What is The Best Antivirus for Gaming PC?

PC gamers have quite the time playing games, as PC’s will play virtually any game, depending on how good you have equipped your PC. This is in terms of processor, the RAM, and the space available, as different games come with different requirements.

However, apart from this, you will also need a proper antivirus, based on the amount of time you spend online.

This article will look at the best antiviruses for PC.

Top Free Antivirus for Gamers – Bitdefender Total Security 2020

What makes a good antivirus for gaming is the capability of performing its purpose with little effect on performance and the memory of the PC as you play on. Many antiviruses are good for PC gaming, and Bitdefender is one of the leading antiviruses among them.

What makes the Bitdefender antivirus software stands out is the fact that it will immediately go into autopilot mode on being installed on the computer.

This means that the software will make all the security-related decisions without necessarily involving you. This will prevent any kind of bombardment with unwanted notifications, or physical intervention with the software’s settings, to a gamer as they play.

The software will be well within your control, and you will have access to the antivirus to manipulate it to your liking, after which you will leave it to work on its own as you continue gaming.

A great thing about the Bitdefender antivirus is the ability of the software to scan for any vulnerability in the PC.

It will search and asses a myriad of vulnerabilities including; out of date software, missing windows updates, to an analysis of the passwords in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, plus it makes it easy to read reports.

The Bitdefender antivirus also comes with its VPN services; coupled with parental control in the case you share your PC with underage users. It will allow you to restrict their usage while the VPN will allow you to function remotely.

How the antivirus charges for its services is unique, as you pay depending on the duration of time and the number of devices you want to accommodate under the antivirus.

What We Like

Autopilot mode safeguards without niggling
Anti-ransom
Tough protection against malware

What We Don’t Like

The price may get steep for the best features and options on the antivirus.

Read Bitdefender Antivirus detailed review.

Webroot Secure Anywhere

The initial hype around the Webroot antivirus seemed somewhat far-fetched. It existed entirely in the cloud, and was supposed to install in the computer in under 10 seconds.

The antivirus was allegedly supposed to have little to no toll on the RAM or storage, but it would still provide the same level of protection as the other leading antivirus or more.

Well, it might have seemed like a farfetched idea, but the thing about it is that it was true!

The antivirus true to its word will take only a little megabytes of space about 5MB RAM when not in use, while if it is running a scan, the task manager will show that the antivirus will only take up to 50MB of RAM.

The antivirus was also remarkable in terms of the results on the AV test, plus the fact that it will take a little less than 15% of the CPU utilization.

When it comes to the time it will spend to run a scan, the antivirus will only take a few minutes to run a 150GB of data spread across two SSD’s.

For gamers, the antivirus comes with a special version of SecureAnywhere for gamers. This version varies from the regular Webroot version as it offers a system optimizer tool.

This will help analyze your devices and operating system, which will help in detecting ay issues, wipe away traces of online activity, and completely remove deleted files.

This is important to gamers as they are online plenty of times, plus also require a lot of space in their PC’s. The antivirus will also stay quiet in the background as you play your games, and will not bother you with lag or updates.

The antivirus is cloud-based, as SecureAnywhere will work at its optimum in the presence of an internet connection.

Although the antivirus is lightweight and short on local storage requirements, it is oddly high when it comes to adjustable settings, making it even more effective and suited to its purpose.

The antivirus currently goes at $19.99 for a single device annually.

What We Like

Uses little storage and RAM
Doesn’t interrupt you while gaming
Surprisingly well flashed out

What We Don’t Like

The system optimizer is not as effective.

Read Webroot Antivirus detailed review.

McAfee Gamer Security

McAfee has been a leading antivirus for a long time since the early 2000s. If you happened to buy a PC in the early 2000s, it most probably came preloaded with a McAfee antivirus.

Currently, McAfee has developed a version best for gaming, which streamlines the process of threat and virus detection coupled with scanning, leaving you to enjoy your gaming in peace.

The antivirus will not bog down your PC performance in any way with any security-related pop-up notifications.

The McAfee gamer security can tell when your gaming. The antivirus will stop anything running in the background as you play, making your PC even more dedicated to whatever game you are playing, in terms of RAM and memory.

How the antivirus works are such that, it will make the game the priority in the system resources, and mute notifications plus anything else that would interrupt the gaming experience.

The antivirus will also protect your PC online, protecting you against threats and viruses that may harm the computer.

The antivirus does not necessarily require a lot of tweaking with the software for it to work, and an efficient installation will be enough to get it running properly.

The antivirus also has a simple enough interface, best for both beginners and experienced users.

The antivirus charges around $19.99 a month, with the option of annual pay.

