Chart: https://www.av-comparatives.org/comparison/?usertype=consumer&chart_chart=chart4&chart_year=2019&chart_month=10&chart_sort=1&chart_zoom=0 PDF: https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/avc_per_201910.pdf
The results of performance tests, often vary greatly from users own experiences. As a result, you should not pay too much attention to them.
Yah, your mileage will vary, try them out before yelling to the gods that this AV slows your computer down to a glacial crawl.
I had a computer a few years ago that would slow down to a crawl with ESET while it ran well with Kaspersky that was regarded as a heavy protection suit back then. In other words always test the software in your machine whenever possible. Internet opinions and profissional tests will only tell you how the software works in that particular set up.
I found ESET products to be quite heavy on some computers, until v12 was released a year ago. I found v12 to be very light and the new v13 products are claimed to be even lighter.
I stopped using ESET because their HTTP Scanner slows down my internet and messes up with my VPN (any VPN that is). I don't wanna disable the HTTP scanner because then the ESET icon turns amber making me feel like something is wrong so I switched to VIPRE an never had an issue with Internet browsing speed or the VPN and it still offers superb protection. ESET just keeps getting heavier and more bloated every year with every version. How I miss the old days of NOD32 v2, the lightest AV back then, the performance and gamer's choice. Oh not to mention the fact the issues I and many others I know had with Outlook when ESET is enabled unless you disable all Outlook integration otherwise mail sync would be very slow (there is a big thread about this on their forum)
It depends what you use your computer for - I have used Avast for years, but have been trying Windows Defender lately. I get a much faster boot-up and noticeably faster page loading with defender. Since this is the bulk of what I use the computer for, I don't worry about the other things that I don't often use that take longer to open or execute. Also, I never get false positives, and do not have to worry about what may happen with each new windows or antivirus update.
every pc is a different story: I try Bitdefender Free that people say is light but in my case is heavy with cpu at 70% and ram usage more than 200 mb. Someone uninstalling Kaspersky free because is heavy and on my pc is light and fast (exactly as in AVComparatives test scenario)
For people that say a particular AV is heavy, is this after a full scan and reboot? Cause I believe AVs need to do this to get accustomed to your system.
You may use this GUI to simplify setup: https://malwaretips.com/threads/configuredefender-utility-for-windows-10.79039/ Fast and easy!
It is very configurable using the tool mentioned above by Bertazzone. The utility does not need to be installed on your computer to use it. But I pretty much use it with standard settings.
That only applies for AVs that has a whiteliting feature. For example, Windows Defender doesn't so it wouldn't matter. Also when I say ESET is slow, as I mentioned, the AV itself is light and I did do a full scan, the problem lies within its HTTP scanner fr for me where it slows down my internet browsing speed, VPN, and Outlook. Just as an example.
There is an option in eset settings where you can choose that eset doesn't see if web scanner is on or off and it won't turn eset icon amber
