Does antivirus affect gaming performance?

What's the lightest antivirus for Gaming? We benchmark 3 AVs in games including Windows Defender to see if it affects performance. Apparently, there is a Norton 360 for gamers, which prompted me to make this video. Laptop is ROG Flow provided by ASUS: uk.store.asus.com/rog-flow-x1...
Buy the best antivirus: thepcsecuritychannel.com/best...
Join the discussion on Discord: discord.tpsc.tech/
Get your business endpoints tested by us: tpsc.tech/
Contact us for business: thepcsecuritychannel.com/contact

[@yotoprules9361]

It may be good idea to try this on a weaker cpu with less cores, the AV could just be using cores that the games aren't using.

[@Matteo-842]

good idea but in reality is just copium... just use a good av not shitty norton stuff, stay safe :)

[@portman8909]

Yeah Ryzen 9 is an odd pairing. People with this GPU would have ether 6 or 8 core CPU.

[@Nauzhror1216]

The CPU in this laptop IS a 8 core cpu.@@portman8909

[@AngelosDoundis]

This can't happen because a CPU runs one process (program) at a time. All cores are available exclusively for that process' threads.

[@Chibibowa]

It’s indeed a bad example because the newest CPUs have efficiency cores and the likes. You’d see it more on a 4 core CPU. But in any case. An AV is shitty and gets in my way. The only AV I use is Malwarebytes Nebula (endpoint management)

[@Tesko249clips]

Very cool of you to cover this topic. It's a question I was interested in too but never found any comprehensive info on. Cheers!!

[@notalostnumber8660]

The only difference I can recall, is how the Dolphin emulator used to do way more file access operations, so any AV would begin analyzing the one file that was being written like 30 times a second. So Dolphin changed to batch multiple small operations into fewer larger ones, and the impact of the AV diminished greatly

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

When was this? It’s been a few years since I used Dolphin so I’m curious

[@NakedTrashPanda]

There is also latency and frame times that matter a lot when in competitive titles. Would be interested to see if there is any difference there. I doubt it, just like how I doubted the AV would lower FPS, but would still be nice to know.

[@maxwellsmart3156]

I wonder if the AV load is more prominent when running in MMO mode, if the game supports it, since the network would be more active and the AV and/or firewall would be monitoring this activity.

[@ecdhe]

It would have been useful to get the numbers when there is no AV running. Also, how effective are AV these days considering that viruses have many ways to avoid detection.

[@pipjersey8303]

better yet, when the operating system itself (windows) is the one spying and gathering information, there ain't no AV for that

[@drago7914]

can you make a video about kaspersky while gaming or do you only do videos about avs that have a special "gaming" mode ?

[@SargeKot]

Thank you, very informative video 🥰

[@Pewafamath]

Only time I feel a hitch or something funky with virus scanners it is disk usage with "real time protection." Even with an m.2 playing games with tons of small files (ie moded) it has caused me to say "what is going on with this" open up task manager and see 100% utilization on real time protection. I end up excluding that particular file path and it becomes a non issue.

[@chironbramberger]

I’d love to see a comparison with these 3 but also 4: antivirus temporarily turned off (can do this in Windows) and 5: antivirus completely removed. It’s not good to run without an antivirus program but… what if someone built a custom pc just for gaming with its own internet connection with no other devices on it and antivirus completely removed. I’m not saying anyone should do that but it would be interesting to see what a setup like that would gain. Would it be like 5% more fps or like 25% more fps? Or any at all? Just curious.

[@pipjersey8303]

turning off auto updates for your AV helps to, i manually update mine i remember some av's running an update as i was gaming

[@johnpatrickadem6294]

this is the reason why i would move the windows defender folder out of windows (program files), it just hogs my resources for no reason even if it's turned off in the main settings

[@fivestar2227]

I use Comodo beta (classic theme) for w11 as it is Direct I/O compatible. Not sure if it makes any difference but I make it a habit to add hips, containment and shellcode injection exceptions to any competitive online games where low latency matters.

[@d_slayerr]

Thanks for the video!!

[@1kRAM4kROM]

My biggest concern would be the effect on ping times (lag) being an ARPG player. Increase in ping time can definitely mean death.

