Does running norto use much CPU power?

Barso

Barso

Barso

Associate
Joined
27 May 2009
Posts
278
I have norton anti virus running in the background.
Does running this use much CPU and memory power?
Is it better to disable norton when running games?
I am running i7920 with GTX295.
 
Norton is famous as a resource hog. I hear the newest version is slightly better though.

Assuming you have adequate RAM with that system you will probably be ok and wouldnt notice a huge difference in performance. But it depends what version of Norton.
 
with an i7 920 norton shouldnt cost much CPU power to be honest, it should just sit running happily in the background.

i know on older PC's of mine, norton was a complete cpu hog, so i uninstalled it and use either AVG Free, or pay £10 or so and get yourself a copy of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
 
I have norton 360 running, uses 2% more ram on average and maybe a couple % on one of my cores sometimes... really not worth careing about. Is it the best product... i dont know but i got mine free
 
Personally I wouldn't touch norton with a barge pole. I would recommend Nod32 or Kaspersky. They're much better at picking up viruses and both are much less of resource hog
 
oggmonster said:
Personally I wouldn't touch norton with a barge pole. I would recommend Nod32 or Kaspersky. They're much better at picking up viruses and both are much less of resource hog
Click to expand...

I agree it really hooks into your system and there are better free alternatives out there. I personally recommend comodo firewall / antivirus which is free, and also spybot / adaware if you're worried about spyware. CCleaner is another good util for keeping clutter off the HD.
 
oggmonster said:
Personally I wouldn't touch norton with a barge pole. I would recommend Nod32 or Kaspersky. They're much better at picking up viruses and both are much less of resource hog
Click to expand...

I'm not disagreeing with you but could you point me in the direction of some research into the better free virus scanners around?
 
Used to be crap, Norton 360 v3 has picked up the game.

Whether that's because they've improved the program, or just because hardware has finally caught up with it's resource demands, is debateable - either way a decent dual/tri/quad setup with a nice amount of RAM (ie, you) won't complain.
 
RickSri said:
I'm not disagreeing with you but could you point me in the direction of some research into the better free virus scanners around?
Click to expand...

Go into any IT department in any company in the world, and ask the techs what they use at home.

Anyone who answers with a Norton product is either a fresh MCSE or the cleaner, getting ideas above their station.

Norton AV products are utter, utter crap. Get Free-AV if you want something good and free [as recommended to me by a chap who did the security for the GHCQ donut, Grangemouth B, and variosu other seriously-top-level security jobs], Kaspersky if you feel the need to pay, or if you are in a pinch, AVG won't kill you.
 
StevenRaith said:
Norton AV products are utter, utter crap. Get Free-AV if you want something good and free [as recommended to me by a chap who did the security for the GHCQ donut, Grangemouth B, and variosu other seriously-top-level security jobs], Kaspersky if you feel the need to pay, or if you are in a pinch, AVG won't kill you.
Click to expand...

A bit harsh. The newer versions of Norton (Symantec) aren't that bad. Old ones could be horrendous though!
 
Smit said:
A bit harsh. The newer versions of Norton (Symantec) aren't that bad. Old ones could be horrendous though!
Click to expand...

Nah, still load of fetid dingoes kidneys IMHO. Friend had 360 on her laptop, funnily enough, dumping it, clearing it out of the system entirely and replacing with Avira and Comodo Firewall made the machine faster by a degree of 'wow'. Her words, not mine.

No time for anything Symantec do in the AV field, not even much of a fan of their corporate AV solutions TBH. Still bloaty, just easier to manage and set up because you can do it all remotely and just take the user out of the loop with GPOs and the management console.
 
I seem to remember my older version of norton would happily run, and then once or twice a day would jump up to 80% CPU as it updated, whether I was in the middle of a game or not. Dont know if 360 does that though.
 
I'd also have no anti-virus rather than Norton. My common sence with keeping PCs clean is quite strong these days :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom