   Anti-Virus that doesn't kill performance
  I need an anti virus program that allows me to play 3d games in peace.   Corporate version of Symantec causes my games to "hitch" (stick on a single frame for about a quarter of a second) every 3 to 5 seconds or so.   AVG causes horrific stuttering for periods of 10 to 15 seconds repeating themselves every 5 minuets or so. No AV = games running smooth. What else is out there that is good but lets me play games? Avast? Antivir?   I don't get why this is even an issue though... I have a 3.0Ghz quad core processor. It should be impossible for these programs to steal 100% of the cycles from all four cores. Seriously, what are they doing that requires that much power?   
  I personally can't be arsed with antivirus software at all.  I occasionally use Panda ActiveScan just to check things are alright, but as for desktop installed stuff I tend not to bother because I've used quite a few and never once found one which doesn't have any of the problems you describe.  NOD32 costs a fair bit and can't even do a boot time scan, AVG Free is an all-round PITA and ignores your scheduling to scan whenever it effing well likes grinding your system to a halt in the process, Norton added literally one whole minute onto my startup times... .... ... they're all junk.Not to mention they play havoc with all sorts of other stuff besides your framerate.  I'm happy with Windows Firewall and a bit of common sense, it has never caused me any issue whatsoever.   ;  turn it off when you play games.   ;F-Secure works for me.F-Secure Anti-Virus 2008 review.Company site.   ;Quote:Original post by Sirisianturn it off when you play games.Can't. At least with Symantec. The process can't be killed. I would have to disable the service from the Services control panel and reboot.;Quote:Original post by GrainCorporate version of Symantec causes my games to "hitch" (stick on a single frame for about a quarter of a second) every 3 to 5 seconds or so.   AVG causes horrific stuttering for periods of 10 to 15 seconds repeating themselves every 5 minuets or so. No AV = games running smooth.We use Symantic AV at work, we develop games, and none of the team sees anything like what you describe.  If we did, it would immediately be flagged as a bug.I use AVG at home, and play all kinds of games, and also not seen what you describe.Because this happens in different AV systems, check for non-AV stuff going on.  You might have some rogue spyware or some other task that is running periodically, and the AV is going nuts trying to scan everything the app is doing -- but not actually notifying you because it isn't listed as a virus.If that isn't it, check the configuration of the AV program.  Note that many hundred thousand gamers use those programs, and none of them are having the problem.  It probably is just your system, not the AV program.   ;Quote:Original post by frobQuote:Original post by GrainCorporate version of Symantec causes my games to "hitch" (stick on a single frame for about a quarter of a second) every 3 to 5 seconds or so.   AVG causes horrific stuttering for periods of 10 to 15 seconds repeating themselves every 5 minuets or so. No AV = games running smooth.We use Symantic AV at work, we develop games, and none of the team sees anything like what you describe.  If we did, it would immediately be flagged as a bug.I use AVG at home, and play all kinds of games, and also not seen what you describe.Because this happens in different AV systems, check for non-AV stuff going on.  You might have some rogue spyware or some other task that is running periodically, and the AV is going nuts trying to scan everything the app is doing -- but not actually notifying you because it isn't listed as a virus.If that isn't it, check the configuration of the AV program.  Note that many hundred thousand gamers use those programs, and none of them are having the problem.  It probably is just your system, not the AV program.I agree. Only times I actually see Anti-Virus software slowing down PC's these day is using Norton antivirus suite(many websites have benchmarks/reviews showing it to slow down bootup times,etc by up to 20% of normal which I can vouch for when I used it.) or if you are running a very old pc(5 years or older).I've been using avast and avg on all my computers without any noticeable slowdown for years now so I can vouch for their small memory footprint compared to Norton. On the downside though Norton also has one of the best virus detection rates of all AV products last time I checked?"The results here are quite staggering. While the effect that VIPRE had on system performance was indeed minimal (in the region of 1.5% to 2.0% for the 32-bit system, and around 0.5% for the 64-bit system), Kaspersky AntiVirus 2007 had a much larger effect (in the region of 15% for the 32-bit system, and around 8% for the 64-bit system), while Norton AntiVirus 2008 hit the system even harder (about 19% for the 32-bit system, and 12% for the 64-bit system).";  I just use avast, and use autoruns to disable all remnants of it that start automatically. I then do a weekly manual scan. Easy enough and doesn't hurt performance.   ;  I got McAfee VirusScan Enterprise free from school and I never notice it slowing anything down.  Loading up the bloated Yahoo Messenger is what takes my computer so long to boot.  I'm just on a lowly P4 2.6 with two gigs of RAM.  While your AV might be slowing the computer down its from some other cause and not just the AV hogging resources.   ;Quote:Original post by frobQuote:Original post by GrainCorporate version of Symantec causes my games to "hitch" (stick on a single frame for about a quarter of a second) every 3 to 5 seconds or so.   AVG causes horrific stuttering for periods of 10 to 15 seconds repeating themselves every 5 minuets or so. No AV = games running smooth.We use Symantic AV at work, we develop games, and none of the team sees anything like what you describe.  If we did, it would immediately be flagged as a bug.I use AVG at home, and play all kinds of games, and also not seen what you describe.Because this happens in different AV systems, check for non-AV stuff going on.  You might have some rogue spyware or some other task that is running periodically, and the AV is going nuts trying to scan everything the app is doing -- but not actually notifying you because it isn't listed as a virus.If that isn't it, check the configuration of the AV program.  Note that many hundred thousand gamers use those programs, and none of them are having the problem.  It probably is just your system, not the AV program.I doubt its any spywear This is a fairly new install and I'm always wary about things like spyware. This happened on my old system and I though it was just because it was old and it sucked. When I got this new system all my games ran smooth, after about a week I decided to install some AV and instantly the probes came back like on my old system that had AV on it. Uninstall the AV and its smooth again.