2013 Consumer Security Products Performance …...This report presents our results and findings as a...
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2013 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks (Edition 2)
Antivirus, Internet Security & Total Security Windows 7
November 2012
Document: 2013 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks (Edition 1) Authors: M. Baquiran, D. Wren Company: PassMark Software Date: 6 November 2012 Edition: 2 File: totalprotectionsuites-nov2012.docx
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 2 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... 2
REVISION HISTORY ............................................................................................................................................ 4
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... 5
OVERALL SCORE ................................................................................................................................................ 6
PRODUCTS AND VERSIONS ............................................................................................................................... 8
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE .................................................................................................................................. 8
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE .............................................................................................................................................. 8
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................................................... 9
PERFORMANCE METRICS SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 10
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ............................................................................................ 13
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 13
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 14
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 15
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 16
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 17
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 18
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 19
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 20
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 21
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 22
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 23
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 24
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 25
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 26
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 27
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 28
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 29
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 30
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 30
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 31
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 32
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 33
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 34
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 35
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 36
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 37
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 38
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 39
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 40
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BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 41
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 42
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 43
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 44
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 45
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 46
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ................................................................................................. 47
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 47
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 47
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 48
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 48
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 49
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 49
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 50
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 50
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 51
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 51
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 52
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 52
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 53
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 53
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 54
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 54
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 55
DISCLAIMER AND DISCLOSURE ....................................................................................................................... 56
CONTACT DETAILS .......................................................................................................................................... 56
APPENDIX 1 – TEST ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................ 57
APPENDIX 2 – METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................. 58
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Revision History Rev Revision History Date
Edition 1 Initial version of this report. 31 August 2012
Edition 2 Added newly tested products. 2 November 2012
References
Ref # Document Author Date
1 What Really Slows Windows Down (URL) O. Warner,
The PC Spy 2001-2009
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Executive Summary PassMark Software® conducted objective performance testing on nine (9) Internet Security software products,
eleven (11) Antivirus software products, and four (4) Total Security software products on Windows 7 Ultimate
Edition (64-bit) SP1 between July 2012 and October 2012. This report presents our results and findings as a result
of performance benchmark testing conducted for these consumer security products.
Subsequent editions of this report will include new products released for 2013 as they are made available. For
more details on which versions were tested, please see the section “Products and Versions”.
Testing was performed on all products using seventeen (17) performance metrics. These performance metrics
are as follows:
Boot Time;
Scan Time;
User Interface Launch Time;
Memory Usage during System Idle;
Browse Time;
Internet Explorer Launch Time;
Installation Time;
Installation Size;
Registry Keys Added;
File Copy, Move and Delete;
Installation of Third Party Applications;
Network Throughput (previously named “Binary Download Test”)
File Format Conversion;
File Compression and Decompression;
File Write, Open and Close;
PE Scan Time and;
File Copy Disk to Disk.
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Overall Score
PassMark Software assigned every product a score depending on its ranking in each metric compared to other
products in the same category.
Internet Security Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 153; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place all 17 metrics. Internet Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name Overall Score
Norton Internet Security 2013 128
Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 112
AVG Internet Security 2013 102
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 83
Avast! Internet Security 7 76
G Data InternetSecurity 2013 72
Panda Internet Security 2013 71
BitDefender Internet Security 2013 64
McAfee Internet Security 2013 57
Antivirus Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 187; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 17 metrics. Antivirus products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name Overall Score
Norton AntiVirus 2013 130
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 129
Microsoft Security Essentials 115
Avast! Pro Antivirus 7 107
Panda Antivirus Pro 2013 105
AVG Anti-Virus 2013 100
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus 2013 97
G Data AntiVirus 2013 96
Trend Micro Titanium 2013 85
Avast! Free Antivirus 7 85
McAfee Antivirus Plus 2013 72
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Total Security Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 68; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 17 metrics. Total Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name Overall Score
Norton 360 58
Kaspersky PURE 2.0 42
Trend Micro Maximum Security 2013 37
BitDefender Total Security 2013 33
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Products and Versions
Unless otherwise specified, we have tested the full, retail release of the newest generation (2013 versions) of
security products. The names and versions of products which were tested can be found below from each
category table:
Internet Security Software
Manufacturer Product Name Release
Year Product Version Date Tested
Symantec Corporation Norton Internet Security 2013 2012 20.1.0.10 (Beta) Aug 2012
G Data Software AG G Data InternetSecurity 2013 2012 23.0.0.19 Jul 2012
Avast Software a.s. Avast! Internet Security 7 2012 7.0.1456 Aug 2012
SOFTWIN Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 2012 16.16.0.1349 Aug 2012
Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 2012 13.0.1.4190 Aug 2012
Panda Security SL Panda Internet Security 2013 2012 18.00.01 Sep 2012
McAfee, Inc. McAfee Internet Security 2013 2012 12.0.637 Sep 2012
AVG Technologies AVG Internet Security 2013 2012 2013.0.2677 Sep 2012
Trend Micro Inc. Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013
2012 6.0.1215 Oct 2012
Antivirus Software
Manufacturer Product Name Release Year Product Version Date Tested
Symantec Corporation Norton AntiVirus 2013 2012 20.1.0.10 (Beta) Aug 2012
G Data Software AG G Data Antivirus 2013 2012 22.0.2.25 Aug 2012
Avast Software a.s. Avast! Pro Antivirus 7 2012 7.0.1456 Aug 2012
Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Security Essentials 2012 4.0.1526.0 Aug 2012
Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 2012 13.0.1.4190 Aug 2012
McAfee, Inc. McAfee Antivirus Plus 2012 12.0.637 Oct 2012
AVG Technologies AVG Anti-Virus 2013 2012 2013.0.2677 Oct 2012
Panda Security SL Panda Antivirus Pro 2013 2012 12.0.0.1 Oct 2012
Trend Micro Inc. Trend Micro Titanium 2013 2012 6.0.1215 Oct 2012
Quick Heal Quick Heal Pro Antivirus 2013 2012 14.00.7.0.0.1 Oct 2012
Avast Software a.s. Avast! Free Antivirus 7 2012 7.0.1473 Oct 2012
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Total Security Software
Manufacturer Product Name Release Year Product Version Date Tested
Symantec Corporation Norton 360 2012 20.1.0.10 (Beta) Aug 2012
Trend Micro Inc. Trend Micro Maximum Security 2013 2012 6.0.1215 Oct 2012
Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky PURE 2.0 2012 12.0.1.288 Aug 2012
BitDefender BitDefender Total Security 2013 2012 16.16.0.1348 Aug 2012
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Performance Metrics Summary
We have selected a set of objective metrics which provide a comprehensive and realistic indication of the areas
in which an antivirus may impact system performance for end users. Our metrics test the impact of the antivirus
software on common tasks that end-users would perform on a daily basis.
All of PassMark Software’s test methods can be replicated by third parties using the same environment to obtain
similar benchmark results. Detailed descriptions of the methodologies used in our tests are available as
“Appendix 2 – Methodology Description” of this report.
Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
This metric measures the amount of time taken for the machine to boot into the operating system. Security
software is generally launched at Windows startup, adding an additional amount of time and delaying the
startup of the operating system. Shorter boot times indicate that the application has had less impact on the
normal operation of the machine.
Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
All antivirus solutions have functionality designed to detect viruses and various other forms of malware by
scanning files on the system. This metric measured the amount of time required to scan a set of clean files. Our
sample file set comprised a total file size of 982 MB and was made up of files that would typically be found on
end-user machines, such as media files, system files and Microsoft Office documents.
Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
This metric provides an objective indication as to how responsive a security product appears to the user, by
measuring the amount of time it takes for the user interface of the antivirus software to launch from Windows.
To allow for caching effects by the operating system, both the initial launch time and the subsequent launch
times were measured. Our final result is an average of these two measurements.
Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
This metric measures the amount of memory (RAM) used by the product while the machine and antivirus
software are in an idle state. The total memory usage was calculated by identifying all antivirus software
processes and the amount of memory used by each process.
The amount of memory used while the machine is idle provides a good indication of the amount of system
resources being consumed by the antivirus software on a permanent basis. Better performing products occupy
less memory while the machine is idle.
Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
It is common behavior for security products to scan data for malware as it is downloaded from the internet or
intranet. This behavior may negatively impact browsing speed as products scan web content for malware. This
metric measures the time taken to browse a set of popular internet sites to consecutively load from a local
server in a user’s browser window.
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Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
This metric is one of many methods to objectively measure how much a security product impacts on the
responsiveness of the system. This metric measures the amount of time it takes to launch the user interface of
Internet Explorer 8. To allow for caching effects by the operating system, both the initial launch time and the
subsequent launch times were measured. Our final result is an average of these two measurements.
Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
The speed and ease of the installation process will strongly influence the user’s first impression of the antivirus
software. This test measures the minimum installation time required by the antivirus software to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Lower installation times represent antivirus products which are
quicker for a user to install.
Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
In offering new features and functionality to users, antivirus software products tend to increase in size with each
new release. Although new technologies push the size limits of hard drives each year, the growing disk space
requirements of common applications and the increasing popularity of large media files (such as movies, photos
and music) ensure that a product's installation size will remain of interest to home users.
This metric aims to measure a product’s total installation size. This metric is defined as the total disk space
consumed by all new files added during a product's installation.
Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
A large registry increases a machine’s use of resources. This may negatively impact system performance,
especially on much older machines. This test measures the amount of keys and values added to registry, after
rebooting the test machines, following a successful product installation. Lower numbers mean that a product has
added fewer keys during installation and had less impact on the registry.
Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
This metric measures the amount of time taken to move, copy and delete a sample set of files. The sample file
set contains several types of file formats that a Windows user would encounter in daily use. These formats
include documents (e.g. Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF, Zip files, etc), media formats (e.g. images,
movies and music) and system files (e.g. executables, libraries, etc).
Benchmark 11 – Installing Third Party Applications
This metric measures the amount of time taken to install and uninstall third party programs. The installation
speed of third party applications may be impacted by antivirus behavior such as heuristics or real time malware
scanning.
Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The metric measures the amount of time taken to download a variety of files from a local server using the
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is the main protocol used on the web for browsing, linking and data
transfer. Files used in this test include file formats that users would typically download from the web, such as
images, archives, music files and movie files.
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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
This test measures the amount of time taken to convert an MP3 file to a WAV and subsequently, convert the
same MP3 file to a WMA format.
Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
This metric measures the amount of time taken to compress and decompress different types of files. Files
formats used in this test included documents, movies and images.
Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
This benchmark was derived from Oli Warner’s File I/O test at http://www.thepcspy.com (please see Reference
#1: What Really Slows Windows Down). This metric measures the amount of time taken to write a file, then
open and close that file.
Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
All antivirus solutions have functionality designed to detect viruses and various other forms of malware by
scanning files on the system. This metric measured the amount of time required to scan a set of PE (Portable
Executable) files. Our sample file set comprised a total file size of 2.03GB and consisted of .exe (329MB), .dll
(920MB) and .sys files (827MB).
Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk To Disk
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files between two local drives. The data set comprised a
total file size of 5.44GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, images and executables.
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Internet Security Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton Internet Security in yellow. The
average has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing
products in this category.
45.1
43.4
41.5
39.2
36.4
34.7
34.1
32.1
29.5
28.3
0 s 5 s 10 s 15 s 20 s 25 s 30 s 35 s 40 s 45 s 50 s
AVG Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Bitdefender Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Average
Avast! Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
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Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each
Internet Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 2-
5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category.
60.1
58.8
49.4
40.1
39.9
35.4
34.9
30.5
27.8
22.5
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s
Panda Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Average
Bitdefender Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
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Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.
2455
896
799
675
508
483
300
259
208
164
0 ms 500 ms 1,000 ms 1,500 ms 2,000 ms 2,500 ms 3,000 ms
Panda Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Average
Bitdefender Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Avast! Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
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Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by an Internet Security product during a period
of system idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apart
after reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.
98.2
90.4
82.5
80.1
55.0
49.3
37.3
25.3
16.4
15.5
0 MB 20 MB 40 MB 60 MB 80 MB 100 MB 120 MB
McAfee Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Average
Kaspersky Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
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Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.
73.0
59.1
55.9
55.4
51.6
49.6
44.8
43.2
42.0
41.7
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s 80 s
Bitdefender Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Average
Panda Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
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Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
The following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine for
each Internet Security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing
products in this category.
4202
3196
2547
2326
2319
2275
2236
1592
1527
1037
0 ms 500 ms 1,000 ms 1,500 ms 2,000 ms 2,500 ms 3,000 ms 3,500 ms 4,000 ms 4,500 ms
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Average
Bitdefender Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
AVG Internet Security
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Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
The following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Internet Security products to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better
performing products in this category.
693.1
463.6
377.6
364.2
314.8
301.2
271.3
158.1
150.6
53.9
0 s 100 s 200 s 300 s 400 s 500 s 600 s 700 s 800 s
McAfee Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
Average
G Data InternetSecurity
AVG Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
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Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Internet Security products.
Products with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.
1095.7
745.7
726.4
551.2
489.5
481.2
388.0
376.3
332.4
325.7
0 MB 200 MB 400 MB 600 MB 800 MB 1,000 MB 1,200 MB
Bitdefender Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Average
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 21 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Internet
Security product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in this
category.
22632
9166
8125
7560
6945
6695
5402
5357
4693
4676
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
McAfee Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Average
Panda Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 22 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in
this category.
