Games and AntiVirus: Can they live together?

[DarkLeftos]

Every single day new viruses are created, some more harmful, others less, but our computers are always vulnerable to new threats (well, that is until Microsoft releases its bug- and security-hole free version of Windows, which in two days, will have security holes too.)

Most of you (if not all) who read this thread, have games installed in your PCs. So the question is, can decent AVs and Games live together happily in one PC?

With a good processor and 1GB of 400MHz ram, yeah it is absolutely possible. But what happens with people that have older processors and 512MB ram maximum?

I'm not looking for suggestions like "C'mon mate, buy some more RAM, and make sure it's fast... Hey, don't buy DDR, buy SDRAM." Not all of us can spend that money on RAM, or even at our computers at all. I'm 15 years old, I know I can't.

So, is separate service and hardware profiles the solution (search the internet if you don't know what these are)? Or have you managed to get Games and a decent AV to live together in your PC, without having half the RAM you buyed free in the end and still having those lightning fast loadings, some other way?

Whatever you think/have done, say it... Make sure you give some decent info on your computer if you do.

I'm on a 2700+ Athlon XP with 2x256MB Ram (333MHz). I don't use any AV currently, although I've only been hit by two viruses in the lifetime of my PC, Netsky (or Skynet, depending on the AV) and another one, I think RDBot, or something.

[Luciel]

First of all, how can you know you've only been hit twice, if you dont have an av installed?

Second, no offence but i think thats BS, ive gone through many computers, and ive never had slowdowns because of AVs it may happen with the likes of norton and mcafee for the simple reasons that they are big programs and try to scan everything that u are using, you should try the likes of avg 6 or kapersky, and you will most surely notice the difference

[DarkLeftos]

Just checking my Task Manager regularly, that's how I know...

Thanks for your suggestions on AVs though, was looking to try Kaspersky, I will download the latest trial soon.


P.S. There is no need to say "that's BS", is there? Just wondering, simple question asked, didn't try to turn the heat up or anything... Peace.

[Luciel]

sorry it wasnt meant in a rude way, its just a bad habbit , and dont be to sure about a virus appearing in the taskmanager, in fact most viruses hide themselfs from the task manager so yeah, do try kapersky, and ultimately, buy it, its not expensive, and its worthed it. If you rather not, AVG 6 is free, and its still ok.

[|Mota|]

well i think they can live together
i have a intel 2.4, 512mb of ddr333 and a gforce4 ti4200 and i only got problems with ut2004 and mohpa i used noton 2003 , some days ago i changed to mcafee 2005 (and i can say it is much better) i play all my games in maximum resolution with the details and everything else in maximum too
and when i'm playing i also have azureus running (witch difficult a bit in the games i've mentioned before) but with more 512mb of ram i think it would be ok (i'm don't say playing mohpa with everything in maximum but it would help a lot)

[Softix]

I think they can live together. I am using AVG and it works well with my computer games like CO and also warcraft.