AV-TEST - Endurance Test: Does antivirus software slow down PCs?

I bought several Versions of Bitdefender 2 years ago... had a new Notebook, but streaming video's was never working, even i contacted support much times.
And general internet slowed down with bitdefender... I was so frustrated, that i deinstalled all antivirus software and had no security for 1,5 years...
Now, i tested eset, everything is working great and seems Internet got a bit faster... than with windows defender

 

I agree with you entirely.
Far too many different computer configurations to give a totally accurate picture.Its impossible for these (unseen) tests to be performed on every pc.
Some conditions are not revealed:

• Which computers were used.
• What applications were also running.
• Which forms of malware were used.

It could go on and on.
I think the best way is to try varying products and see for yourself how it performs on your own specific computer and stick with the most efficient.
Too many people are basing their security product on these meaningless tests.

 

I agree that trying the product yourself is the best way but the tests are not meaningless, they do set out a good starting point to look at products and give some good professional results. However, by far the majority of people who use an antivirus are probably not aware that these tests exist and use an AV based on recommendations from a friend, neighbor, advert or are just happy with the one that came installed when they bought the computer.

 

My experience has been that ESET products cause a very noticable drop in system performance on some (not all) computers, which is why I don't use them. I'm talking about a significant impact which makes my laptop which usually runs quite fast, slow.

So I don't think the ranking given to ESET is unrealistic. But, if they had used different hardware to do the testing on, ESET may have fared better.

 

I am currently using Eset Smart Security 8 configured with Max security settings plus Emsisoft Anti-malware and EMET 5.1. I did go through the trouble of excluding all from each other which is a must in my opinion.

Only impact I have seen due to Eset SS 8 is a slightly slower boot time. However, enabling SS 8's SSL protocol scanning will slow your browser page displays. I have it disabled due to other issues with it. I also have a 6 core CPU, 8 GBs of memory, and a fast hard drive.

 

sorry if what I was saying went over your head but you seem to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick
lets designate the letters a to h as the names of fictional apps running in the background on on a fictional pc,in this condition that pc may run faster for most usage use av product 1,if however you then install another app that runs in the background,lets call that i just for consistency,you may well find that because of the what that app has loaded the pc now runs faster with a different av product installed,which of those 2 av products would be deemed to have less of a hit,there are too many variables in the real world for the performance hit of an av product to be assessed by such a small number of tests and even with caveat regarding hardware there are too many combinations of drivers for that to hold water

 

So, water is bad for fictional computers, hardware, and drivers. Now I get it.

 

I doubt it

 

perhaps you could explain to stillborn,he doesn't seem be able to grasp what I mean,either that or english isn't his 1st language and his translation program isn't working correctly

 

I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head. There is no "one size fits all" in this kind of situation. It really is that simple.

 

Yes indeed... introducing---> common sense. This should pretty much be the beginning and the end conclusion(s) to all of these "Performance Tests" in general. Under various shades of obvious, file this one under blatantly.

 

I use Avast Free. It has zero impact. Perhaps that is because I use it on-demand only. Never real-time. BUT I found this report (& all the pontifical blastings thereof) to be very interesting as a broad indicator (I love broads). It has persuaded me to give Kaspersky (gershundheit!) another trial.