Today, video games are no longer just a fun pastime for children and teenagers — people of different ages play video games. By estimate, almost one-third of all people in the world play PC games time by time, and their number regularly grows. It is due to the technological development of games, as well as the interactivity and wide opportunities to meet new friends.
At the same time, gamers are among the PC users the most vulnerable to online malware such as viruses, trojans, and worms. The gamers use peer-to-peer connections that make your computer open to cybercriminals.
But malware and hackers are not the only problems for gamers. You’ll need an ultra-fast computer and Internet connection not to be affected by slow speeds.
That’s why it is important to choose a good antivirus for gamers, which has a special game mode to prevent slowing down your computer. Let’s review the best antiviruses for gaming PC you can use in 2022.
Top Antivirus for Gaming PC
| Provider | Game functions |
| BullGuard | Behavioral Scanner, malware quarantine, minimal system resources consumption, pop-ups blocking, enhancing gaming performance. |
| Panda | Firewall against hackers attacks, web-protection for safe browsing, process monitor, built-in VPN, premium level 24/7 Customer support. |
| Bitdefender | Comprehensive data protection, advance threat defense, secure web browsing, rescue mode, vulnerability scanner. |
| Kaspersky | Special Gaming Mode, flexible restrictions on Internet sources access, variable Security options |
| Avast | Intelligent real-time detection, CyberCapture analyzator, advanced firewall, network analysis, webcam protection, automatic software update. |
| McAfee | Active protection technology, vulnerability scanner, 2-way firewall, game boost engine, real-time performance monitoring. |
BullGuard — Best Game Mode Antivirus
BullGuard Antivirus is a comprehensive security solution. It protects your computer from all kinds of threats: identity theft, hacker attacks, viruses, spyware, and others. The product offers a wide range of features that will be useful for gamers.
BullGuard is next-generation antivirus protection with a behavioral scanner. The software detects the reliable applications and processes, scans the latest malware that has not yet been identified, as well as quarantines and neutralizes all detected malware.
A strong firewall is also here to protect against online attacks. It does not overload the processor, so it will not impact your gaming performance. Vulnerability scanner allows you to block exploits and other hacker attacks securely.
Game Booster optimizes processor performance by blocking pop-ups and other annoying things. You’ll enjoy the maximum performance in your games without any delays.
- Good pricing to protect one computer
- Powerful Game Booster mode to improve gaming performance
- Multiple profiles for each game
- Phishing protection
- Variety of scanning options
- Complicated interface
- Price is not very attractive for more than 3 computers
What Does BullGuard Game Booster Do?
Game Booster is an interesting tool that recognizes when games or other full-screen applications are running and improves their performance, giving them more system resources. Game Booster moves users and some system processes to use the same processor cores, reducing their requirements to your system resources and releasing more free power for games.
It is a smart idea, and independent testing has shown very positive results. Compared to many other antiviruses, BullGuard has not only provided better performance, but the system with installed product worked even faster than the system without antivirus.
In other words, installing BullGuard Antivirus not only did not slow down the system but even improved the gaming performance. It can become a great solution for those who are not ready to upgrade their computers to play modern games.
Panda Antivirus for Gaming PC and Home Using
Panda antivirus is the best solution for families with minor children. If you are a parent and you are concerned about how your children spent time using online games, look at this software. It allows you to monitor how often the computer is used, limits specific applications, and notifies about suspicious Internet activity. It works on multiple devices under a single license, so you can install it even on your kid’s smartphone.
Panda provides 4 different plans: Essential, Advanced, Complete, and Premium. The more expensive the plan is, the better the protection you get. You can choose the version according to your budget.
Panda Antivirus provides high-level security for your computer in real-time, using the cloud-based engine. It minimally loads the system and effectively protects you against all the threats.
Gamers will like the special gaming/multimedia mode. It is automatically enabled when your computer runs an application in full-screen mode. It also disables all the notifications and active system scanning to prevent any interruptions. Besides, you can enable or disable this feature by clicking the Panda icon in the Windows taskbar.
There are some other useful features for gamers and home users:
- The firewall guarantees protection against intrusions and hacker attacks.
- The web protection keeps users safe while surfing the Internet.
- Process Monitor analyses background processes in the operating system.
- Built-in VPN service allows users to secure their data in public wireless networks.
- Premium level 24/7 technical support.
- Powerful protection for families
- Flexible pricing, ability to use multiple devices under 1 license
- Multimedia mode enabled automatically
- Real-time cloud-based scanning doesn't slow down the game-play
- Aggressive ads to upgrade the product in cheaper plans
- Not the best results in antivirus tests
Bitdefender Game Mode
Bitdefender is a comprehensive antivirus with firewall and enhanced privacy protection. Antivirus and antispyware with a powerful engine provide reliable protection against malware and encryptors. New adaptive scanning technology increases the speed and performance of your antivirus. The 2-way firewall controls all Internet connections on your computer and ensures secure Wi-Fi connections.
Multi-level web protection includes antiphishing, anti-malware, secure search, an isolated web browser, and an e-wallet for safe online banking and o shopping. It is a very useful feature for gamers who regularly make a lot of in-game purchases.
Besides, gamers will enjoy the following features:
- Comprehensive data protection
- Advanced Threat Defense
- Multi-layer protection against encryptors, phishing, and fraud
- Secure web browsing
- Rescue Mode
- Productivity
- Game, Movie and Work Modes
- Bitdefender Anti-Tracker
- Bitdefender SafePay
- File shredder
- Password manager
- Vulnerability Scanner
In case of need, check our more detailed review of Bitdefender Antivirus.
- Automatic customizable game mode
- Powerful protection against various threats
- Great results in tests
- High price
How to Turn On Bitdefender Game Mode
The game mode hellos and join computer games without interruptions, system slowdowns, and reduced performance. Bitdefender uses this heuristic analysis to detect the games you run on your PC automatically. Once it detects the game, it optimizes the system resources.
When the mode is enabled, the app applies the following changes:
a) notifications, alerts, special offers, and Search Advisor are disabled;
b) scheduled scans and automatic updates are suspended.
If for any reason the antivirus does not automatically detect the game and does not enable game mode, you can add the app to the list of games:
1) click on the icon on the left sidebar, go to Profiles — Game Profile — Games List — Add;
2) select the .exe file, click OK — Save.
How to configure the game mode and create multiple profiles:
Kaspersky Total Security Game
Kaspersky Total Security provides all-in-one protection for your computer and relevant information with all necessary components. The main features of the solution include a comprehensive antivirus, web protection, personal firewall, data backup, and parental control.
Additional security tools such as disk recovery, data shredder, activity traces removal, data encryption, and password manager provide an extra level of protection for your computer and information, as well as a Secure payments component.
The Parental Control module is designed to protect children and teenagers from online threats. Also, the feature allows setting flexible restrictions on access to Internet resources and apps depending on their age. Thus, parents can control how their children spend time on the computer.
The most useful feature for gamers is a special Gaming mode. It is activated in the parameters (Settings — Performance — Use Gaming mode). After activation, it will be automatically enabled when you run games or full-screen apps. In this mode, the antivirus does not scan your system and update databases, as well as does not display notifications.
However, compared to other products, Kaspersky gaming mode has some weak points:
- you have to make a lot of clicks for its activation;
- you are not able to customize it as the solution does not have any additional features.
Yes, it’s quite effective and does not impact computer performance. But if you like to customize everything, you are limited here.
- Powerful protection for individuals and families
- Efficient gaming mode
- Variety of security options
- High results in antivirus testing
- High pricing
- Some settings are a bit complicated
- Gaming mode is not configurable
What Does Avast Game Mode Do?
Avast is a comprehensive all-in-one antivirus solution with cloud-based protection. It provides a lot of advanced features such as:
- Intelligent real-time detection and blocking of viruses, spyware, ransomware, trojans, and other malware.
- Behavior analysis.
- CyberCapture analyzes unknown and potentially malicious files.
- Advanced Firewall.
- Protection against fake sites.
- Network analysis.
- Webcam protection.
- Protection of confidential data blocks spyware attempts to gain access to tax, medical, and other confidential documentation.
- Data shredder.
- Automatic software update.
For gamers, the most useful feature is a special gaming mode, which in the latest versions of the antivirus was renamed to “Do not disturb.” The function blocks all the notifications when you run a game or a full-screen application. The feature is enabled by default; however, you can turn it off and configure.
Go to Settings — Performance — Do Not Disturb Mode, where you can change the following settings:
- Enable/disable notifications from 3rd party apps. Moreover, there is an option to add specific applications to the whitelist. In this case, you will receive their notifications without limits.
- Enable/disable Avast notifications.
- Enable/disable Windows updates.
- Automatically add new apps — any full-screen apps will be added to Do Not Disturb list.
- Lightweight antivirus — Avast almost does not impact the system resources
- Reasonable pricing, a good free version
- Great results in antivirus tests
- Quite slow boot scanning
- No Firewall in a free package
If you want to read a detailed Avast review, please visit this page.
McAfee Gamer Security
MacAfee is the only vendor that provides a dedicated solution for gamers. While other companies add gaming mode to their traditional antivirus products, McAfee provides McAfee Gamer Security — add special antivirus for gamers and gaming computers.
The product combines at lightweight antivirus, which effectively protects your gaming rig and never disturbs you when you play. At the same time, it boosts performance by disabling unnecessary background activities.
Some features include:
- McAfee Active Protection Technology analyzes and stops new and emerging threats immediately.
- Vulnerability scanner.
- A two-way firewall blocks any attempts to hack your computer and steal personal information.
- Standby checks scan the system and update the app when you do not use your computer.
- Game Boost Engine maximizes the performance by giving priority to the game over other background apps.
- Real-time Performance Monitoring.
- Powerful gaming security.
- Dedicated solution for gamers
- Very high scores in malware tests
- Game Boost Engine adds the performance
- High prices for one-PC protection
- No detection of fake end malicious URLs
- Not the best lab scores
The full McAfee review is available on this page.
Bottom Line
Choosing a good antivirus is a vital step for every gamer. We reviewed all the popular products available in the market. All of them will reliably protect your system and will boost the gaming performance, as well as disable all the notification during the gameplay.
What is your favorite gaming antivirus? Share it with us in comments!
Our Other Tops of Best Antivirus Software
- Best antivirus software
- Best antivirus for Android apps
- Best antivirus for iPhone OS
- Best antivirus for Business
- Best antivirus for Mac
Frequently Asked Questions About Antivirus for Gaming
Does antivirus slow down my entire game computer?
Is antivirus software essential for a gaming PC in 2021?
Does PS5 need any kind of antivirus?
How to turn on Bitdefender game mode?
How to save my game from Kaspersky antivirus?
Comments