Hello all, I've been lurking these boards for a little bit and have learned a lot. But I had a question I hadn't really seen addressed: how to protect a gaming PC? Most of the usual recommendations seem overkill if this is the only usage, especially with performance being key on a gaming machine that is connected to my TV and using hand-me-down parts. And ease of installation of programs is important, but not over security. It would have a few internet-facing programs (Steam, battle.net, some of the actual games, etc.), WinFW could handle that (maybe with a controller like TinyWall or similar). It would need something that allows installation easily, but stops rogue executables, maybe like VS. But I feel also something more, like isolation or virtualization, i.e. SBIE or Shadow Defender. But how do they handle game saves? Would I have to remember to find the file and copy it over every time? Is there a way to safely exempt the folder they save to? Or I could just back up the save files/folders frequently with incremental backups in Macruim (that is what I'm leaning towards). Am I overthinking this? Possible Setup: FW: WinFW Anti-EXE: Undecided/Unneeded? Virtualizationish: SBIE? or SD? Backup: Macruim Reflect Free Any insight is more than appreciated. -Craig
ESET has IMO a gaming mode - depends on full screen usage and enable and disables some detections and scans. reverted after gaming. i wont count on special solutions or stupid tweaking tools - those will trash working operating systems and some has the culprit. if your system has enough power there is NO need for any tweaking. working in a box or vm will slow down games, but dont make it more secure, never. HTH
I have a gaming PC myself and, after much testing with different configs, I can honestly say that ESET 10 (either the antivirus or the internet security suite) has been a wonderful, simple addition to it. Lots of people use various utilties stacked together here, which is totally their call, but I'd personally recommend just ESET running the HIPS in Smart Mode. It's extremely light, doesn't bog down the PC at all and it'll give you almost all the protection you could want. I supplement it with on-demand scans now and again with Zemana AntiMalware but that's about it. EDIT: I can also recommend Emsisoft Anti-Malware 12. I might try that out again in the future, but ESET has been great too. Both are bloat-free antivirus options that protect the system with minimal impact.
Emsisoft AntiMalware also has a gaming mode and would probably be all the protection you need other than a firewall and maybe an on demand scanner.
CIS 10 Beta. realy, realy light on the system. No fps drops at all and it can do all what u want right configured. It can be virtualisazion for unknown exes. it can be anti-executable, it can be a strong hips and the firewall is nice.
Choose an av considering this http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart4&year=2016&month=10&sort=1 And a free fw based on Windows fw If you have a gaming pc you won't notice any performance impact or fps loss
If you play video games as an hardcore player; you need the most resources possible for most FPS possible, which means nothing should slow down your machine and any AV won't help you on that. Personally when i played, i used to dual boot my machine: one OS for daily use & work; one OS only for gaming , with no other programs running in the background (except teamplayer ^^), the only protection i had was an anti-exe set on lockdown mode. I also tweaked Windows Firewall to allow only my games (and needed apps) to have internet connections (no bandwidth loss allowed). Then i did a backup in case of eventual infection. . However, if you are a casual player, then the advices given by the other members above are good enough.
My son goes to events where he watches with many other gamers how the top-guns are playing games, so I would call him a hardcore gamer (when he was at high school he belonged to the top 20 in Holland of battlefield 2) He has three rules: first buy as big a videocard as your budget and CPU can carry, second don't waist bandwidth by using a wireless connection (in Netherlands houses are build close to each other, so overlaying networks cause a lot of noise and stutter), third don't fix what is not broken (keep security and performance settings at default for maximum gaming compatibility). He builds his own PC, so it comes without the extra (often useless) software of branded PC's. His software setup has been stable for the last 10 years or so. I do not recall him talking about incidents, infection or performance complaints. His security setup is: - Webroot special gaming edition: https://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/products/gamer-av - Smartscreen and Windows Defender turned off (to prevent any overlap with WSA), Windows firewall and UAC at default - Daily second opinion boot time scan with HitmanPro free (leaves no realtime process after scan, exits completely). The WSA gamers edition comes with a 70 day performance (refund) guarantee. Regards Kees
If I were a gamer, I would want to maximize whatever performance I can get. I would not consider any AV regardless of any "gaming editions" available. I would stay with the defaults or if need be, look up OS hardening measures. I would go as minimal as possible in terms of 3rd party programs. The less, the better. SBIE and Shadow Defender are decent options (compared to AVs generally speaking) due to lesser disk and network activity. The main downsides would be handling and keeping up with the updates/upgrades or to find ways to save game progress. Bear in mind any possible incompatibilities. Really depends on whether the individual think the benefit is worth the extra effort. Having a backup OS image is a great idea regardless of everything else. P.s. Not a gamer.
