Antivirus with lowest CPU usage

[Deders]

I'm finding that quite a lot of people I know are still using machines with processors over 10 years old, P4's, semperons, One even has a Duron. The problem they are having is that they no longer have enough CPU power to cope with even Microsoft Security Essentials' Real time scanning, it slows down everything they do.

If they could afford to buy new machines they probably would but when all they want is browsing and occasional image editing, things the PC's can handle quite well without the Antivirus (or with much older Antivirus programs), I'd rather find a solution that suited them without them having to shell out.

Does anybody know which current antivirus programs use the least resources whilst giving decent protection?

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Avast is good at using relatively small amounts of resources.
(I say while using an ancient computer, and Avast at the same time!).

Also, the free version seems to do everything I want, with no real drawbacks (except an annual renewal requirement, but you get that with annually paid for ones anyway).

 

[Deders]

Will give that a try, although I do seem to remember changing from avast to MSE on one machine to free up resources. What CPU are you using?

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

What CPU are you using?

Good question.

AMD Phenom 9600 Quad (win7 reports 1.8 GHz), underclocked (due to fault), 4 Gb Ram, Win7 (It's still fast/good enough for a mainly web browsing computer).

In my experience, Virus checkers can be problematic (i.e. cause resource problems, such as noticeable slowdowns) when you are using single core processors and/or don't have much ram because it is a really old computer.

Therefore, although my processor is relatively slow by modern standards, its multi core (quad) and reasonable ram (4 Gb), running Windows7, may help lighten the load of the virus checker.

When I use to use a VERY old computer (it was single core AMD, approx 1 Ghz, Athlon?), with only about 512 Mb ram, winXP, it was much more badly hit by virus checkers. Probably grinding to a halt, but Avast seemed to give the old beast the best chance of usability, until the computer eventually totally packed up (probably due to mass capacitor failure or something, way too old to consider repairing).

Relatively speaking (relative to the speed, number of cores and ram size of the computer), Avast was the best one (fastest), when I last investigated virus checkers, quite some time ago.

I still use Avast {free} (on windows computers), and it still seems to run very efficiently and quickly.

 

[C1]

For years now Ive used Centurion's "Drive Shield"/"Smart Restart"

Effectively doesnt use any CPU.

It is what all the public libraries here use on the computers which the public is allowed to use on the networks.

 

[Deders]

Both good to know, thanks. I'd give you rep if I could.

 

[John Connor]

I use Avira and I don't think it uses a lot of CPU cycles. Another thing you could try is Panda cloud.

 

[mikeymikec]

+1 Avast but remove all the shields except the file shield. Same goes for sandboxing, browser plugins, etc.

Btw, MSE's real time scanning or scheduled scans? I always switch off the latter.

 

[Deders]

+1 Avast but remove all the shields except the file shield. Same goes for sandboxing, browser plugins, etc.

Btw, MSE's real time scanning or scheduled scans? I always switch off the latter.

It's generally either the realtime antimalware process or the realtime antivirus that wants to scan everything as you click on it.

Will definitely give Avast another go

 

[MontyAC]

My total avast memory usage is about 8 MB.

 

[Deders]

avast has made a significant improvement on a Semperon x64 @1600, now to try the Duron. Thanks people!

 

[Entropism]

Avast is good, F-Secure is light as can be (Running it now), Kaspersky/Bitdefender are hit or miss...

take a look at this:
http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart4&year=2013&month=5&sort=1

then compare against their "real world performance" chart and find a happy medium. Personally, I'm loving F-Secure's suite.

 

[AdityaSinha]

Hey! I am using HDFC's iOS banking app for doing my banking transactions. does anyone know the best antivirus for my iPhone that could protect my bank account with any unwanted threat.

 

[John Connor]

Look here and tell me Avast is still great.

 

[Entropism]

Again, wrong test. http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart2&year=2013&month=7&sort=1&zoom=3 is a better retrospective of "real world" situations.

 

[John Connor]

By far Bitdefender is the best. I have a free version on a computer.

 

[geekali]

See the column "PERFORMANCE" here. If you need the lowest CPU/memory usage - Webroot is a winner, however Bitdefender is the best aggregate choice.

P.S. I also use avast!, cause it's free

 

[Deders]

Avast was a winner on the Duron, I think MSE includes Bitdefender as it was listed as one of the 2 processes that was causing everything to take 3 times to load.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Avast was a winner on the Duron, I think MSE includes Bitdefender as it was listed as one of the 2 processes that was causing everything to take 3 times to load.

I switched to Bitdefender after my McAfee expired and I never looked back! Everything loads as fast as it did the day I bought the machine!!

You use the words I think...which translated means -- I really have no clue but I wish to bash bitDefender so here goes..........

 

[Deders]

I switched to Bitdefender after my McAfee expired and I never looked back! Everything loads as fast as it did the day I bought the machine!!

You use the words I think...which translated means -- I really have no clue but I wish to bash bitDefender so here goes..........

You have to bear in mind that the computer in question is over 10 years old, and that I'm thorough enough to look up the processes that were hogging the CPU. One referred to MSE, the other to Bitdefender. After uninstalling MSE and installing Avast we no longer had to wait 5 mins for a program to load. Bitdefender was never installed on the machine by itself.

I'm sure it works fine on newer processors which are far better optimised and have more modern instruction sets.

 

[mikeymikec]

Odd. Try the (presumably in existence and available to download from the bitdefender site) Bitdefender removal tool? Alternatively it could be something scammy posing as a bitdefender executable, try malwarebytes on a full scan?

 

[Deders]

Somehow I doubt it, I installed everything on there myself and up until that point he only used a dial up connection for that computer. He has a laptop for his general use.

Also there was no sign of either process after MSE was uninstalled.

 

[mikeymikec]

MSE does not install BitDefender by any stretch of the definition.

 

[Minerva]

Why use any of this useless crap at all?
Have tons of machines and never had an issue for 10+ years.
Noobs get these fakealerts, and all the people open attachments from ANYONE LOLOLOLOL!

They are also running admin accounts with wide open policies, dumb, dumb dumb!

And they never update java/flash/acrobat etc.

Just using noscript on FF eliminates 99% of the problem right there.

Stop opening attachments from IRS, UPS, etc. Really, you're going to open a zip file from ejrmc@14443.com???? :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[mikeymikec]

Minerva, if all/most issues are caused by stupid behaviour, why do you have NoScript on your machine, and why does it eliminate 99% of the problem? NoScript also requires quite a bit more education than a heck of a lot of people would be willing to invest in.

I personally haven't had any malware issues in at least ten years, but I still run AV because I would look bloody silly if I inadvertently infected a load of customers' computers with malware because of poor security on my own computer.

Malware is sometimes delivered through advertising on legitimate sites, targeting vulnerabilities in up-to-date software.

I've known quite a few customers who were silly enough to open attachments or click on phishy links in e-mails, but the situation also isn't helped by the fact that Java is installed on pretty much every PC when it leaves the factory for no good reason, or an old version of Adobe Reader, or they leave the factory without half the available Windows updates.

I think anyone would have to be pretty foolish not to run AV or indeed any easy-to-use line of defence which doesn't inconvenience the user significantly.