Microsoft Security Essentials long held the title as the most lightweight antivirus option, but with its plummeting ability to protect your system from threats, plenty of challengers have returned to the fore. So which one offers the best balance of safety and speed? The scores are in.
Antivirus test site AV-Comparatives has released the results of its latest benchmarks, comparing the performance of 20 AV programs, including free favourites Avast, AVG and Avira, along with stalwarts F-Secure and Kaspersky.
Using a modestly-equipped PC (Intel i5-4210U, 4GB RAM and SATA II drives), the speed of file-copying, archiving, installing and launching apps and downloading were tested, as well as a run through PC Mark 8 Professional to gauge general system responsiveness.
Here are the ratings, in number and graph form:
Image: AV-Comparatives
So if you’re running Avast, good for you! ThreatTrack on the other hand… you might want to consider your options.
[AV-Comparatives, via Betanews]
Image: Dennis Skley / Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0