Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Crybertrance on March 23, 2012, 03:14:37 am
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Hey guys, does anyone know about any game friendly AV? I tried, AVG, MSE, Trend Micro.... All with no luck.
To be more specific, when I run games withe any of the AV's above running I get ENORMOUS stuttering.... Its all fine after I UNINSTALL them... AVG's "Game Mode" did not help with the stuttering at all. MSE (Im currently using) is pretty good if you disable all the Real Time scanning settings, but it becomes a real chore to enable/disable them each time I run a 3D application...
Any Ideas?
EDIT- running Windows 7 64bit...
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I use avast.
EDIT- running Windows 7 64bit...
Moar specks?
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Using avast myself and it seems to work ok, though it causes merry havoc with Minecraft for some reason. Also what firewall are you using just the windows one or are you using a 3rd party as well? I ask because i just switched from Zone Alarm to Comodo (using win XP atm so want the extra peace of mind) and ZA was a resource hog and one of its components was a CPU whore when downloading and some other stuff.
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I've been using Avast for a while as well, no complaints. It also has an easy-to-enable silent/gaming mode so it wont interrupt you when you're in a game unless for a darn good reason.
Using avast myself and it seems to work ok, though it causes merry havoc with Minecraft for some reason.
Weird, I've never had any conflict between the two. What sort of problem is it giving you? Maybe try updating if it hasn't already (mine updated just this week) or reinstalling.
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i have a fairly modern but modest computer and i use avg with 64 bit win 7 and never have any performance issues in games.
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Hey guys, does anyone know about any game friendly AV? I tried, AVG, MSE, Trend Micro.... All with no luck.
To be more specific, when I run games withe any of the AV's above running I get ENORMOUS stuttering.... Its all fine after I UNINSTALL them... AVG's "Game Mode" did not help with the stuttering at all. MSE (Im currently using) is pretty good if you disable all the Real Time scanning settings, but it becomes a real chore to enable/disable them each time I run a 3D application...
Any Ideas?
EDIT- running Windows 7 64bit...
If all mentioned AV's cause heavy stuttering, it sounds like the issue is more likely somewhere else. Possibly another application combined with an AV is the real culprit. Unless you want to go and hunt for the real culprit thoroughly, I'd just reformat and reinstall Windows. Then install minimum amount of applications and drivers, then a game and an AV like MSE. See if stuttering still occurs.
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Running either Avast or MSE on all my computers here, no issues, except that you might want to disable auto-sandboxing in Avast. However, I've had issues lately with my internal wireless card on my desktop - When it gets warm and there's any network traffic at all everything stutters.
EDIT: Which goes to show that it may not be the AV on yours necessarily.
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Using avast myself and it seems to work ok, though it causes merry havoc with Minecraft for some reason.
Weird, I've never had any conflict between the two. What sort of problem is it giving you? Maybe try updating if it hasn't already (mine updated just this week) or reinstalling.
not sure but if i disable it the game runs ok if I leave it running I get an error about JVM not being able to initialise
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Using avast myself and it seems to work ok, though it causes merry havoc with Minecraft for some reason.
Weird, I've never had any conflict between the two. What sort of problem is it giving you? Maybe try updating if it hasn't already (mine updated just this week) or reinstalling.
not sure but if i disable it the game runs ok if I leave it running I get an error about JVM not being able to initialise
Might Avast be auto-sandoxing Minecraft on your box?
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Comodo Firewall has a 'game mode'. But it kind of defeats the purpose of a firewall, and you have to remember to turn it back off because there's no indicator for when it's on.
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Update your sound card and video drivers to the latest versions (sometimes old versions have problems like eating a lot of CPU, which then becomes noticeable when you're playing a game, and quitting the AntiVirus may give you that little edge you need to actually play, or perhaps the drivers are misbehaving and causing your AV to use a lot of cycles monitoring them).
Also, you could try GameBooster Free and see if it has an option to automatically quit your AV and re-launch when you stop playing.
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Using avast myself and it seems to work ok, though it causes merry havoc with Minecraft for some reason.
Weird, I've never had any conflict between the two. What sort of problem is it giving you? Maybe try updating if it hasn't already (mine updated just this week) or reinstalling.
not sure but if i disable it the game runs ok if I leave it running I get an error about JVM not being able to initialise
Might Avast be auto-sandoxing Minecraft on your box?
