Gaming Machine with antivirus - possible?

[SourMilk]

I am running my computer as a gaming machine for Oblivion. I think I need an antivirus on this machine but don't know which to choose. The antivirus must either be very light on resources or have the ability to not process game files when they are being read and written (folder or drive exception.) Any ideas or recommendations?
Thanks

[SSK]

NOD32, DrWeb. Or the new Kaspersky products (version 6) that will be available around the 15th of may.

Check them out, and see what suites you best! :)

[Blackcat]

Add VBA32 to the list to try ;)

[Inspector Clouseau]

Use 2 different Profiles: One for gaming which doesn't scan all filetypes - only direct infectable types such as .EXE .PIF .SCR .VBS .HTM .DOC etc.
Most of the games using data resource files, which are having either a own file format or using archive storage. Now the most important thing is for such games to disable Archiv Support, otherwise the scanner will scan each file in the archiv resource file upon loading one file out of this archive. For OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE AND SECURITY you have to take a look at the game files. If you find ZIP Headers in the data files then the resource files (such as sound and gfx) are stored in a compressed archive. Then disable this. Next point is also important: That you pick a scanner with a proper filetype engine. Example: ClamAV would be the worst case for you, because this is a typical "all files scanner", meaning that it does look for all kind of viruses in all kinds of files (even if it's impossible that a Win32 Virus can be found in a 16 Bit Dos .COM file)

Some of the Games using own fileextensions, such as ".DAT" - exclude them in the profile. After finish gaming just switch back to your daily scanner profile. That's it.

[RejZoR]

If you're a gamer, your rig must be powerful enough for games. And if it can handle that it will also handle AV+game. I'm a gamer and i have a not that powerful system for today's standards, but it's overclocked on all ends. Even mouse :P It can handle TES4:Oblivion (latest, very hardware intensive game) with any antivirus. So far i've been running avast! 4.7 beta, NOD32 and BitDefender 9 along with game and haven't noticed any noticeablem slowdowns.

My PC:
AthlonXP 2400+@3200+ (2,3GHz/200MHz FSB)
512MB DDR RAM (400MHz)
200GB Maxtor HDD (ATA133/8MB cache/7200 RPM)
NV GeForce 6600GT

So don't worry.

[FastGame]

I agree with RejZoR, I have setup like his and high end AMD A64.

I don't think AV's have any effect on game play other than loading time of levels.

You can test for yourself, run all the gaming benchmarks, AV on or off, the difference between FPS and score are nil.......

In your actual game play use FRAPS (http://www.fraps.com/) to determine if AV has an effect.

For those with less than a true gaming rig, Inspector Clouseau gives great advice, for those with the most powerful of PC's his advice has great placebo effect :)

[RejZoR]

I forgot to mention KAV6 along with the testes AVs...

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'm huge into online gaming, FPS type games....that was one of the reasons I chose NOD32 when I tried several different products....very light. I can leave it enabled...without bogging down the system. 3.4GHz, 1.5 gigs of RAM, 10k rpm Raptor hard drive...running lean and mean.

[RejZoR]

Of course it does, just look at the PC specs heh... AV type has nothing to do with that.

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "I'm huge into online gaming, FPS type games....that was one of the reasons I chose NOD32 when I tried several different products....very light. I can leave it enabled...without bogging down the system. 3.4GHz, 1.5 gigs of RAM, 10k rpm Raptor hard drive...running lean and mean." }-
Offtopic... Do you play battlefield? I think I saw your name once at my friends...

Backontopic
So far, no antiviruses have had a big impact on my pc when I play games(3.4gHz ht, 1gb ram, nVidia 6800 256MB graphics card), however so far NOD and antivir(at least v.6) have run the lightest, with KAV(version 5) and Bitdefender running the heaviest.

Alphalutra1

[NAMOR]

I have run the following AV's without any problems playing games(WoW, BattleField 2, Counter Strike, etc).... Avast, Antivir, BitDefender 9, NOD32, Kav5 and 6, Kis6, DrWeb, Norton Internet Security 2006.

For now I am using NOD32 on one computer.

Shuttle XPC SB61G2V4
Intel 2.6
1 GB HyperX ram
Maxtor 100 GB
Ati X800 pro


The only one that seems to give me problems during game play is F-Secure 2006. It's fine when I'm doing normal stull like homework or surfing but, I get a lot of slow down playing games.