What We Like About the Software

The game boosts work well
Automatically prioritize gaming

What We Don’t Like

Limited to one PC
pricing

Read McAfee Antivirus detailed review.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Kaspersky antivirus is another amazing gaming antivirus. The best advice for this antivirus would be to pay the $10 upcharge to get your hands on most of the features of the antivirus. The total package comes with more features, a more fleshed out package best for PC gamers.

The antivirus will also come with the capability for a file shredder, which will overwrite deleted files, making them harder to restore. The antivirus will also come with an encrypted folder, which will help in privatizing sensitive files from curious eyes.

Kaspersky will also come with password syncing capabilities, PC cleaning tools, among other features.

The consistency associated with Kaspersky is also admirable, plus the performance on the AV-TEST is commendable in both the malware identification and blocking, with a reduced impact on system performance.

The Kaspersky default settings are also quite adequate for your PC and will not need a lot of tweaking for you to use them. However, if you are interested in changing some of the settings to a preferred way, then the antivirus comes with plenty of options through menu and sub-menus.

A good example is a capability for changing file scanning options, security levels, and also going for advanced options, which will have even more options.

The antivirus will charge you $23.99 to cover three PC’s for a year and save $30.

What We Like

Comes with handy utilities
Additional subscription for multiple PC’s

What We Don’t Like

PUP protection could be better

Avira Free Antivirus for Windows

Top tier antiviruses are subject to preference and choice, and you will find that most people will argue over the smaller details of an antivirus, among the top best antiviruses. Some people may prefer the easier interfaces while others prefer the more complicated.

Others may be more into the huge number of features, while others prefer the smaller number of features.

Most gaming based antiviruses will play their part when it comes to threat security and decreased RAM and processor usage, while still running in the background, with minimum interference with the user while they are gaming.

When it comes to Avira antivirus however, what makes it stand out is the free plan it comes with.

Avira also comes with a high level of customization, allowing the user to easily make preferred changes to the antivirus through menus and the knobs and dials that come with the antivirus.

The Avira antivirus also comes with a search for rootkit option, which is best activated, and although it may increase the scanning time, it will help based on the level of reach these toolkits may get into your OS.

The Avira antivirus also comes with options for configuration on how aggressive the scans can be on zero-day threats based on heuristic analysis. The option comes set on medium; however, you can tweak this based on your liking.

If you decide to crank it up to high, then Avira will be at a cautious state but will have an increased risk of reporting false positives. If you decide to put the level on low, it will have the opposite effect such that you can turn off the heuristic analysis altogether.

Another factor that makes Avira standout is its level of results based on AV-TESTING, which ranks it one of the best. Although the scan engine may not be as fast as you’d want, you can rest assured you will be effectively protected.

The Avira antivirus free version does not come with a game mode, and although the site does not cost you any money, you will pay for it through ads. The antivirus will not, however, nag you with ads or pop-ups as you play, and will pause any system scans as you game.

What We Like

It’s free
Customizable firewall
Reliable

What We Don’t Like

Has many ads

Read Avira Antivirus detailed review.

BullGuard

If you are looking for a gaming antivirus, which will optimize performance with little impact to the PC system, then BullGuard stands out as one of the best in this class.

The antivirus comes with a game booster capability, which will allocate more processing to increase the overall speed for the PC, making it outperform its competitors in the form of graphics and framerate testing.

Optimization of the memory usage for the PC plus the rerouting of background apps enables the PC to allocate more memory to the PC for your gaming needs.

The BullGuard antivirus will also allow you to create a gaming custom profile, which will come in handy in automatically adjusting settings dependent on which game is getting plaid.

You also have the option of scheduling updates, specifying folders to scan, and customizing the firewall to keep certain ports open. The BullGuard antivirus also comes with some set profiles for the more popular games, and it will provide updates alongside major releases.

Another great thing with the antivirus is the capability for improving user experience, based on the positive customer reviews over the years as it also comes with 24-hour technical support staff.

On the bottom line, if you are looking for a high performing antivirus, then the antivirus will come in handy.

What We Like

Extensive malware protection
Identity theft protection
A high-quality VPN
Customizable family settings

Read BullGuard Antivirus detailed review.

Panda

If you are concerned about your kids playing their games online, then Panda premium has been curated for you. The antivirus will offer you the options for monitoring the time spent on the PC; it will also limit the usage of apps depending on your preference and choice.

You will also get notified in case of any dangerous activity online, that may pose a threat to your young ones or the PC.

The antivirus also comes with the capability to track your children’s location. This is done through the antivirus’s capability for running across different platforms, allowing you to keep track of the child as they play their video game.

A great example can be tracking your child as they play their Pokémon go, and finding out where the adventure next takes them.

Panda also comes with a wide variety of products to choose from, each with different prices plus flexible means of payment. Included in the package is a pay as you go option, which will allow you to access the antivirus even when on a budget.

This means that you get to pay for the service as they occur rather than for future usage.

Panda’s multimedia mode will also be activated whenever you enter the full-screen mode. The antivirus, apart from being quite decent when on its default mode, it also comes with the option for fine-tuning the firewall settings, background scanning, and update options.

The panda antivirus also comes with the panda dome option, which apart from having an attractive user interfaces; it is also a peak performing feature that will help in threat protection as you game.

The antivirus also comes with a real-time antivirus scanning. As the antivirus is cloud-based, the effectiveness in terms of real-time protection is quite impressive, as it does not slow down, plus it will scan every malware and effectively react to it.

One of the main downsides of the app is the fact that for lower-paying plans, the antivirus will not offer the same family protections as the higher-tier plans.

Read Panda Antivirus detailed review.

Symantec Norton 360

This antivirus comes with one of the smallest framerate drains among its competitors. The antivirus is also a fast performer, an improvement based on their previous versions, which were much slower.

The antivirus will also help reduce the CPU load automatically whenever you are gaming. This will be made possible through the antivirus self-activating either of the two performance modes: the quiet and silent mode.

The quiet mode will be triggered in programs that are accustomed to high CPU load. On the other hand, silent mode triggered is an application that uses the full-screen mode. For these modes, the antivirus will come with plenty of options for you to tweak them to your liking.

The antivirus also comes with quite an impressive parental control system. It will offer you the options for usage monitoring, setting limits, flagging sensitive content to prevent it from being viewed by the kids.

When it comes to malware protection, the antivirus is quite effective, having one of the most effective malware protection, based on the tests done on the antivirus it flagged down 100% of the malware introduced to it.

Norton comes with many great features, which are all easy to use due to the way the interface is laid out. Based on Norton’s performance graph, the antivirus will let you see how the computer is running and will give you the best and easiest way to use the antivirus.

The only downside with the Symantec Norton antivirus is that it does not come with a game booster; however, it will work efficiently even without it.

Best Antivirus for Gaming PC-Avast

This is one of the more popular choices of antivirus for gaming.

The antivirus comes with both the free and paid versions, which both run on the save antivirus engines allowing users to experience the same level of protection for both free and paid users, and from the same system, guaranteeing the same quality of service.

The paid package of the antivirus comes with added features such as the sandbox feature, protection from the webcam spying, plus it will also have the file shredder.

The Avast antivirus also comes with a gaming mode which is optimized in such a way that it will work with any of the games you are playing, and offer effective protection against any threats online.

The antivirus will also offer you zero interruptions during gameplay, with zero disruptions through notifications or any unexpected updates.

The antivirus also comes with the option for preventing even windows notifications and pause system updates as you game.

The antivirus also comes with the option for launching the game automatically, however, if it fails, you can turn on the game mode manually

What We Like

Game mode will suspend some features and updates to free up resources
You can also suspend windows notifications while playing
Competitive protection capabilities

What We Don’t Like

The free package has no firewall.

Read Avast Antivirus detailed review.

F-Secure SAFE

Apart from the URL filtering, ransomware, banking, and parental control protection that this antivirus comes with, it is also a great gaming antivirus. The antivirus is compatible across all devices and it will handle PC gaming quite efficiently.

The antivirus will come with a family rules section, which will allow you to exercise a certain level of control on the online activity of the younger ones.

The antivirus will also run on older lower power machines for gaming, coming with anti-malware tools, phishing protection, URL blocking, and vulnerability scans.

F-secure also come with different ranges of prices, dependent on the feature you want on the antivirus. For three devices, the app will charge you $70 per year; for five devices, you will be charged $90, while covering seven devices, you will get charged$110.

The antivirus offers banking protection, which helps prevent any kind of economic hacks to your account. However, you have to activate this feature manually.

The antivirus comes with an easy to use interface plus it is also quite attractive to look at.

Above all, the antivirus is quite amazing and it will go well with your PC gaming, plus your gaming laptop.

ESET NOD 32

This is one of the antiviruses with the best false positives ranks and rates as the top on performance charts. The antivirus will provide effective personal firewall and spam filter shield to your Windows 10 PC gaming.

What We Like

Very good scores on independent testing sites
Good scores in our hand-on tests
HIPS component block exploits
It comes with a UEFI scanner for malware in firmware

What We Don’t Like

Device control may be considered a bit complex.

Read Eset Antivirus detailed review.

Conclusion

Gaming has the potential to get your PC in harm’s way based on the amount of time spent online. You will need an antivirus that is up to the task when it comes to online malware and threats. For PC space, RAM and processor will be essential I running the game smoothly.

For this to happen, you will need an antivirus that will let the processor allocate more towards gaming rather than threat and virus detection. The list above provides you with some of the best options for such antiviruses, however, you can still scour the net to find some more.