Avira Antivirus Pro had the least impact on computer performance of all 14 security products tested. The independent test had researchers doing a series of everyday activities with a laptop and measuring its performance – with and without a security solution in place.
Security apps were scored from “Mediocre” to “Very fast” for how they went through the individual activities of file copying, archiving, installing apps, launching apps, and downloading files – and these were scores added up. Computer performance was measured with the PC Mark 8 performance testing suite with each AV rated for its variance from the baseline of 100 for an unprotected computer.
Avira was uniformly rated “Very fast” on each of the seven day-to-day tasks– even for the first-time launching of documents and PDF files – and earned the highest possible score from researchers.
With a separate PC Mark score of 99.8, Avira had the least measurable impact on system performance of any of the tested security products.
Avira also had the lowest Impact Score – a combination of individual activity ratings with the PC Mark score – of all 14 tested security solutions, coming in at 0.2.
Security products have long had a negative reputation for their impact on computer performance – with reason. Security products run deep in the system and are one of the first programs running during system startup. People notice when they work – and when they don’t.
The annoyance factor from protected – but slowed – computer is substantial. Last year, AV Comparatives surveyed computer users and found that 38.5% said that their security product had protected them successfully from malware within the previous week. But, a huge 64% also said that low impact on system performance was the most important characteristic of a security product.
As AV Comparatives pointed out in their report: “It is important not only that anti-virus software provide high detection rates and good protection against malware, but also that it does not degrade system performance or trouble users.”
