Antivirus - gaming question

[Demo24]

I use Kaspersky on all my comps and it has gotten significantly better with notifications, improper detections, etc. It has a gaming profile and I assume it works. Eitherway with it only using a few mb I hardly see any need to shut it off. Not going to see any performance increase with 4gb of ram, and now with 12gb I effectively don't close anything that isn't using significant cpu cycles. Any modern cpu is going to be more than powerful enough to dedicate a couple of cycles to the AV every so often to offer no performance hit. Long as you aren't running a scan, won't be noticeable.

 

[carnage10]

I used to disable AV and close all internet browser tabs and running apps before gaming back when i was on a dual core e7500 @ 4ghz for maximum performance. Now that im running a quad core i2500k @ 4.4ghz with 8gb of ram there's no need.

Just get an AV that is known to have a small footprint like Avira. I remember Norton used to be quite the resource hog, not sure if that's still the case, haven't used them for years.

 

[Chiropteran]

This is awful advice to follow.

Being careful with what you do is not mutually exclusive to having an AV program installed.

I don't agree. I've seen far more virus infested machines with A/V installed than I have seen without. Proper usage, installation of updates, etc is far more important than running A/V software. A/V can create a false sense of security, while the reality is most new infections go undetected by A/V software. A/V can only protect you from something after it's already infected other users and the A/V company has had a chance to study and add it's signature to the scanner.

 

[Veliko]

I don't agree. I've seen far more virus infested machines with A/V installed than I have seen without. Proper usage, installation of updates, etc is far more important than running A/V software. A/V can create a false sense of security, while the reality is most new infections go undetected by A/V software. A/V can only protect you from something after it's already infected other users and the A/V company has had a chance to study and add it's signature to the scanner.

You don't agree with what, exactly?

You think that everything else being equal, a person is safer if they don't have an AV installed?

 

[Chiropteran]

You don't agree with what, exactly?

You think that everything else being equal, a person is safer if they don't have an AV installed?

"A better method is to just not be stupid about what you download and where you troll on the internet. Also keeping you security updates up to date is a good plan as well. Using these steps I haven't gotten a virus on my main machine in years."

Was original post.

"This is awful advice to follow."
your post.

I don't agree with your post. I think it's some great advice. Saying "all things being equal" is a good way to win an argument when things are NEVER equal. The person with A/V install tends to be more reckless, downloading stuff he/she shouldn't, just because the person thinks "it's fine, my A/V will catch it if it's bad".

I feel that installing A/V software in the absence of other good computer practices is a more harmful than not installing it and following those safe practices. That said, MSE offers good protection with minimal system drain, so I use it myself and suggests others install it. But I always make sure the person understands that the most important thing is to keep the computer fully updated and never download and run crap unless you know that it is coming from a legit source.

 

[thilanliyan]

I found that AVG is screwing with me playing Portal 2. it would actually freeze Portal ingame and I would have to ctrl-alt-del and stop the portal2.exe process. I actually had to uninstall AVG to be able to play the game...disabling it didn't have an effect.

This is the first time I have had this kind of problem. I was using Avira before.

 

[Nintendesert]

Of course the user is always the weakest point in any security system from a man standing post and falling asleep to someone opening every damn email attachment someone sends them.

The problem with not running an antivirus program today is there is NO reason at all not to. Not one. It's not the late 90's anymore and an AV program crippled a computer. We saw someone already post it, that an AV program is more a virus than a virus. That's some outdated dangerous thinking.

Good computing practices and an AV are far better than just good computing practices.

Like I stated earlier, good computing practices only go so far when reputable sites have their ads compromised and people infected. Look at what happened to Gawker. You can't and shouldn't rely on websites to protect you for you.

 

[Nintendesert]

I found that AVG is screwing with me playing Portal 2. it would actually freeze Portal ingame and I would have to ctrl-alt-del and stop the portal2.exe process. I actually had to uninstall AVG to be able to play the game...disabling it didn't have an effect.

This is the first time I have had this kind of problem. I was using Avira before.

AVG is trash and unfortunately has been for years. I used to use it, but Avira was better and I now use MSE. Install MSE and never worry about it again.

 

[Chiropteran]

We saw someone already post it, that an AV program is more a virus than a virus. That's some outdated dangerous thinking.