I did wonder about that but i still have auto sandbox on ask and i have minecraft.exe in the exceptions list so not a clue. anyway i am waiting for some new PC bits so i am going to wait for them to arrive before looking too seriously into it and WCS:DD is taking up a lot of my time atm ;D
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Ohkay...By popular demand, my full system specs...
System Information report written at: 03/23/12 22:34:25
System Name: DEEPTHOUGHT
[System Summary (C:\Users\Daniel Misquitta\Desktop\1.nfo)]
Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DEEPTHOUGHT
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model GA-880GM-UD2H
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 945 Processor, 3000 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F8, 11-10-2010
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale India
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name DeepThought\Daniel Misquitta
Time Zone India Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 8.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 6.43 GB
Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 14.1 GB
Page File Space 8.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Graphics adapter ATI HD 5770 1GB
Now I believe that the AV is causing the stutter because if I uninstall it then everything runs smooth as silk... But cant risk the computer running w/o an AV. So, is there any AV out there that doesn't cause so much pain to my good 'ol games? (even FS un-modded stutters , BADLY)
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It's not your AV. There is something configured wrong software-wise -- that rig is perfectly capable of running both your game and AV. I use MSE, and I've used Avast! and AVG Free; they all work very well with games on systems much, much weaker than yours.
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I don't have antivirus, but I don't have a functioning desktop, either. So it's not really a problem.
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It definitely shouldn't be the AV with those specs. I'm running an Athlon X4 620 on an Asus AM2+ board with 4GB of RAM and a 4870, and AV has never been an issue. It sounds more like a piece of hardware failing, it's just that AV happens to put that particular part through stress.
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If a backup/format/re-install doesn't fix it, I'd then agree and say it's a hardware issue.
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No way in hell it's a resource issue with antivirus giving you grief. Try Avast, especially if you're not happy with the others you've tried. It's probably more a matter of driver conflict (potentially with your antivirus) than a true hardware problem. As someone said, update your audio and video drivers. It doesn't help to make sure your chipset drivers are up to date at the same time.
Out of curiosity, what games in particular are stuttering?
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Update your sound card and video drivers to the latest versions (sometimes old versions have problems like eating a lot of CPU, which then becomes noticeable when you're playing a game, and quitting the AntiVirus may give you that little edge you need to actually play, or perhaps the drivers are misbehaving and causing your AV to use a lot of cycles monitoring them).
Also, you could try GameBooster Free and see if it has an option to automatically quit your AV and re-launch when you stop playing.
fix ****ty software config with more ****ty software! what can possibly go wrong! :lol:
seriously you are making piss poor utility writers cream in their pants. i remember some time ago, a company released a commercial utility which cost actual money that would "boost performance" for any computer. some hackers disassembled the program and found that it worked by placebo effect only, in that the program just displayed a fake scroll bar saying it was doing something, when in fact it did nothing.
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game booster isn't QUITE useless. if you have a well-maintained system with minimal background tasks running even when not gaming, it won't really do anything, but it CAN be useful if you've got a lot of bloat and aren't good enough with computers to clean it up in a more permanent manner. and it has a nice little game defragger that can save you from doing the whole disk when you want to play NAO!
don't use their "system care" though. that one IS worthless and can actually be detrimental.
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im not saying that all utils are bad. i just find it non-intuitive to use more software to fix software problems.
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No, those utilities actually do work. Don't pay them money by any means, the free version works just fine (I actually paid for them b/c I wanted to know whether to recommend to customers to buy them or not... the difference between free and paid was a matter of convenience in scheduling auto-tasks instead of hitting 'clean' once a week, with a few more thorough cleanup options).
Nuke, you would never know if it worked, as you don't let your system get that far.. rather than maintain, you nuke & pave (or ghost-restore, same difference as we both know)... try it sometime. Get someone's computer that they haven't maintained in five years but have used regularly, and the kids have put all sorts of toolbars and messenger services on it. Now, this only works as long as it's got a GB or more of RAM and XP (2GB for Vista / 7 but Vista will be slow anyways, just not as slow) - you will see a boost with 512MB as well, however, the system is figuratively chewing its arm off for more memory at that point so it's not really pretty (workable, but not pretty).
Take said computer, make sure there's no viruses.. do an offline scan wish a bootable, updatable AV CD (BitDefender, AVG, Kaspersky, etc).
