If you have been playing video games for a while, you probably already know well enough about the impact of antivirus on your PC while gaming. Many gamers toss away the idea of installing antivirus, thinking it won’t bring any positive change in their gaming experience, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Some might even say that antivirus programs slow down their computer. However, that’s probably because they’ve installed a faulty or weak antivirus.

Robust antiviruses offer significant modifications to your PC’s operating speed by optimizing your system to maximum protection and shielding from different factors that might be affecting your playability before. Needless to say, they also protect your personal info from being breached by cybercriminals, so it's critical you install and implement a strong antivirus even while gaming.

There are many cyberthieves ready to spot vulnerabilities in your computer to attack the personal information stored there. Worst of all, without an antivirus, there is a chance all your data could be publicized/destroyed, and you might never get them back. It would be best if you keep these things in mind before recklessly playing video games without protection.

Are you still confused about whether an antivirus enhances or degrades your gameplay? We’ll provide you with a list of some of its features that might give you a clue about how it works and impacts your PC’s performance. But first, let’s see what the general concept of antivirus among gamers is.

Common Myths About the Negative Impact of Antivirus While Gaming

As a gamer, you probably know that computer games are software that generates resource-heavy activities. Most of the operating processors are occupied by these games when you are playing them, and it will be a heavy load for your PC to handle if you open and run other applications and software in the background at the same time.

With the rising popularity of gaming and the increased number of gamers worldwide and in India, gamers want a clean experience while gaming, i.e., without any lagging or crashing of the PC while doing so. As a cherry on the top, most of the games today are played with multi-players, meaning their PC must be smoothly operating and have a strong internet connection to play the games with full potential without interruptions.

There are myths that if you turn antivirus on while gaming, various activities that it does, like scanning and notifying you of possible threats, will slow down your gaming speed. This is not true.

Scanning is a high resource-consuming process. Before or while playing a game, if the antivirus does a scanning, the PC will be under pressure of collecting data and operating the applications you open or run at the same time. When you start gaming software, there will likely be some impact on the performance.

Similarly, antiviruses updates it’s tools from time to time. As the updates take place, you might notice some lags on the performance of your PC. These factors will indeed affect your gaming unless you install a powerful antivirus like Norton Security Software. Its 360 features allow you to choose when or what to scan and fix a timeline for updates to avoid lagging or crashing.

Although antiviruses do operate simultaneously and might take up some processing power, they are vital for your computer’s protection, especially when you’re playing online-based games. While you’re online, you’re at utmost risk of being attacked by a hacker or other ill-intended cybercriminals. Since they lurk around searching for innocent victims, your PC might come across their screen, and disabling antivirus while playing a video game would make it even easier for them to get inside your system and steal or destroy essential information.

Should You Enable Antivirus While Playing Games?

Like mentioned before, antiviruses are vital for the shielding of your computer. However, for a better experience, most gamers will be tempted to disable them while gaming. Avoid this at all costs.

If you’re getting any inconvenience or lagging when you turn your antivirus on as well as play games together, the problem might be your PC. Regular desktop computers or laptops are generally used for low-resource software and less intense activities. You wouldn't want to overload them by installing heavy gaming software, at least not more than one or two. You have to remember, though, even those must meet your system requirements to run smoothly.

If you’re really fond of playing heavy games, you may want to go for a gaming PC, which provides significant facilities, especially for playing games. You could also upgrade your computer for betterment in the experience. All in all, keep your antivirus on while playing games because protecting your private data should be your primary concern.

You can also go for stronger antiviruses that provide you with options to change schedules for operating their functions to avoid interruptions.

What Should I Do To Optimize My Gaming Experience?

Instead of disabling your antiviruses, you can choose to follow other steps to avoid the negative impacts during your playtime. Below are some things you can do:

1. Make sure that you disable background programs except for antivirus software before starting your game.
2. Some games have pre-set high graphics. Change it to medium or low according to your PC’s capacity.
3. You can update your graphic drivers or card models to the latest versions.
4. Improve your Wi-Fi speed by contacting servers or connect with an Ethernet cable.
5. Disable automatic updates.
6. Disable all the pop-up notifications that interrupt your play.
7. Free your hard drive. Try deleting unused and heavy storage software.
8. Install an SSD if you are extremely low on space. It will help speed up your PC as well.
9. Avoid overheating your computer. Clean the internal parts often and check if the fan is operating or not.
10. Restart your PC from time to time.
11. Block ads by enabling Firewall features provided by antiviruses like Norton Security.

Antiviruses provide nothing but safety for gamers. You should in no circumstances take the cyber world for granted. If you want program fortification, performance optimization, & privacy protection all at the same time, consider Norton 360 for gamers that facilitates its users with many other features, including a 500GB cloud backup, notifications optimization, Safe cam feature, strong VPN, and many more. These features primarily focus on facilitating gaming security, and Norton is considered the Best Antivirus for Gamers to perform these advantages.

One way or another, remember that antiviruses are the key to shielding your information. So, do not disable them. Also, try the above-mentioned steps for a better gaming experience.