Summary
Highlights
Using a gaming antivirus is crucial for protecting your PC without slowing down its resources. While it's ideal not to have background processes during gaming, turning off antivirus leaves your device vulnerable. This video introduces three antivirus providers — Bitdefender, Total AV, and Norton 360 — which are light on CPU and GPU usage, ensuring they won't affect your gaming experience. They also offer cleanup tools to remove junk files.
Bitdefender is highlighted for its customizable gaming mode, which automatically recognizes when you start gaming and restricts scans, updates, and notifications. Its one-click Optimizer tool helps clean up junk files, improving system performance. Bitdefender uses a cloud-based engine to prevent slowdowns and has received the AV-TEST Product of the Year award multiple times, detecting 100% of malware threats in recent tests. It scored high in protection, performance, and usability. The premium packages, which include the performance optimizer tool, are recommended for gamers and come with additional features like parental control, anti-theft tools, and a VPN. A discount link is provided in the description.
Total AV is praised for its lightweight CPU usage and a special tool to optimize CPU performance. Although it lacks a dedicated gaming mode like Bitdefender, its system cleanup feature efficiently clears junk files. This tool can scan everything or target specific categories like duplicate files, uninstalling apps, or browser data. Total AV's real-time protection monitors the device 24/7, including scanning gaming apps. Independent tests show Total AV scored well in usability, performance, and protection, detecting over 95% of zero-day malware attacks and 97% of four-week ones. It's an affordable provider with cleaning tools included in all plans, with higher tiers offering a safe browsing VPN and a password vault, along with coverage for multiple devices.
Norton 360, particularly its 'Norton for Gamers' feature, is designed to enhance gaming. It optimizes game power by turning off unnecessary background processes and ensures low CPU usage for enhanced performance. Real-time protection keeps the device safe, and customizable notifications prevent interruptions during gameplay. Norton's security suite is impressive, detecting 100% of zero-day malware in independent tests and scoring high in protection, usability, and performance. While slightly more expensive than Bitdefender, middle-tiered plans offer valuable features like a VPN, privacy monitor, and dark web monitoring. The gamer tag monitoring feature is especially useful, alerting users if their username is exposed on the dark web, adding an extra layer of protection for gamers.
Choosing the right gaming antivirus is essential to prevent PC slowdowns and enhance your gaming experience. The reviewed providers — Bitdefender, Total AV, and Norton 360 — offer robust security, system optimization, and gaming-specific features to meet these needs. By choosing a reputable provider with tune-up and optimization tools, gamers can maintain high performance while staying protected. Discount links and further content are available for those interested.