Install & update MSE (it's the lightest and I always use it) and do a full scan.
Install & update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and do a full scan.
Now, do benchmarks. Time the startup, fire up a few web pages (I'd install Chrome or Firefox, whichever, and use those to benchmark, IE is pretty ****ty except IE9 and I don't trust M$ so..), start up a few commonly used programs that they have, time them.
Install all Windows Updates that you are going to install.
Then, get CCleaner, run it through, scan the registry, fix the errors (yes i know i know registry cleaner zomgwtfbbq).
Then, get Advanced SystemCare Free from iobit, do a thorough scan, select scan&repair. Go to Settings at top right (maybe located under 'More'), and disable ASC Free's starting on system boot.
Then, get Smart Defrag from iobit, select system volume, go to Boot Time Defrag tab, select all the boxes.. then go to Settings at the top, (don't disable starting Smart Defrag on startup; it will keep your hard disk from getting too fragged while system is idle) go to Schedule under Defrag on the left side, enable the schedule for your system drive, set mode to full optimize. Then from main screen select your system drive and use the drop down menu to do a full optimization defrag. Reboot after it's done; if Smart Defrag wants to do a boot time defrag to optimize your system files (13 of them for XP IIRC), let it do it.
Now, do benchmarks again. I guarantee you will see significantly better results. Bonus - if you run the tools once a week (except Smart Defrag, that's automatic) then your system will stay that way for years. You can set CCleaner and ASC Free to not wipe your Cookies, History, and Session data if you like keeping those for convenience (you can always select them to be cleared once in a while like every other month or so).
I know probably a lot of you think I'm crazy for advocating this. Problem is, I've seen the results. Every. Single. Time. (Unless the system was corrupted beyond repair by a really nasty virus, that did happen once out of every 15 or so cases I got). I don't mind if you don't want to do things this way. And I'd actually love to hear what your methods are for cleaning / maintaining WinDOwS systems; I enjoy learning and sharing. I know Nuke's methodology, and I know it would work nicely if that was how you prefer to run your system. What's you guys' methods behind your 'madness'? This is mine. :) (I'm not loyal to the brands, either; I've switched them several times and will do so again as programs change and new programs appear or I learn of them.)
EDIT: I forgot to say, clean out the toolbars and tell the messenger programs not to run at startup, as well.
Also, Klaustrophobia, what do you mean it doesn't work?
Nuke - I forgot to put a :lol: on my description of your method, but I'm not knocking it by any means, just so you know. ;)
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nuking the site from orbit is still faster.
after which i reinstall os, drivers, and antivirus software. i then install firefox, because people who use ie get targeted by more **** and hide the ie icons.
if they are dumb enough they **** up their rig in another 6 months and i get another $50 for 30 minutes of work.
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Generally once every 6 months to a year I reinstall, not so much due to the computer slowing down but more due to me getting lazy during those months, my file organization setup getting ignored, and me using it as an excuse to make myself organize my files again.
Beyond that, I usually just don't have any issues. I just avoid any and all toolbars and the like. I have at least one friend who swears by Advanced System Care, and I haven't managed to find any serious proof that it helps make his systems significantly faster, but neither have I found significant proof it makes them worse.
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these days my installs have lasted for a couple years. in fact my last 2 reinstall were because of a new motherboard, and a new comp, respectively, not because the system was going tits up.
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6 months is when you first start noticing the slowdown that I'm talking about that ASC + CCleaner + SD stave off for you.
If you re-install every six months, unless you are constantly installing / uninstalling and never defrag, you won't really notice what I'm talking about. Use those 3 like I outlined and you should be good for at least a year if you're a heavy installer / uninstaller (probably longer, it just depends if some really ****ty program craps on Windows hard enough that nothing can put it quite back the way it was or not... which, if you suspect the program is cheap junk, Sandboxie can help you avoid that).