[@Bozebo]

The problem should be more likely jitter, if there's a performance hitch it shouldn't hurt the network specifically. But, AV also use your network for their own purposes and they could and should be smart enough not to do that. I'm guessing they are not, would've been good to see that tested.

[@adnelortiz]

McAfee, Norton, Avast ... all of them have become so huge, so intrusive and so controlling that they make slower PCs truly slow, and unstable. Some have a footprint over 1GB and also take telemetry on your PCs and habits. So ironically they have become kinda the malware that they are supposed to eradicate.

[@sylussquared9724]

Did we watch the same video?

[@anthonymoloney3671]

Thanks for the video. I had suspected it would be marketing fluff, and that seems to be the case.

[@alexandercarlisle9087]

I was hoping you were going to try Norton for Gamers vs Norton without those options enabled. Also curious if there would be a bigger difference if you could somehow include scheduled scans during benchmarking as opposed to passive AV tests.

[@SteveHowardPhotography]

Interesting..... but the problem I have is a lot of the anti-cheat systems won't even load the game unless I disable my AV. Frustrating....

[@MorganNilsson]

How well does Bitdefender in such a test though? I really like Bitdefender but it feels like it uses more resources than Windows Defender. Or maybe it just feels like that just because of the juicy UI?

[@ayan.debnath]

In Windows 98 and specially Windows XP days, NOD32 Anti-virus was awesome while gaming. I used to pay the update subscription.

[@imtekcs]

I would agree ESET NOD32 was good back then. But when it started coming preloaded on some Macs, it was difficult. Whoever developed the Mac version, in my opinion, didn't know Macs well and it caused a lot of issues. It had to be uninstalled to allow the Mac to work properly.

[@ayan.debnath]

@@imtekcs may be.... not an apple user.

[@joepjoep9531]

Also it was good to do pirate stuff because it detected literally nothing, would not want that anymore

[@ayan.debnath]

@@joepjoep9531 DISAGREE. I never got infected... I used to play multiple 'no-dvd patched' games.

[@montecorbit8280]

I would have liked to have seen Zero AV or anti-malware software as well....that would have been an interesting include into the stats!!

[@frostwind8617]

An interesting test would be to use some of those online games with kernel level anti cheat. I mention this `cause at least windows defender seems to not like and block those type of games a lot of times. And I say ¨seems¨ ´cause it is not like your average AV blocking malware and telling you about it, but more like the game not even launching and defender process spiking in resource usage, but not really blocking the game, but just getting stuck, like not knowing what to do with it. Then after like 10 times trying to launch said game, defender finally allow it. Notice that the type of game I am mentioning are usually the ones that have more shady anti cheat, stuff like tencent anti cheat. Another thing is that this seems to be more noticeable in 10 gen or older Intel cpus than ryzen or modern intel ones for some reason.

[@zheayy]

How do you get clear temp on your desktop ? Can someone tell me...

[@kaksakvisagie4131]

Wouldn't it have been better to compare Norton Deluxe (non gamer edition) with the gamer edition, since they would have introduced that feature on an already existing product of theirs, and thus it may improve gaming while using THEIR products, in other words, a version of their product that is better for gaming than the standard product.

[@malwaredot]

what about no antivirus? sounds stupid but i use defender control and MalwareBytes so i can just have no antivirus while playing or using CPU

[@yanndooms8892]

In the past, AV's were a nucance sometimes when gaming because some AV's just block certain files of games. Nowdays, I see no need to use a special AV for my gaming PC other then windows defender.

[@tibrakerzero111]

Been using norton 360 for gamers for 2 years now, i would recommend switching game mode off on windows as both game modes on norton and windows clash and cause fps drops and stuttering on games like fortnite.

[@ferfeenix]

would you recommend getting Norton for gamers?

[@VSN-wb2ly]

Who even use that piece of garbage anymore, I'd rather use defender than norton

[@joecool4656]

I love Windows Defender and I don’t use anything else anymore. It is lightweight and doesn’t have ads. My old laptop and computers were basically unusable with AVG or other scanners installed

[@portman8909]

I noticed Chrome felt very slow with AV's so went back to Defender as I find it annoying.

[@getthepartystarted1247]

Lol I don't even have Windows Defender I use Windows XP

[@VSN-wb2ly]

Well unless you have a low specs then yes,

[@sanjaychowdhury]

New Kaspersky review video when?

[@BleepBlop-rh9lm]

I suspect it's like windows game mode. If there are apps which are causing game slow downs it will make those apps use less resources so that the game runs smoother.

[@sirdaemon5338]

Wonder how they are getting away with such claims, in most country's there are advertising and trading regulations that prohibit misleading and misspelling of items

[@lownexury7431]

Does Norton for gamers have RGB?

[@petesomeguy]

The adjective "Gaming" is just a marketing gimic.

[@null643]

Cyberpunk would have been a good test, it uses a lot of the cpu's threads, while other games mostly rely on good single core performance.

[@Hawk-Tuah-on-that-thang]

And why would you keep an antivirus running while gaming?

[@newshrimp]

grats on the laptop

[@Tjockpaladin]

Even " Eset " got a Game mode to toggle on if you wish. Doubt will do anything for me, I got High end processor.

[@portman8909]

Yep one of those “full disk encryption effects game performance”. Nope not on my NVMe drive and modern Zen 4 CPU.

[@AcidRP]

frame time consistency matters more and you will see more random spikes with more background apps running

[@brokenchimp0]

Kaspersky has a gamers mode.

[@Ho_SSam]

recoomend us a best program for windows repairing

[@45545videos]

But did you pay for the driver updater? Or the temp file cleaner? What about dark web monitoring? And dark web data deletion? And cloud backups? It's not Norton until you're paying $800/yr for useless services

[@nofreenamestoreg]

Did you test without any AV? ;)

[@corumuk67]

I've tried various free AV's and usually end up coming back to Windows Defender. In my experience is has little or no impact on gaming performance. I game a lot.

[@Daxter250]

ibalso game a lot and bitdefender never caused a problem either

[@Khual]

Wow Norton for GAMER?! Crazy😂

[@npc5100]

If you use games from steam why do u even need antivirus on home pc?

[@mnabeelmansoor]

Does Norton depend on Symantec definitions as of date?

[@KeiLin11]

I'm using Kaspersky for years now and have no problem with games.

[@Movement_catcher]

Me too even i am many playing pirated game from fitgirl repack .

[@Master_Heman]

definetly ESET consum only less than 0,99 system resource

[@Xeanowos]

Norton 360 Gaming made my performance much worse. It didn't get better until I uninstalled it.

This is like if they could add RGB to antivirus. Probably does noting for performance but it comes with more "features" that gamers may enjoy, like less notification. All of which have other solutions that are free without the antivirus. Marketing baby.

[@vBDKv]

I dunno. If it has full screen detection, I consider it good for gaming lol.

[@sandsgrainofsand5320]

The best gaming AV is common sense, have a good day.

[@andreix86]

This guy has terminal pinned in the taskbar. Just had to mention it.

[@JadenYukiBruceLee]

I use AVG free because also has gaming stuff also have malwarebytes free and also of coarse windows security free so far they do quite well haven’t had a problem yet they have catched everything so far

[@sylussquared9724]

So first of all, when you install a third party AV windows defender is disabled Second its a bad idea to run more than one AV at a time as they are prone to fighting each other Third Malwarebytes free does not include any real time protection so does not make you any more secure

[@JadenYukiBruceLee]

⁠​⁠@@sylussquared9724 1st Just so You know I am a computer expert and I know everything and I have all 3 configured exactly how I want them 1st question I never said anywhere that windows security was real-timing but I do have it’s Periodic scanning on/active and am using all its other features and have those turned on/active I do once in a while run it’s scan manually not often though as it has the periodic scanning on 2nd I don’t usually turn on real-time protection on 2 antivirus at the same time though it’s not as bad as it use to be as I’m guessing that antivirus sometimes recognize other antivirus and don’t fight each other as much as they use too I haven’t encountered it for a while 3rd malwarebytes always makes you more secure by the fact you have another scanner to use on the computer I scan with it relatively often every few days or so as a secondary scanner and is quite strong so I scan with it every once in a while to see if anything is missed

[@Alshmary-96]

Thank 🖤🙏🏻

[@shadowrealms2676]

Hi is it safe to use Kaspersky Free in 2023?