Uh, it's still true. While there are some good options like MSE that don't have that problem, there are certainly still antivirus software out there that are a terrible drain on resources and slow a computer tremendously. Also, certain A/V programs react very poorly to the presence of other A/V software, such that installing a second program slows the computer to literally unusable state at all times. In many way these symptoms are worse than a virus.

IMO, it's incredibly dangerous thinking to just tell a guy to just "install A/V". He could already have some installed from his computer OEM and not even know it, given the way windows 7 hides systray icons. Or he could choose a poor brand of A/V and slow his computer down more than the virus would. Or he may do everything right, even install MSE, but continue to have problems with spyware and viruses simply because he doesn't keep his definitions and windows updates up to date.

 

[Nintendesert]

Good security is a multilayered approach to mitigating threat. Nobody here is advocating to just install AV and do whatever you want. But instead to install a good one like Avira or MSE and forget about the AV layer because it doesn't take any babysitting beyond that.

You can then focus on other ways to improve security that includes better computing practices and keeping the system updated.

You can have it all, it's not one or the other.

 

[Shmee]

I use MSE, but I have to turn realtime protection off when playing ETQW b/c it interferes with punkbuster and I will get kicked.

 

[Veliko]

"A better method is to just not be stupid about what you download and where you troll on the internet. Also keeping you security updates up to date is a good plan as well. Using these steps I haven't gotten a virus on my main machine in years."

Was original post.

"This is awful advice to follow."
your post.

I don't agree with your post. I think it's some great advice. Saying "all things being equal" is a good way to win an argument when things are NEVER equal. The person with A/V install tends to be more reckless, downloading stuff he/she shouldn't, just because the person thinks "it's fine, my A/V will catch it if it's bad".

What fictional person are you referring to here? I have never, EVER encountered anyone like that. If such a person did actually exist they would get viruses no matter what you did because they would think that their automatic Windows Updates/firewall/router/Ccleaner will protect them.

I feel that installing A/V software in the absence of other good computer practices is a more harmful than not installing it and following those safe practices. That said, MSE offers good protection with minimal system drain, so I use it myself and suggests others install it. But I always make sure the person understands that the most important thing is to keep the computer fully updated and never download and run crap unless you know that it is coming from a legit source.

No matter what scenario you are talking about, installing a decent AV is better than having no AV. There are no downsides to it unless that person is running a 486.

 

[Throckmorton]

Right, because the ads of reputable sites have never been hijacked or had malicious content slipped into them. Good luck with that.

Easier and safer solution is to install Microsoft Security Essentials and forget about it. It's free, it works and you won't notice it.

MSSE isn't that effective. It's allowed a couple viruses on my PC and on my coworker's computer it allowed malicious browser plugins. I googled and found some comparisons, and it turns out it's pretty much the worst AV.

 

[Iron Wolf]

MSSE isn't that effective. It's allowed a couple viruses on my PC and on my coworker's computer it allowed malicious browser plugins. I googled and found some comparisons, and it turns out it's pretty much the worst AV.

If you read the reviews, probably McAfee is the worst. A lot of people like MSE and feel like it does a good job for them. See MaxPC for a good yearly review of the latest AV software.

I use NIS, which unfortunately still has a bad rap from when it was bloated and hoggish a few years ago. I guess I just feel more secure with a paid product (although, I never pay for it anymore - there are always the upgrade rebates when the new product is released every year).

I am not a careful surfer, by any means, and the software has come up with alerts, both blocking trojans from my computer, and blocking me from known phishing web sites. It also works with google to let me know if a web site is "safe" (i.e., on the Norton trusted list), so I feel a little more secure. It automatically updates ("pulse updates"), and doesn't interfere at all with any software I run, including when I am online, like with WoW.

It seems like I read somewhere that an unprotected computer is compromised within 8 minutes of connecting to the Internet. Maybe as long as you have a good firewall (and the Norton one is supposed to be bulletproof, one of the best), you don't need an AV, but from personal experience, I wouldn't surf without it.

There are glitches though. Norton hiccuped and saw the D3 beta launcher as exhibiting suspicious behavior, and deleted it. And the older version of the Endpoint software they use at work let one of those scam "you have a virus" things through, which sucked, because it would shut off the AV, which would then restart, ad infinitum, making it impossible to use the computer, and the admin had to fix it.

 

[JellyBaby]

BitDefender has a "game mode" where it downshifts into low gear when you play a game, kinda slick. It gets high scores on virus detection and removal tests, usually right up at the top.