I usually last 2 years between installs, and I'm a heavy installer / uninstaller. I could last longer, but I get severely annoyed when my system is too busy doing whatever the little gremlin leftovers of old programs want it to do to bother with immediately doing what I tell it to do (I can tolerate minor slowdowns... but not if the computer sits on it's thumb for five seconds first. That brings teh rage..) :lol:
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Admittedly, that's only on my own systems; on my family's and my girlfriend's, I hardly ever reinstall (Usually only about every 2 or 3 years), but I pretty much do the same thing - except I do have to occasionally strip out a toolbar forcibly, and when that happens I do usually run CCleaner for the uninstall and cleanup afterwards. I still can't get behind ASC though. Never seen any benefit to it, and I'd rather not lose the RAM and CPU time to software that doesn't need to be there, especially when most of my family runs Athlon 64 and P4 single cores, with the odd Dual Athlon or early Core2Duo or Quad.
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-_- You missed the part where I said disable ASC's launch on system startup in the settings... cause I agree, it doesn't need to run except once in a while, just like CCleaner. ;)
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I've run XP installs for years without reformatting, and I don't really do anything special in terms of system maintenance. I think the last time I had to reinstall on here was when the original HDD bit the big one, and that was in 2008, so do the math. It could probably stand to be a bit faster, but it still gets things done.
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Hmm. That works if all you do is save documents... maybe with windows updates, not sure... do you set automatic updates on or no?
Also, it helps to define what necessitates a re-format or in my case, a tune-up (and if that doesn't cut it, a re-format). If a computer is taking longer than 2 minutes to load programs and 5+ minutes to load, to me that is unacceptable. If IE (yeah some people insist on using it) takes half of a minute to even start loading a webpage, it's unacceptable.
What are your standards for 'it works' and 'it works but not good enough?
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-_- You missed the part where I said disable ASC's launch on system startup in the settings... cause I agree, it doesn't need to run except once in a while, just like CCleaner. ;)
Yeah I missed that, oops :nervous:
Admittedly, it's not that those old P4's aren't capable enough, it's more that they get used by "average users" - Facebook, Youtube, Skype, chat sites, lots and lots of Flash, and outdated graphics chips with no Flash acceleration; so adding optimizing programs that by default run in the background ends up hurting more then helping, and I've never found ASC to really do much in the way of actually speeding up things. Up until not too long ago, I was running a P4 1.8 Northwood with a Radeon 2400 AGP and 1GB of RAM as my main box, and believe me, I played around with ASC in the hopes it might squeeze a bit more out of that system, and I found that in my experience it made no noticeable difference.
Ironically, I found that box behaved much better with Windows 7 than with XP, actually; my commonly used programs loaded much faster, and it was in general much smoother and less prone to random lag-fests. It's still in use as a basic HTPC at my Aunt's.
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ASC doesn't do anything for performance whilst it's in the backgound... it's be like running an over-bloated CCleaner all the time, so that when you wanted to run a scan you wouldn't have to wait for it to load. The only way ASC is going to give you performance whilst running is if you paid for it and have 'Turbo' mode on (which is essentially just a lite version of what GameBooster does) - the rest of it (the paid version) is just scrubbing the Windows internals a bit harder on the cleanups, and automatically running cleanups on a schedule.
Keep it from running automatically, and be sure to quit the task tray icon after any scans you have instructed it to do are done. (Or just leave it open and disable the 'minimize to tray on program close' option in the settings, right where you find the disable autostartup option.)
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While even I'm doubtful about it being solely the AVs fault, I can't help but think otherwise... My Win7 install is just a few months old (not much software there too, 'xept games). Even my comp just got upgraded about a year ago. CPU and GPU are fine in stress-test (Prime95, MSI Kombustor, for 5hrs without a crash), did that built-in Memory test 5 times, no errors. My Display and audio driver are the latest. What else could it be?? I'ts such a headache trying to figure out this...
I use GameBooster 3 and I have to say, it really does improve stuttering on some games (RailWorks 2012, comes to mind)
Okay, the games I face stuttering:
1. RailWorks 2012
2.Mass Effect 2
3.Mass Effect 3
4. Mafia 2
5. Freespace 1&2 (with or w/o SCP)
6. STALKER COP & CS
Now 1 and 6 experience extreme stutter when running an AV, while the rest experience medium to light stutter..
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Get Process Explorer (sysinternals / microsoft), and run your game in windowed mode (FSO at least will allow you to do that; many games have the option). Use the game with process explorer running until it stutters, then take a look around process explorer. Another thing I forgot is, you may want to be sure your hard disk controller drivers are up to date as well, if there was something wrong with them, perhaps that could cause this. Usually chipset drivers includes hard disk controller drivers, so update your chipset drivers, like MP-Ryan said.