[@sylussquared9724]

Yes, they moved all their stuff outside of russia

[@ItsJustMetrion]

It would be nice if Antivirus Programs wouldn't occasionally mark my Original Legitimate Game Copy's as Idp.generic infected! Avira has sometimes some serious relationship issues with older games!

[@Famelhaut]

TLDR: windows defender

[@GE0attack]

On God. If your sailing the seas learn the basics of torrenting and read " read me note in download"

[@Famelhaut]

@@GE0attack if you're sailing the seas an adblocker will be infinetely more useful.

[@mirainikki6665]

Cap

[@sandeeepkiran1130]

Thanks!

[@juanmondragon]

Can you add a few more words. It took me until the two minute mark to decipher what you meant since he mentioned he was going to test Norton against other antiviruses

[@LordCarmesimXXVII]

I think Kaspersky Free is the best for gaming, because its the most light while still one of the most effective.

[@citroniq84]

never know when its free how he work what dara he sebd wher he send i never trust nothing when it is free chinas talk when its free them is most expensive and it is big tru

[@ozzie_goat]

Do not use Kaspersky

[@rounakr94]

​@@ozzie_goatWhy?

[@citroniq84]

@@ozzie_goat nozhing it its free dont recomand and its the some problems have kaspersky avast avira all free when its free i dont trust them i still use paid version

[@citroniq84]

@@ozzie_goat and i think them u tels people dont use kaspersky becous is evil rusian ultra hackers ok :D and i have question for u . you have tiktok app? :D

[@MrSpaced123]

Dont use any laptop for a gaming test EVER, theyre underpowered and undercooled, that thing wont beat a 10 year old desktop

[@MrSpaced123]

Also if they sponsored you that laptop, youre supposed to declare that in the video.

[@cayennest]

Haven't seen a gaming laptop for a long time I guess. Also this is not a test of hardware. Only changes in software. So it is OK to use a laptop. If anything you need a system with a weaker cpu to show any difference. With a hugely powerful cpu any cpu consumption by antivirus will be handled by the cpu and won't show any difference. But this won't be the case with weaker cpus

[@thepurplesmurf]

I haven't looked at any Norton products in years, because from many years ago, when it used to be always the most bloated and resource wasting plie of garbage, I absolutely despise anything from Norton. Their security suite back in the day caused more problems to a system than any virus could have every done. Based on this old (and by old I mean old, dating back to the Win95 times) experience I'm honestly surprised that Norton didn't make the games unplayable but was on par with the other candidates - at least performance-wise. Still, the very last software I would ever use, even for free, is anything from Norton.

[@VSN-wb2ly]

Installing Norton is more disgusting than accidentally installing a virus

[@menone8532]

Back in the day, way back, I ran nortons, way to cpu intensive back then. Switched to/tried other ones. Nope, i have be into this stuff from floppy to floppy drive, not a geek, just have a knack for it. Been gaming for 20 plus years, fps wise, never an issue. Ran several anti virus programs, most suck.

[@gregwessels7205]

I don't game, but hey, it comes in a cool shiny box so count me in.

[@joepjoep9531]

👀 Kaspersky has a game mode as well 😁 even the free version agreed I would never pay purely for game mode

[@evilleader1991]

Game mode is basically the AV going on low resource mode, aka not running any file scan or any updates etc. Kaspersky is honestly great.

[@joepjoep9531]

@@evilleader1991 Kaspersky is already very well optimised never comes above 3% idle here

[@LeonAlkoholik67]

Please test also without AVs

[@JimCKD]

Another product that wants to be selled as gaming for "marketing" reasons and without any significant performance difference. At least it would add some rgb effects to be more "gaming-oriented". :-)

[@0buffer]

There is one comparison missing. Normal Norton vs gaming edition

[@Joss0051]

I bought a key for Norton 360 but my current subscription had 6 days left....what a nightmare followed....I had such a bad time, well....I'm going elsewhere! It should be an easy procedure to update....Please do an up to date review of the best for the up coming 2024 season of the AV suites please?

[@Blackdeath939]

Now hit them with some viruses while playing and see which program is really the best.

