Symantec may have
created the ultimate anti-virus program for gamers with Norton
AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition just about to be released in
Australia. The problem
between gaming, whether high performance or casual is that no matter
what programs are running in the background, whether the operating
system itself or an anti-virus program, it will inevitably effect
your system in some way or another. The additional resource stress
on your system also effects how your game runs and as a gamer myself,
we all know that speed is the penultimate must of a game.
Key features of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition
-
New Gamer Mode keeps you
protected but wont bother you while you're in the middle of a game.
Suspends updates, alerts, and other background activities and is
automatically enabled when system is in full screen mode, or easily
manually enabled;
-
Smart scheduling holds
resource intensive actions such as system scans for when the
computer is idle;
-
Industry-leading
protection from viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, keyloggers, bots
and infected web sites;
-
Customizable security
settings allow gamers to reach the performance and protection
balance they require; and
-
Performance driven release
installs in under a minute, uses less than 6MB memory, adds less
than 1 second to boot time and averages scans in less than 35
seconds.
Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you the next stage of internet
security for gamers, Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition which has Symantec
once again revolutionizing the world of
internet security.
This movement began with Norton 360, moved over to Norton
Internet Security 2009 and now, Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming
Edition that uses 80% less memory than other anti-virus programs
which means your system can still stay protected while you play
online or offline. In laymen terms, this means that Norton AntiVirus
2009 Gaming Edition will have a minimal if any impact on your
gaming.
Another nifty feature of the Norton AntiVirus 2009
Gaming Edition is that it detects whether a game is being run which
means those import anti-virus signatures and updates will only
commence when you are not playing. This will allow gamers to make
that critical shot without their character being affected by lag,
thanks to the poorly timed download of system security.
With compliments to AMD, we tested Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming
Edition on a Phenom II processor, HD4870X2 Graphics card, 4GB of Ram
and a 500GB SATA hard drive. With Symantec’s new installation
interface, the installation of this program took under 60 seconds to
successfully install and according to system statistics, only used
around 6MB of RAM when idling and when scanning the system, it moved
to around 40MB of RAM. Looking at our task manager, Symantec have
managed to have only two processes running for this
program which of course is a boom for gamers as this limits the CPU
usage.
Editor #:
Just edging on the side of caution, we believe the installation time
was actually faster than 60 seconds!
The interface of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming
Edition is also quite streamlined and gone are those convoluted menu
systems and best of all, the program quietly scans in the
background, although you still have the option of forcing a full
system scan or even tweaking the settings. Thankfully, we did not
need to either.
Another new piece of technology is the way that
Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gamin Edition performs its updates. Gone are the days of
large updates from Symantec as the program automatically checks the
service throughout the day, ensuring that updates are small and
only downloaded when your computer is not being used. This
technology is called Rapid Pulse Updates that updates every 5 to 15
minutes if any updates are available.
In relation to
scanning, the program offers a quick scanning solution that
basically scans your system in no time and only checks flies that
are of greater risk than other files. In order words, the program
greatly reduces scanning times by ignoring a majority of files that
are unlikely to be infected. These are called "Trusted Files" and
thanks to the Symantec community, a list is always updated, ensuring
that any threats are quickly squished by this program should this
status change.
We tested Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition with a variety of
games that included F.E.A.R. II: Project Origin, Spore, World of
Warcraft and Call of Duty 4 with some remarkable results. While
playing the games, we received the same speeds we were getting while
we had no anti-virus software installed on our computer.
Even with
Norton AntiVirus 2009 turned on, the speeds were still present and
we had no lag whatsoever. The only lag that we did suffer was from
our internet service provider, so we can safely say that Symantec
have done their homework in this aspect.
We tested the program with a few of our archived viruses that the
program automatically detected in our zip file and even when we
attempted to send this via e-mail. Whether it's worms, viruses and
the like, we strongly believe that your system is almost totally
protected with this program and best of all, Symantec are
continually releasing updates to prevent any violations to your
system.
Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming
Edition also comes with a 12-month subscription for the latest
updates, ensuring that your system is protected from the majority of
known threats, thanks to LiveUpdate.
In conclusion, Impulse Gamer has tested a variety of Symantec
software in the past and yes we can all agree that Symantec had a
bad run of system security software in the distant ast, however since the
birth of Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security 2009, one of the
world’s most proactive and successful security developers have
truly recreated something revolutionary for games.
As it has a
minimal impact on your system in relation to updates, scanning and
detecting viruses, perhaps Symantec should have labeled this the
AntiVirus Specter as it was nowhere to be seen. Norton AntiVirus
2009 Gaming Edition is brilliant and almost perfect.