AV-Comparatives Performance Test April 2020

[sepik]

Hidden memory...is like by using windows own processes to call upon a pop up window that "virus detected". With Mitec and others good task managers you'll see actual memory usage of any process and their parent processes for sure.

With kindest regards,
-sepil

 

[Back3]

I think it's true that there are different performance impacts from different antivirus. But I have over 30 apps installed on my PC. So if an antivirus runs OK with my other apps and my PC is tweaked for perfomance, the impact is not that important. I've tried Windows Defender, Kaspersky, Comodo this year ;I'm now with Eset Nod32 and H_C. With all of them, I could boot in 20 seconds and could browse in 1 second on Chrome.Sometimes there is a an impact on copy/paste. But for me the main question is always: does it run OK with all my other apps.

 

[sepik]

Hello,
An AV thats boots faster than others does not make you "safe". Why Wireshark loads way before windows own firewall? Maybe because i let it do so. The same can do any malwares, that loads before windows own firewall driver. Zonealarm Firewall Free is quite interesting in this situation, it blocks alot of boot-up stage connections(check the log).

 

[blackice]

Hello,
An AV thats boots faster than others does not make you "safe". Why Wireshark loads way before windows own firewall? Maybe because i let it do so. The same can do any malwares, that loads before windows own firewall driver. Zonealarm Firewall Free is quite interesting in this situation, it blocks alot of boot-up stage connections(check the log).

In the situation where malware runs before the AV the AV and user have already failed to stop the malware from entering the machine. Not saying that early boot of AV cannot be helpful, just a thought.

 

[miguelang611]

That's a pretty interesting test!!!
In my personal tests, with full clean VMs Win10 LTSC, regarding RAM consumption on idle (without fully disabling Defender, just install AV and leave default), the top was like this:
1. Eset/Windows Defender/360 Total Security/Panda Free
2. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free/BitDefender Free/Avast Premier/Panda Dome Complete
3. Kaspersky Total Security/Kaspersky Security Cloud Personal
4. BitDefender Total Security/Avira Security Suite
If disable Password Manager and VPN, any Kaspersky version is almost as light as ESET or WD on RAM. (Didn't notice a difference on RAM between Free and paid versions, although more components)
360 TS would be on 2 if you enable some of the crap it has (adblocker and other garbage)
That test just makes the 2nd part, cause RAM is RAM.
Looks like BitDefender although heavier on RAM better on real performance, opposite to Windows Defender haha
Cheers!

 

[fabiobr]

Kaspersky is still heavier than Norton at any of my PCs.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Kaspersky is still heavier than Norton at any of my PCs.

Have you tested if SEP is heavier then Norton ?

 

[MacDefender]

Kaspersky is still heavier than Norton at any of my PCs.

Is that because of the strange behavior it causes on your machines where heavy network traffic grinds the system to a halt?

FWIW I'm not seeing that behavior myself....

Under relatively heavy network traffic, Kaspersky network scanning does use a sizable amount of CPU on this Core i7 device, but it's still less CPU usage than Chrome.

Note that network scanning in general is very CPU intensive, and if you have a Ultrabook style laptop it is going to significantly reduce your battery life when you're doing heavy networking. But in terms of overall system load, Kaspersky is barely perceivable for me.

 

[fabiobr]

Is that because of the strange behavior it causes on your machines where heavy network traffic grinds the system to a halt?

FWIW I'm not seeing that behavior myself....

View attachment 239886

Under relatively heavy network traffic, Kaspersky network scanning does use a sizable amount of CPU on this Core i7 device, but it's still less CPU usage than Chrome.

Note that network scanning in general is very CPU intensive, and if you have a Ultrabook style laptop it is going to significantly reduce your battery life when you're doing heavy networking. But in terms of overall system load, Kaspersky is barely perceivable for me.

Not only that, but overall system speed. PC Boot is faster with Norton than Kaspersky.

But yeah, I didn't test if the network problem is solved with Kaspersky again. But only happens on heavy networking as you said, maybe cloud look up and bad internet upload speed, don't know yet.

Have you tested if SEP is heavier then Norton ?

Never tried SEP.

 

[Durden]

Kaspersky is still heavier than Norton at any of my PCs.

Recently I built a new high-end, gaming focused desktop pc, and I had installed Norton 360 on this fresh system, it's running really smooth, but you know being a member of MT and having an empty seat on a Kaspersky IS license that I have keeps me wondering if I should switch to KIS . (I know KIS is better in regards to protection but compared to Norton I'm not sure if it's really meaningful for a gaming pc ; other than gaming I shop online sometimes)

Maybe it's because the system is fresh and I don't want to play around with installing/uninstalling AVs , or maybe I'm just being lazy. but I know that one thing I know I like better about Norton is that it does not decrypt SSL connections. ( and one thing I dislike about Norton is actually a paragraph in it's privacy policy that you mentioned in another topic some days ago)

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Recently I built a new high-end, gaming focused desktop pc, and I had installed Norton 360 on this fresh system, it's running really smooth, but you know being a member of MT and having an empty seat on a Kaspersky IS license that I have keeps me wondering if I should switch to KIS . (I know KIS is better in regards to protection but compared to Norton I'm not sure if it's really meaningful for a gaming pc ; other than gaming I shop online sometimes)

Maybe it's because the system is fresh and I don't want to play around with installing/uninstalling AVs , or maybe I'm just being lazy. but I know that one thing I know I like better about Norton is that it does not decrypt SSL connections. ( and one thing I dislike about Norton is actually a paragraph in it's privacy policy that you mentioned in another topic some days ago)

I don't recommend an av for gaming use a firewall to separate and isolate the gaming pc from your own network and use honey pots for deception.
and a dedicated pc for shopping.
if you have only one pc Qubes OS/ Quebes like alternatives is recommended.

 

[SeriousHoax]

I don't recommend an av for gaming use a firewall to separate and isolate the gaming pc from your own network and use honey pots for deception.
and a dedicated pc for shopping.
if you have only one pc Qubes OS/ Quebes like alternatives is recommended.

Tbh, I think an AV would cause issue with gaming performance is usually a far fetched idea. It may happen with some AVs which are known to be heavy but that's not very common nowadays. I have a few friends and my own brother who has gaming PC and all of them are running Windows Defender and never had any performance issue while gaming. It's also true that 9/10 gamers don't even pay heads to what AV they use so its almost always Windows Defender. If it was a serious issue we would've seen a lot more complain about it. In case if anyone have any performance issue then it's better to simply turn off the AV before playing games rather than not using any AV all together.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Tbh, I think an AV would cause issue with gaming performance is usually a far fetched idea. It may happen with some AVs which are known to be heavy but that's not very common nowadays. I have a few friends and my own brother who has gaming PC and all of them are running Windows Defender and never had any performance issue while gaming. It's also true that 9/10 gamers don't even pay heads to what AV they use so its almost always Windows Defender. If it was a serious issue we would've seen a lot more complain about it. In case if anyone have any performance issue then it's better to simply turn off the AV before playing games rather than not using any AV all together.

games may risk activities such as online shopping and anyway you are right , yeah my take is way too extreme.