[@progamerspro4559]

Nothing probably😂

[@tortureddummies1672]

I just unsubscribe to Norton it’s actually making my laptop run very slow and it blocks my internet automatically. Norton is huge and it causes your software to run slow.

[@papiezguwniak]

Bitdefender free version.

[@gamereditor59ner22]

Is it free?

[@PunkrockNoir-ss2pq]

Why download and run virus?

[@escape808]

If it's labelled "gamer edition" on ANYTHING, don't buy it.

[@pauljames4510]

I’ve noticed if you put your games in 1920 x 1080 you get more frames 👍

[@hussainali1340]

"Gaming" Antivirus. Thats how desperate Norton have become.

[@EspyMelly]

Pretty much all paid "improve gaming performance" software is horseshit that relies on placebo effect. If they even do anything it's always something that can be done manually in seconds and has very little actual effect. Even the cheapest most garbage CPU's you can find to buy nowadays have multiple cores which make the impact of AV's on the performance of 90% of games non-existent and very small on the other 10%. You have to be doing a full AV scan in your PC while gaming to even notice anything in lower-end CPU's and storage drives

[@VSN-wb2ly]

High specs: Kaspersky Medium specs: ESET Low specs: Defender

[@rounakr94]

I use Kaspersky Standard and Premium and I seriously don't care if they are KGB or if they have backdoors, heck Windows itself has tons of backdoors for the "US"intelligence agencies. The performance difference between Kaspersky and Windows Defender only shows while booting Windows which is 2sec faster and while running scans in Defender which is faster. In games I don't see any difference but from the protection standpoint even if there is a minimal hit to the fps I am fine with it. Same with BitDefender Total Security, minimal game impact and most of the performance hit (if 2-3s is called a hit) is in booting and opening apps.

[@upholdjustice372]

Can u pls launch a cybersecurity course with Kali Linux? It'll be of real help to ppl who wanna get into it! PLS!

[@ramyextra]

I'd say Kaspersky is the lightest

[@Decki777]

Average fps are nothing you must get your 1% low fps and .1% low fps closer to average fps windows defender causing micro stuttering in Many games for me like Apex legends, Fortnite, warzone etc disabling control flow guard fixed my 1% low fps and .1% low fps drops. My pc specs 7800x3d , rtx 4080 , ddr5 6800mhz 2x32 .

[@BladeRunner031]

Maybe it has RGB

[@cicada-ft6eb]

Avira is the best for gaming

[@hadeseye2297]

What's antivirus?

[@smalldeekgeorge]

Windows defender is enough! Never thought i would say that cause long time ago it would be the first thing you remove after clean install windows 😅

[@andyspark5192]

Antivirus for gamers. That's interesting. Wanna buy air in the jar?

[@xpower7125]

Norton 360 for gamers is probably more stupid than those windows versions "for gamers".

[@genuflext]

bitdefender is best for gaming

[@108kitsune]

Respect for installing Norton! Its never a good choice

[@TheHobbitmann]

??

[@lostphysicist]

It's not the 90s anymore... we have way more CPUs than any game really needs. Things can run in parallel.

[@josespk]

Kaspersky for the win.

[@imtekcs]

I have used Kaspersky since it started but got blasted for it in recent years because of the Russian Ukraine war

[@Tealc2323]

I keep going back to KIS

[@WyattOShea]

It's what I've been using for a little over a year now (was on bitdefender before it). I have no real complaints. Even if I never click on a bad link or on anything bad at all I like to have the peace of mind that there is always a line of defence there just in case.

[@rounakr94]

True.

[@EdgarasTW]

Use ESET

[@Glinckey]

ain't free? i'll pass

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Linux.

[@sturmalpha7288]

Im using 360 total security very light in resources!

[@evilleader1991]

Kaspersky is the best!

[@phantamassassin9817]

4060 is what an average gamer would have🤣🤣

[@portman8909]

Steam hardware survey shows most people are using RTX 3060 which is similar to 4060, so that statement is correct.

[@phantamassassin9817]

@@portman8909 What about the people who don't participate in surveys? low iq people everywhere

[@v1d300]

This sponsorship was just a reason for you to play games while you work, isn't it?