky is off the table for me.

I was one of those guys who thought "Psh, Gen Digital. I'm not going to be their 500,000,000th user." McAfee didn't work out, and ESET holds its own for a particular niche with a higher cost than other options.

Avast checked a lot of boxes: light, modern configuration, contemporary UI, solid detection, and reliably cheap for multiple devices. If Norton hadn't scared me away with ads, I might not have retreated to Avast, but the Avast UI is pretty likeable.

Avast/AVG/Norton did exceptionally well in the last two AV-Comparatives performance tests:
Performance Test September 2025
Performance Test April 2025

 

[devjitdutta2025]

Personally, there aren't many antiviruses left that I feel I can seriously consider, especially now that Kaspersky is off the table for me.

I was one of those guys who thought "Psh, Gen Digital. I'm not going to be their 500,000,000th user." McAfee didn't work out, and ESET holds its own for a particular niche with a higher cost than other options.

Avast checked a lot of boxes: light, modern configuration, contemporary UI, solid detection, and reliably cheap for multiple devices. If Norton hadn't scared me away with ads, I might not have retreated to Avast, but the Avast UI is pretty likeable.

Avast/AVG/Norton did exceptionally well in the last two AV-Comparatives performance tests:
Performance Test September 2025
Performance Test April 2025

Do NOT buy from ESET website. You’ll find good deals on Amazon. I bought 1 license of ESET Premium 3 years 1 PC for 9.99 dollars.

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

Do NOT buy from ESET website. You’ll find good deals on Amazon. I bought 1 license of ESET Premium 3 years 1 PC for 9.99 dollars.

Yes, I know. I'm a bargain hunter. ESET is still pricey on American Amazon and other reputable sites unless they're running a standout sale for a limited time.

 

[annaegorov]

ESET>Kaspersky>McAfee>Norton>Bitdefender .. For me, my personal opinion, tested on 2 computers, one 7 years old, the other new.

yep that is about right for me to, Kaspersky is definitely first, then K7, Avast One, McAfee / Norton (tie here) ... may be others I forgot. but this is the jest of it.

 

[annaegorov]

Damn Gov. I want my Kaspersky back.... Every other nation says it's OK... Cia all butt hurt, because Kaspersky revealed their secret spy software and wouldn't give a backdoor.

 

[cartaphilus]

The irony is that by the time you're actually ready to switch, some other security suite will have optimized its performance and become the new flavor of the month.

There is no evidence to suggest that AVG or Avast are heavier or more optimised than Norton. They are all the same engine, when you use your machine they all run the same logics and checks. There could be small, minor tweaks but it is unlikely.

that's what I am seeing the differences between the thing could be CPU downclocking due to thermals based on the time of day I am running this; same goes for RAM error corrections etc etc etc. anything less than 10% should be negligible in an real life environment. Besides there is not enough sample values to derive a good P value so it's all as I said: "shits and giggles" i.e. Rough Order of Mangnitude. All of the solutions here will most likely protect you without you even knowing the differnce between them vs a placebo. The hard numbers come down to HPC level simulations where single digit %'s cost $ millions and days in wall clock time. For everyday user meh. You will get better performance bump by changing the performance profile of your windows from Balanced to Performance and thus reduce the app snooze time.

I was just bored; I had time on my hands and nothing to do. At least I wasn't that dude in LA who tied bunched of helium baloons to his law chair and went flying just becuase he was bored.


One thing I noticed and I really liked is Bitdefender and it's ability to map out an attack chain of an exploit. That was neat to see for a home use program.

 

[Trident]

that's what I am seeing the differences between the thing could be CPU downclocking due to thermals based on the time of day

Not only that, you are not using an RTOS made for earbuds and fridges, that executes the tasks 1000 times at the same speed for the same time, this is Windows. So various system APIs, the hardware, the cpu itself and so on could be having variable loads, speeds and results on the benchmark.

It also depends on cache hits/misses, where was data cached and so on.

The clouds as well have variable loads and response times.

 

[Miraculix]

McAfee was that security solution for me, and although I liked the performance and simplicity, I ended up hating how intrusive it behaved on my machine—too many pop-ups trying to sell that piece of junk System Optimizer. As for Norton and Avast, I’ve been a user for years and usually switch between them based on the deals I find. Since both are priced very similarly in my region, I’m choosing Avast for my renewal simply because I prefer the interface.

McAfee's constant pop-ups annoyed me so much that I switched to ESET. It's a real shame that McAfee has such an intrusive sales strategy.

 

[Szellem]

I wiped my system and started fresh just for shits and giggles; I was bored and it was the weekend. I have always wondered what's the AV impact on system performance of MY SYSTEM.

