Do AV REALLY Slow Down Your Computer?

StreamingGames

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Aug 30, 2015
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Does Kaspersky or Avira slow down the system at all? I was reading some reviews where people said that it drastically slowed their computer down to the point where they had to uninstall them. As well as one review who said he called Kaspersky customer support and they kept pushing him to buy another of their products to speed his computer back up after it being slowed down by their product. Can anyone who has had one or both confirm or deny this? Thanks!
 

N3rdR4ge

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Jun 16, 2014
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i have kaspersky. my system is lightening fast. i've used it for 6+ years. there are a lot of very uneducated people out there when it comes to computers. the guy complaining about kaspersky was probably one of them. he most likely did need to clean his machine. putting a anti virus on an already messed up system wont fix it. perhaps he didnt have enough ram as well.
 

wildfire707

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Dec 29, 2011
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I am currently using Avira (and have used many different brands in the past).

Most of this depends on the computer that the antivirus software is being run on, what the computer is being used for, and how much left over resources that the system has.

On my system, Avira uses about 48 megabytes of memory and runs a complete system scan once a week at 2am. The scan takes about 12 minutes to read my two SSDs and check 700 gigabytes of files. When I launch an application, it also does a scan of the file and any library files that are loaded.

My computer is fast, though, and I only run SSD drives. On my slowest laptop computer (Intel i3 CPU, 5400 rpm disk), with a normal hard drive, launching a normal application takes about 15% longer. It all seems to be basically fine.

Two of my sisters have had problems with computer speed when running antivirus programs, but that was using eight year old computers with almost no free disk space with torrent systems running on them :)

As N3rdR4ge said, putting antivirus on an already messed up computer won't fix it...
 
D

Deleted member 217926

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I haven't noticed a slowdown from really any background programs since I moved to SSDs as my primary drives. So 2010. If you have a reasonably fast, modern system you will not have any issues but, a traditional hard drive is the largest bottleneck in any modern system and running a scan along with other stuff at the same time may slow you down. If you have an SSD you will never notice it run. I use Avira, the free version and have for years along with Malwarebytes Pro.
 

PsyKhiqZero

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Lol, i actually quit using kaspersky because i felt it was too fast. Almost like it actually wasn't doing anything. Of course this was my personal paranoia.

The point being. Most AV have trails you can use to evaluate yourself. Kaspersky def won't slow down your system.
 

rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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My home PC and Tablet both run SSDs and the impact of AV programs is minimal. I have however over the last couple of years used computers in three different workplaces that have been completely brought to their needs by AV scans during business hours.

The scan generates a lot of disk activity. An SSD eats those workloads for breakfast and can keep servicing the system just fine. BUT, if you have a HDD, AND you're trying to do IO intensive tasks AT THE SAME TIME as an AV scan is running... expect your system to completely bog down.

My issues were both on PCs with 4GB of RAM and I had multiple programs open. Basically I'd run out of RAM and was relying on the HDD page file. You try using a computer that's trying to access data on a HDD page file at the same time as that HDD is getting slammed by an AV scan... it was easily 1 minute to open a word file. 20 seconds to open the start menu. It was a work computer and I had no admin access to stop the scan, so in the end I just took my lunch break each day when the AV scan started because my computer was completely unusable during that time.

If you have enough RAM, an SSD, or admin access to stops scans running at inopportune times, you'll be fine. But trust me when I say there are scenarios where AV scans can make you want to throw your computer out the window!
 

N3rdR4ge

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Jun 16, 2014
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SSD. No question.

any programs that load with your machine should be put on ssd. loading everything on hdd is pointless. put large games on hdd.
 

Greg Gregorich

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Feb 13, 2014
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it depends what OS system is on your pc .XP,W7,W8 etc....

 

StreamingGames

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Aug 30, 2015
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Mod edit: keep it clean please.......So I hit download and it automatically downloaded it to my HD without giving me any options.. is there a way to move it to my SSD????

And Im using Windows 7
 

rhysiam

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It's where you install it that counts, not where you download it to. When you install it should be default go to the C:\Program Files\xxx folder - which is probably on your SSD (assuming C Drive is your SSD). So that's fine to let it install there.
 

N3rdR4ge

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Jun 16, 2014
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just uninstall it and reinstall it if thats what you mean. no problem. doesnt matter where the file downloaded.
 

Sahaj Pal

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May 15, 2013
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When I was on Windows 7, I was using Microsoft's Security Essentials. After moving to 8.1, I have been using Windows Defender which is one and the same thing as Security Essentials. No complaints, my system runs awesome. Earlier I used Avast, and let me tell you something - it is the crappiest antivirus I have ever seen in my life.