Consumer Performance Test October 2021
As part of its ongoing Consumer Main-Test Series, AV-Comparatives has released the results of its October 2021 Performance Test for consumer security solutions. 17 popular anti-malware programs were evaluated to assess their speed impact.
AV-Comparatives releases results of Autumn 2021 Speed-Impact Test for Consumer Antivirus Products
The Performance Test looks at the speed impact of each of the tested products in everyday usage situations. These include copying, archiving and unarchiving files, installing and launching applications, downloading files, and browsing websites. AV-Comparatives note that this test does not look at the protection abilities of the products tested; these are covered by the lab’s protection tests, such as the Real-World Protection and Malware-Protection Tests.
The Performance Test was run on a clean Windows 10 21H1 64-Bit system (English), initially with no antivirus software running, and then with the respective consumer security software installed (with default settings). An active Internet connection was provided, to allow for the real-world impact of cloud services/features. The tests were performed on a machine with an Intel Core-i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM and solid-state system drives (SSDs). This machine configuration is defined by AV-Comparatives as “high end”, in contrast to the “low end” system used for their April 2021 Performance Test.
The products tested by AV-Comparatives were Avast Free Antivirus, AVG Free Antivirus, Avira Antivirus Pro, Bitdefender Internet Security, ESET Internet Security, G Data Total Security, K7 Total Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, Malwarebytes Premium, McAfee Total Protection, Microsoft Defender Antivirus, NortonLifeLock Norton 360, Panda Free Antivirus, Total AV Total Security, Total Defense Essential Antivirus, Trend Micro Internet Security, and VIPRE Advanced Security.
A total of 13 products reached the highest award level, ADVANCED+, in the Performance Test. These were (in alphabetical order): Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, Panda, Total AV, and VIPRE. These all had a low impact on system performance (speed).
Like all of AV-Comparatives’ public test reports, this Performance Test report can be read or downloaded free of charge, and without registration, from the lab’s website: https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/performance-test-october-2021/
