{
  "id": 11870298,
  "title": "Does antivirus software still slow down your PC in 2026? We tested the top security software to find out",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/does-antivirus-software-still-slow-down-your-pc-in-2026-we-tested-the",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-04T07:15:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Guide",
    "slug": "tom-s-guide",
    "url": "https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/antivirus/does-antivirus-slow-down-your-pc"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Antivirus software used to significantly slow down PCs in the past, but advancements in technology have made modern security suites much less resource-intensive. To test this, a recent study ran both quick and full scans while playing graphically demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5. Bitdefender showed minimal impact on performance, with only a 3% drop in frame rate during a full scan, while Malwarebytes experienced the most significant performance hit at 13.7%. Forza Horizon 5 also showed negligible impact from Avast, Bitdefender, and Norton 360, but McAfee experienced a 15.9% performance penalty during full scans. Overall, leaving antivirus software enabled while gaming is no longer a necessary compromise in performance.",
  "summary": "We put modern security suites to the test across synthetic benchmarks and demanding PC games to see if the age-old PC slowdown myth still holds true.",
  "key_points": [
    "Modern antivirus software has minimal impact on PC performance.",
    "Bitdefender showed only 3% frame rate drop during full scans.",
    "McAfee experienced 15.9% performance penalty during full scans."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}