Software24.05.2013

Kaspersky Lab product has almost no impact on system performance during series of tests by AV-Comparatives

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 has received the highest Advanced+ award following independent Performance testing by the respected research laboratory AV-Comparatives in May 2013. The series of tests are designed to evaluate the impact security software has on a PC’s performance.

The main objective of any antivirus product is to protect the user’s computer from all types of cyberthreats. In order to do this the security product performs numerous operations on the OS that can impact on the system’s productivity.

As well as the Kaspersky Lab product, 19 other solutions participated in the tests which were conducted on a new computer with an Intel Core i5 processor with 4 GB of RAM running the Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit operating system. Computer performance was measured with antivirus software installed and without it, and the two results were then compared.

Performance was evaluated using a series of sub-tests. The scenarios included such everyday operations as downloading files from the Internet, copying and archiving files, installing, launching and deleting applications, as well as other common operations performed by PC users. The impact of an antivirus product on system performance was also measured using the popular third-party PC Mark 7 Professional Testing Suite benchmarking software.

The overall results for all the test scenarios saw the Kaspersky Lab product score a maximum 90 points, with minimal effect on system performance. In the PC Mark 7 test, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 found itself firmly among the leaders: system performance with the software installed was just 0.4% lower than that of the antivirus-free system. This was the highest result recorded during testing. Interestingly, only two of the other 19 products matched that result.

Commenting on the results, Oleg Ishanov, Director of the Anti-Malware Research Unit, Kaspersky Lab, said: “A product that offers good quality protection but which affects the user experience by slowing down the system is useless no matter how advanced its antivirus technologies are. That is why we place considerable emphasis on finding the right balance between the quality of protection technologies and their impact on a PC’s performance. The results of the AV-Comparatives tests prove that in addition to consistently top-class protection our products are among the fastest in the industry.”

This is not the first time Kaspersky Anti-Virus has received an award for low resource consumption. In late 2011, the previous version of the product Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 produced excellent results in similar AV-Comparatives testing to earn the Advanced+ rating.

The full results of AV-Comparatives’ antivirus performance testing can be found on the independent test lab’s site.

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