AMD 9800X3D
MSI 870e Tommahawk
92gb of ram
990 NVME

Fresh install with only Voodooshield being a constant thing as a security backup.
I did not do this to prove anything to anyone, I did this to prove things to myself and which AV engine I should use on this gaming PC.
I used Macrium 8.1 to "snapshot" a VIRGIN install (besides voodooshield) and installed MCAffee first....ran PcMark 3 times.,
Then re-imaged back to Virgin Install and installed Eset Premium set on Aggressive and ran PcMark 3 Times. Here are the results. Take it or leave it; I don't care.


BITDEFENDER 4 RUNS
View attachment 295862


NORTON
View attachment 295863

View attachment 295864

Conclusion?

AVG of 3 Runs:

ESET: 11,058

Bitdefender: 10,473 (avg of 4 runs)

Norton: 11,161 (WINNER SO FAR)

McAfee: 10,211

I have tried to test Kaspersky; went on VPN but didn't want to do the extra hoops of trying to have my CC# verified for a KAV trial whilst vpning from Canada. So that was a no go. I am personally disappointed since I would have loved to have seen it's impact on my system. Alas, I will blame the government.

I might try Checkpoint or Zone Alarm I still have a 2 years of Checkpoint blade time but the system that ran it was scrapped.....I will update if I do.





EDIT: I've attempted to run MSDEFENDER i.e. VIRGIN OS AV to see it's impact but the test won't finish; it hangs up on one of the browser tests.

Edit 2: Personally I am shocked. I honestly didn't expect a delta and certainly not 5%. I considered McAfee to be quite light so no perceivable difference in everyday use. The only difference is seen is in the benchmark but all things being equal; there is an impact difference.

Edit 3: PLEASE READ: In reality it there is no difference. But by being pedantic based on numbers there is an impact but it wouldn't be felt by everyday users. Maybe maybe if you were using your PC to run some finate element computing then the impact would be felt (grander scale). I am just doing the runs to finally prove to myself which AV is fastest on my home configuration. Nothing more and nothing less. For everyday use this is meaningless and one should pick a solution that suits their needs the best and not what I show here.


EDIT 4: BITDEFENDER DONE; will re-image now and run Norton.

Edit 5: will Try Kaspersky


PLACE SOLDER FOR BITDEFENDER: Just paste dumping...I will run Bitdefender Overnight to scan the whole drive so it can tag every file. That way it will represent everyday performance vs just installed performance.

I am very much looking forward to hearing about your experience with Kaspersky.

 

[Miraculix]

ESET only had a brief stint on my PCs. I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.

https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/

This is not what I expect from support. Marcos's response is simply outrageous. He's even blatantly contradicting the information on ESET's support page. According to him, the users are always wrong and ESET never makes a mistake.

 

[devjitdutta2025]

ESET only had a brief stint on my PCs. I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.

https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/

This is not what I expect from support. Marcos's response is simply outrageous. He's even blatantly contradicting the information on ESET's support page. According to him, the users are always wrong and ESET never makes a mistake.

This Marcos is the fellow who always makes my blood boil but then again I know why ESET keeps people like him permanently.

 

[annaegorov]

I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.
https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/


The above is why I NEVER rely on an uninstall. I always work from a Macruim (Paid Subscription) image instead.

 

[ErzCrz]

I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.
https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/


The above is why I NEVER rely on an uninstall. I always work from a Macruim (Paid Subscription) image instead.

I should consider this approach. I'm always changing setupsand then have the faff of uninstalling and cleaning up afterward though I use AOMEI with Differential backups.

I have ESET Essentials but not been consistent with it on my laptop for some reason and revert to Windows Defender.DefenderUI and CyberLock but just doing a system restore from a image backup is a good shout

 

[Miraculix]

I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.
https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/


The above is why I NEVER rely on an uninstall. I always work from a Macruim (Paid Subscription) image instead.

I also restored a backup created with Macrium Reflect.

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

ESET only had a brief stint on my PCs. I took a look at the ESET support forum and saw this request.

https://forum.eset.com/topic/48412-uninstalled-and-cannot-access-internet-none-of-the-fixes-work/

This is not what I expect from support. Marcos's response is simply outrageous. He's even blatantly contradicting the information on ESET's support page. According to him, the users are always wrong and ESET never makes a mistake.

Marcos frequently comes up as a gripe with ESET. His notoriety precedes him, no doubt.

Which company are you leaning towards next? It's not always easy looking for the perfect match in the antivirus market.

 

[Miraculix]

Marcos frequently comes up as a gripe with ESET. His notoriety precedes him, no doubt.

Which company are you leaning towards next? It's not always easy looking for the perfect match in the antivirus market.

Despite my concerns about the lack of reviews, I reinstalled Emsisoft Business and added CyberLock.