Best freeware anti-virus for gaming PC?

[martinlest]

Hi. My PC runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The CPU is an i7-4790K and there's 16GBs of RAM installed.

I have always used MS Security Essentials, but am looking to do better. I see that MSE's MsMpEng.exe is using about 270MBs of RAM in the background - hardly an issue with 16GBs available I suppose, but a lot more than other programmes I have seen benchmarked; in addition to its poor virus detection record, it seems a bit heavy on CPU use too (?).

This PC runs MS Flight Simulator and not much else, Windows apart. MSFS is famous/infamous for being CPU dependent, so I am looking for an anti-virus programme that is light on CPU when it is running in the background - needless to say, I don't run scans when I have Flight Simulator open!

Any recommendations? After lots of Googling and watching comparisons on YouTube, I have come to either Avast or Avira. But as is so often the case, whereas one person swears by one, and at the other, someone else will have the opposite opinion. (AVG did not do well anywhere compared to these two)

With CPU usage and MSFS in mind, does anyone have any thoughts, or even better, practical experience? (I use a registered version of Process Lasso BTW, too).

Thanks!

 

[martinlest]

I tried Avira. It lasted 30 minutes before I uninstalled it... It removed my desktop gadgets and insisted certain programmes were spyware and wanted to quarantine them. I checked the 'Always Ignore' option for those programmes, but every reboot Avira wanted to remove them. Way too intrusive and uncontrollable. For now I am back with MSE!

 

[RoasterMen]

Avast is good, it doesn't use more than 128mb of your RAM. I've been using it for 5 years and has never failed me since!

 

[martinlest]

Thanks. Well, maybe, after I get over the annoyance of what just happened with Avira, I may give it a try!

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

Another perspective...

MSE is probably as good as any other free AV, though it has both fans and detractors.
Having said that, many of the "free" AVs come with a "hidden" cost, in terms of marketing popups, intrusive toolbars, reduced features/configuration options, and/or reduced support, etc.

Moreover, the cost for a robust, paid AV typically works out to pennies a day (or less). That is probably no more expensive than the cost of a game and is likely far cheaper than the cost of time, effort and lost productivity expended to recover from a malware catastrophe, data breach, identity theft or other mishap.

Having said that, Sophos currently offers a new, free AV for home use.
I have not evaluated it, so this is mentioned "as is".
More info here and here.

Cheers,
MM

 

[martinlest]

Yes, I think I'm going to stick with the devil I know for now!

 

[ThrashZone]

Panda free for me
And yes you can uncheck the panda news stuff easily in settings
MSE is bottom of the barrel.
And no you don't have to associate an email account just click later...

 

[whs]

I would also say try Panda. That has a good reputation.

I use none of those programs because I do my internet work with Linux. That is a bit safer.

 

[Golden]

I use none of those programs because I do my internet work with Linux. That is a bit safer.

Except when the whole installation ISO, and thus OS, is shot to hell...

 

[ThrashZone]

I use none of those programs because I do my internet work with Linux. That is a bit safer.

Except when the whole installation ISO, and thus OS, is shot to hell...

How does that actually happen in a virtual machine/ VMWare exactly ?

 

[whs]

I use none of those programs because I do my internet work with Linux. That is a bit safer.

Except when the whole installation ISO, and thus OS, is shot to hell...

Yeah, that was an unfortunate incident at the server. But I use older Linux copies that I have had since quite some while.

 

[Golden]

Same as with a native installation...you use the same ISO, so you have the same exposure.