Best free antivirus for gaming

[Mr Fister]

What is best and most simple antivirus for gaming. And of course for free.

[Altecice]

Use the built in Windows Defender.

[Jade]

Common sense. Just playing games won't give you viruses.

 

Read: Not pirating or running software you don't actually trust.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Jade said:

Common sense. Just playing games won't give you viruses.

Common sense is a nonsense reason. Common sense will only aid in prevention. It will not aid in stopping an attack.

[Mr Fister]

1 minute ago, Jade said:

Common sense. Just playing games won't give you viruses.

 

Read: Not pirating or running software you don't actually trust.

common sense? i simply want a simple anti virus that wont affect much on my gaming.

who said im getting viruses?

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, Mr Fister said:

common sense? i simply want a simple anti virus that wont affect much on my gaming.

who said im getting viruses?

Malwarebytes, Windows defender, Avast

[Techicolors]

i use avast, and even bought it. but i'd look elsewhere, because the client sucks 

[Mr Fister]

1 minute ago, Technicolors said:

i use avast, and even bought it. but i'd look elsewhere, because the client sucks 

i dont need to buy an antivirus because i wont use most of what it offers. Thanks!

[CtrlAltELITE]

Another vote for Avast. There gaming mode doesnt post any popups. It is also very lightweight.

[Cracklingice]

I'm using AVG Free edition but it is constantly trying to upsell me to the point I want to replace it.  All I want is basic virus protection, but it wants me to have browser protection, firewall, email protection all sorts of stuff that I don't really want.

[Jade]

17 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Common sense is a nonsense reason. Common sense will only aid in prevention. It will not aid in stopping an attack.

Very few things will. If you get infected with anything new then it won't be detected. You know as well as I do that malware is constantly changing.'

17 minutes ago, Mr Fister said:

common sense? i simply want a simple anti virus that wont affect much on my gaming.

who said im getting viruses?

Right. Common sense won't affect your game. In fact, it might improve the game. Windows Defender in 10 is free, works well enough. Malwarebytes is also free. Works great as well.

[Godlygamer23]

8 minutes ago, Jade said:

Very few things will. If you get infected with anything new then it won't be detected. You know as well as I do that malware is constantly changing.'

Except many antivirus programs have heuristics which is improving constantly so they can improve on their ability to stop zero-day attacks. Yes, malware is constantly changing, but I see no reason why common sense is somehow superior to security software running on a PC.

 

Really, they should be going hand-in-hand with each other, acting as lines of defense. Common sense preventing someone from doing stupid stuff that would inevitably have their PC become infected, and the security software to be there to attempt to save their butts.

[Tyrosen]

On 8/16/2016 at 7:45 PM, Aytex said:

Malwarebytes, Windows defender, Avast

Malwarebytes is actually an antimalware program, not antivirus

[Aytex]

12 minutes ago, Tyrosen said:

Malwarebytes is actually an antimalware program, not antivirus

 

A Virus is a type of malware

Malware is the base term.........

A virus and malware are not two different things

a virus specific type of malware

 

[ministrsinister]

Seems kind of toxic in here....

 

Generally though @Jade hits the hammer on the nail here, the best antivirus for gaming is no antivirus at all. The reasons I say this are:

 

1. Having an antivirus installed is kind of just bloat for your system. By default, most antivirus programs passively scan your computer in the background, Norton notoriously eats up a ton of CPU usage when it does this.

2. Free-antivirus software tend to only give you part of what their premium package offers. Even if you have free antivirus, its really only picks up on things every now and then. Unless you're clicking on every Ad you see or you go to those 'get rich quick' scam sites, you're not going to get a virus from browsing forums, watching YT or scrolling through FB most of the time.

3. All free-antivirus is generally nagware til' you purchase it. (i.e. Winrar) 

 

If I had to go with any antivirus, I would go with Avast! personally, though I would pay for at least the 'pro' protection which I believe is $20 a year. Not bad.

 

Just run a few tools periodically such as Spybot or like everyone else is saying, Malwarebytes, and do your research if something ever seems funky with your computer.

[Jade]

7 minutes ago, ministrsinister said:

Generally though @Jade hits the hammer on the nail here, the best antivirus for gaming is no antivirus at all. The reasons I say this are:

Uh, this post is a month old, friend.

[ministrsinister]

Just now, Jade said:

Uh, this post is a month old, friend.

... I lurk a bit too much

[Mr Fister]

15 hours ago, Jade said:

Uh, this post is a month old, friend.

 

15 hours ago, ministrsinister said:

... I lurk a bit too much

lol thanks anyways. i chose Avast or Windows Defender  either one