PSA: Anti-malware/anti-ransomware/anti-virus can cause extreme performance loss (e.g. Acronis Active Protection)

User Support Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
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I use Acronis True Image 2020 as one of my backup solutions. That includes “Active Protection”, an anti-ransomware feature that attempts to detect software doing naughty things, and if so blocking them from running while asking the user if it’s OK or not.
What I think it does is inspect the code run by every process in real-time, which would explain the performance loss.
Windows Defender does not have this issue; I couldn’t measure any difference whatsoever having real-time scanning on or off there. Not sure about other antivirus/antimalware software, but anything that does active scanning could have an impact.

How much, you ask? Well…

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I’ve repeated the tests several times, and indeed they’re repeatable. You can even try it out standing still on the runway; I instantly lose about 20-25 fps as soon as it’s active, and get them back as soon as it’s disabled again.

So in my standard benchmark run, it costs me an average of 27 fps! And that’s with a fast CPU (Ryzen 5800X). I can only imagine what would happen if you try to fly the A320 on an older CPU with something like this active and eating precious CPU time.
If you’re CPU limited and stuck at 25 fps, getting the same percentage gain would move you from 25 to 39 fps!

Similar software is likely also the cause of some stuttering issues. Excluding FlightSimulator.exe or excluding the MSFS data directories can probably help a fair bit for some, as I/O performance can be totally crushed by that. I had a case where an app was slow to uninstall (took about 15-20 minutes, and I had to redo it several times to troubleshoot an issue), but when I disabled Windows Defender’s realtime scan just while uninstalling, it took less than a minute every time.

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Thanks for the info. Certainly a big hit from the Acronis software there.
I’ve done some testing with my usual Kaspersky security suite and found no difference with it on or off.

I’m currently running Eset smart security as I’m testing it for a friend before he installs it on a number of his machines.

With that it does have a slight effect on fps (about 4 or so on my machine) unless I exclude it from realtime scanning and then it’s ok.

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Hopefully the excellent default windows defender doesn’t have this issue.

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I’m using BitDefender and I don’t notice any FPS degradation.

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yep… these tool was a backup tool and with the years they build a lot of stuff into for which a backup tool is not responsible.

I can only repeat what I wrote in an context of an issue, in which Acronis was also mentioned.

I also use Acronis, but I start the backup from time to time manualy and thats it. Like for Avast, I disabled all that * “add ons”…

And yes… adding such huge games into the anti-vir exclussion list, is a old recommendation ( also / and in special for MS defender :wink: ) . Just let scan the folder manualy from time to time.

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Yep, I completely agree, unfortunately. I have a subscription due to the cloud storage, and I still haven’t upgraded to the free 2021 version for that reason.

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I really have to recommend against Kaspersky security software. They are a Russian company and their software is not allowed on US government computers. They are in the same country as the ransomware folks and there are those who suspect Russian government meddling in their software. Kaspersky denies this vigorously but do you want to make your own bet if it’s true or not?

Unfortunately, current events involve all of us in this mess.

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I use Macrium Reflect (free version available but I bought a license) to back up to removable media. No subscription costs for “cloud” storage. Have to also say there are a lot of people who get occasional surprises with cloud storage. The cloud is just someone else’s computer run by whatever skill of employee they choose to hire and many execs and bean counters push for less qualified/less expensive employees.

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I have local backups too, but I really want offsite backups. Plenty of things could destroy all my local data: viruses/malware, bugs in non-malicious software, lightning strikes, fires, etc.
They are of course encrypted, but I wouldn’t say I put 100% faith in the security. Still feels a lot better than having only local copies.

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Totally agree. I prefer both but only use local for personal use. Fire safes are handy, though.

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Use BlackBerry Cylance. extremely light. Ive switched from Total AV

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This may be controversial but I’ll mention it anyway. Until I retired a couple years ago I worked in IT (software development) for a large (> $15B annual revenue) corporation. The CSO (Chief Security Officer) and I were pretty good friends. I asked him one day, what do you need for virus protection. He said “all I run and all you need is Microsoft Defender, as long as you do your part it’ll keep you safe.”

That’s all I use.

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That should be enough if you use your computer normally. But when you need to do some dubious internet activity, Windows defender isn’t enough. You need another layer of security to make sure you’re safe.

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was MS Defender useless :wink: