AV-Comparatives - Performance Test April 2024

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Introduction

The Performance Test evaluates the impact of anti-virus software on system performance, as programs running in background – such as real time protection antivirus software – use some percentage of system resources. Taking these tests as reference, users can evaluate their anti-virus protection in terms of system speed (system performance). For further details please refer to the methodology documents as well as the information provided on our website. We want to make clear that the results in this report are intended only to give an indication of the impact on system performance (mainly by the real-time/on-access components) of the consumer security products in these specific tests. Users are encouraged to try out the software on their own PC’s and see how it performs on their own systems.

Tested Products

The following products were evaluated in this test:

• Avast Free Antivirus 24.3
  
• AVG Internet Security 24.3
  
• Avira Free Security 1.1
  
• Bitdefender Total Security 27.0
  
• ESET HOME Security Essential 17.1
  
• F-Secure Internet Security 19.3
  
• G Data Total Security 25.5
  
• Kaspersky Standard 21.16
  
• McAfee Total Protection 1.16
  
• Microsoft Defender 4.18
  
• Norton Antivirus Plus 22.24
  
• Panda Free Antivirus 22.0
  
• Quick Heal Internet Security 24.0
  
• Total Defense Essential Anti-Virus 14.0
  
• TotalAV Antivirus Pro 5.24
  
• Trend Micro Internet Security 17.8
  

This test includes both “Antivirus” and “Internet Security” consumer products – both referred to as security products. We have tested the same products that are included in the protection tests of the Consumer Main Test Series. Please note that the results in this report apply only to the specific product versions listed above (i.e. to the exact version numbers and to 64-bit systems). Also, keep in mind that different vendors offer different (and differing numbers of) features in their products.

The following activities/tests were performed under an up-to-date Windows 10 64-Bit system:

• File copying
  
• Archiving / unarchiving
  
• Installing / uninstalling applications
  
• Launching applications
  
• Downloading files
  
• Browsing Websites
  
• UL Procyon® Benchmark-Suite
  

Test Procedure

The tests were performed on a machine with an Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM and SSD system drives. We consider this machine configuration as “low-end”.

The performance tests were done on a clean Windows 10 64-Bit system (English) and then with the installed consumer security software (with default settings).

The tests were done with an active Internet connection to allow for the real-world impact of cloud services/features.

Care was taken to minimize other factors that could influence the measurements and/or comparability of the systems. Optimizing processes/fingerprinting used by the products were also considered – this means that the results represent the impact on a system which has already been operated by the user for a while. The tests were repeated several times (with and without fingerprinting) in order to get median values and filter out measurement errors. After each run, the workstation was reverted to the previously created system image and rebooted six times. We simulated various file operations that a computer user would execute: copying different types of clean files from one place to another, archiving and unarchiving files, downloading files from the Internet and launching applications (opening documents). We believe that increasing the number of iterations increases our statistical precision. This is especially true for performance testing, as some noise is always present on real machines. We perform each test multiple times and provide the median as result.

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Full Report