Security software and system resources

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Are you concerned about memory usage with security software?


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    68

Evjl's Rain

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Apr 18, 2016
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Wrong Question, As you know, RAM is among fastest hardware in the system so why not? Let them use more RAM.
I need more RAM to do what I want to do, sometimes I must close the AV just to have enough memory for gaming. I hate pagefile swapping because it decreases performance + degrades HDD/SSD so I prefer using something light enough but effective
 

Cortex

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I don't care as long as it feels lightweight and doesn't cause me problems ~

I go by the feel of my PC rather than memory etc. use - I have 32 GIG of memory on this PC & IMO the AV's that run the best are Emsisoft, Panda & Eset. I also have Zemana which actually uses quite a lot of memory but seems to have no effect on system responsiveness at all. (duh maybe because I have 32 GIG)

Tried quite a few AV's recently for fun but ended up going back to Emsisoft. The two that did slow me down were Bitdefender (which others find light) & & most noticeably G-Data, that did slow things down big time, can't remember if it was memory or CPU use but whatever they really need to sort it. For memory use nothing on the PC can beat Chrome that uses large amounts of memory+ yet doesn’t seem to slow this PC down.

The problem with me is that my first PC with Windows 3.11 on had virtually no memory (or disc space & a 40 MHz chip) so memory & disc space / resourses was a precious thing, still paranoid at times about using resources which I’ve never really got over, yet should have ~
 
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Daljeet

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Jun 14, 2017
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When writing My computer browser takes too much ram and Av consume less ram CPU and disk. Browser and backup software create the problem and totally kill the computer. And security software process also slows down the computer but when your browser consumes more then 1gb ram with a single tab with three extensions. Backup software which defends more creating backup's (copying files) I have to think before running backup software because it consumes 21/mbps disk. Linux is best and I never see performance issues with it.
 
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plat1098

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I have 16 GB like many but yes, I'm very concerned about it--a security software should commonly be neither seen nor heard--if it is, something is off. There's a baseline you get accustomed to RAM-wise, anything-wise. Like @daljeet said, the browser is the bigger culprit. I built my security config. to be invisible. It's what you come up with during your own trial-and-error experiences. :)
 

Andy Ful

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D

Deleted member 65228

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I'd say if you're buying a new system in this day and age... Go for 6GB DDR4 at-least. That way you can get a really good anti-virus suite and let it run without "memory optimisation" which can slow down its performance and actually make your system even slower from increased disk usage, and should still be able to do all the other things you'd need to do without worrying to much. Browsers alone use way too much memory these days too because they want to be "fastest".

Google Chrome undoubtedly does not really need half a GB of memory to function - they do it intentionally so it behaves faster than another browser. More memory usage doesn't always mean faster performance but under the conditions if the usage was lower it wouldn't necessarily behave as fast as it does. It can store more in memory and refer to things quickly than re-reading logs and re-doing calculations more often, etc.
 

_CyberGhosT_

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I voted that I don't really care, but I want to clarify...
I have plenty of memory so normally I do not worry on that aspect, but we also need to see high usage as an indicator that something is not right. It can be a accurate indicator of issues. I pay attention to my machine so it can tell me when there is an issue, this is one sign that all should be paying attention to. So don't just base your answer on the amount of memory you have, make sense ?
 

ichito

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Yes but I am not paranoid...it's not acceptable for me to use few hundrets MB of RAM by one aplication what means very often even 10 or more processes. Because I'm used to non-signatures security apps I rather expect less than 50 MB and less means better. Currently each one of two my security setup use ca 20 MB (XP - Kerio FW, SSM, SD...Vista - SSFW, SD).
System resources are for using but they aren't a big trash.
 

LASER_oneXM

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I have 2 gaming laptops with 8GB RAM. The average usage of RAM on this machines is 4-5.5 GB therefore i dont care about security software using too mach RAM. My third laptop (an average model) has only 4GB RAM. In this case i'm frequently checking memory usage of all programs (not only security software).
 
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Deleted member 65228

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@Umbra Sorry I meant I don't think any reputable ones "fake" it, as in don't change what they are doing but conceal it to say it is less than it really is at that given time haha, redirecting to the drive would be genuinely changing the usage instead of faking it so that's fine :)
 

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