[YeOldeStonecat]

-{ Quote: "

I don't think AV's have any effect on game play other than loading time of levels. " }-

I disagree...I can easily see it myself...especially with todays very system intensive games. Hence my search for a very lightweight antivirus...else any other AV brand that I'd use...I have to remember to disable real time protection before playing. Leaving them on...it would stutter more...the hard drive hits (pagefile) would be more noticable also.

Been a hardcore gamer for a loooong long time ...system is usually quite robust, and well tuned.

[YeOldeStonecat]

-{ Quote: "Offtopic... Do you play battlefield? I think I saw your name once at my friends... " }-

Yes....got bored with Battlefield 2...I'm back to Battlefield 1942 (usually playing at =TAW= Battle of Britain, or RBK's Midway Server), and Battlefield Vietnam (Jolt.UK Irving server and Hasting server)

Play every morning before work, and in the evenings.

[RejZoR]

-{ Quote: "I disagree...I can easily see it myself...especially with todays very system intensive games. Hence my search for a very lightweight antivirus...else any other AV brand that I'd use...I have to remember to disable real time protection before playing. Leaving them on...it would stutter more...the hard drive hits (pagefile) would be more noticable also.

Been a hardcore gamer for a loooong long time ...system is usually quite robust, and well tuned." }-

Well, i don't. And my eyes are very sensitive to bad framerates, stuttering and stuff like that.

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "Well, i don't. And my eyes are very sensitive to bad framerates, stuttering and stuff like that." }-
Well, I would expect that from a Maha Guru at the Guru3D forums :)

Anyhow, I run all my games with my AV enabled at max settings. No problems. If you do encounter any slowdowns, you should disable archive support. :)

[RejZoR]

Only thing that creates stuttering is lack of physical RAM. 512MB is ok, but not really an optimal amount for these days. When running 1,5GB or even 2GB of RAM you can disable pagefile and gain extra speed and eliminate unnecessary disk paging (to some degree). Just don't try to do that if you edit huge images in Photoshop CS ;D

[BrainWarp]

Don't forget f-prot.It uses less resources than any other antivirus and has high ratings.I am also a big online gamer and this is what i use on that mechine.

[YeOldeStonecat]

-{ Quote: "Only thing that creates stuttering is lack of physical RAM. " }-

LOL...there's a whole slew of things that can create stuttering, not just memory usage.

[RejZoR]

No, for gaming it's mostly just memory. No physical memory, lots of paging, full I/O channels, even slow transfer rates, even slower disk accessing, even slower transfers between HDD-RAM and you're done.
SUre bad chipset, graphics and sound drivers can cause that but memory is the thing that does it in what, 98% of al cases? Probably.

[Brian N]

Never had an issue with nod32+games.. Everything running smooth

[SourMilk]

Thanks for all the answers. I will try the different profiles suggestion. Watch out Oblivion, here I come!

[InfinityAz]

Why run anything at all? When I play online games I turn off everything that isn't essential to the game (i.e., services, av, at, firewall, etc.). I am behind a router with a NAT firewall and that is always running.

My commit charge when I get ready to play games is approximately 134MB (out of 1024MB).

BTW - Never been infected, compromised, etc. from my online gaming.

[WSFuser]

for a light AV, f-prot and nod32 would be my two choices.

[Brian N]

And I can't see any performance increase in Oblivion if I disable Amon.. So it's all good :)

[YeOldeStonecat]

-{ Quote: " I am behind a router with a NAT firewall and that is always running.

BTW - Never been infected, compromised, etc. from my online gaming." }-

I'm generally in agreement with that...prior to using NOD, I'd disable the real time protection of Symantec CE or AVG or Avast or whatever else I was using at that time...since I'd not have any e-mail open or be browsing online or doing anything else, and since I'm always behind NAT...I had no worry about getting infected. I also usually tend to play online games at servers that I trust...in many cases public gaming servers that I've built and managed.

BUT....I often wonder when (if not already)....the chance of using online games as a platform to spread bugs...would happen. So many people host games on systems which they are clueless in how to properly lock down, either from home..or slapping together some server to co-host at a data center...they don't lock them down, secure them. Get tapped easily...and who knows...i just picture it as something that will invariably happen. If not within the gamecode itself....possibly in other related areas...like map redirect auto-downloading, etc.

[Blackcat]

ESET's full page advertisement now appears in most of the well-known Gaming magazines in the UK.