51.7
32.2
30.1
28.7
28.6
28.0
26.8
26.3
24.9
23.3
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s
McAfee Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Average
Bitdefender Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Avast! Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 23 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install 3 different third party applications for each
Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
149.4
141.0
130.7
121.6
119.3
110.9
109.1
104.8
104.7
101.8
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s 140 s 160 s
Bitdefender Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
McAfee Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Average
Avast! Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 24 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each Internet
Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
202.2
79.2
42.6
19.7
16.7
15.0
13.7
12.8
12.2
11.8
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s
Panda Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Average
McAfee Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 25 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3 WMA, MP3 WAV) for each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.
78.0
77.1
76.8
76.6
76.5
76.4
76.3
76.2
76.1
75.6
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s 80 s 90 s
Avast! Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Average
G Data InternetSecurity
McAfee Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 26 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed for
each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in
this category.
99.8
94.9
86.3
86.1
84.6
84.4
84.2
82.2
80.5
79.8
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
Average
G Data InternetSecurity
Avast! Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 27 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened and
closed 180,000 times, for each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.
1028
405
190
75
71
41
29
26
18
16
0 s 200 s 400 s 600 s 800 s 1,000 s 1,200 s
Bitdefender Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Average
McAfee Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Kaspersky Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 28 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Internet Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and
subsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in
this category.
208
198
114
108
97
94
80
78
68
36
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Avast! Internet Security
Average
Bitdefender Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Kaspersky Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 29 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a total of 8,501 files, with a total file size of 5.44GB
files, from one local drive to another local drive for each Internet Security product tested. The test was
performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was taken as the result. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.
254.1
143.6
138.3
125.8
125.4
124.6
122.7
121.9
116.4
109.8
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s 300 s
McAfee Internet Security
Panda Internet Security
Average
Avast! Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity
Kaspersky Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security
Norton Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 30 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Antivirus Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton AntiVirus in yellow. The average
has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in this
category.
47.8
42.2
39.5
36.9
35.9
35.1
34.6
33.9
33.5
32.3
30.8
28.1
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s
G Data Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Average
Avast! Free Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Microsoft Security Essentials
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Norton AntiVirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Trend Micro Titanium
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 31 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each
Antivirus product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 2-5) scan
times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category.
63
60
57
55
49
45
44
44
37
30
29
21
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Trend Micro Titanium
Microsoft Security Essentials
Average
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
McAfee Antivirus Plus
G Data Antivirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 32 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.
3137
1126
784
723
699
487
438
343
326
303
250
61
0 ms 500 ms 1,000 ms 1,500 ms 2,000 ms 2,500 ms 3,000 ms 3,500 ms
Panda Antivirus Pro
G Data Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Average
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Trend Micro Titanium
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 33 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by an Antivirus product during a period of
system idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apart
after reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.
217.5
123.7
83.1
77.0
76.4
74.9
62.3
59.0
55.2
46.0
13.1
11.0
0 MB 50 MB 100 MB 150 MB 200 MB 250 MB
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Trend Micro Titanium
Average
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Norton AntiVirus
G Data Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 34 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.
114
58
57
52
51
49
44
42
39
38
36
36
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Trend Micro Titanium
G Data Antivirus
Average
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Norton AntiVirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Panda Antivirus Pro
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 35 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
The following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine for
each Antivirus product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing products
in this category.
3224
2642
2483
2440
2356
2291
2291
2263
2201
2127
1771
1065
0 ms 500 ms 1,000 ms 1,500 ms 2,000 ms 2,500 ms 3,000 ms 3,500 ms
Norton AntiVirus
Trend Micro Titanium
Avast! Free Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
G Data Antivirus
Average
Panda Antivirus Pro
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Virus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 36 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
The following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Antivirus products to be fully functional
and ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better performing
products in this category.
531.7
343.7
320.6
304.8
267.7
249.0
239.4
201.0
166.8
146.2
142.9
73.8
0 s 100 s 200 s 300 s 400 s 500 s 600 s
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
G Data Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Average
AVG Anti-Virus
Trend Micro Titanium
Panda Antivirus Pro
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 37 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Antivirus products. Products
with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.
1413.0
690.6
529.2
529.2
487.3
423.8
396.1
395.8
363.6
321.2
250.3
47.8
0 MB 200 MB 400 MB 600 MB 800 MB 1,000 MB 1,200 MB 1,400 MB 1,600 MB
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
G Data Antivirus
Trend Micro Titanium
Avast! Free Antivirus
Average
Avast! Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Norton AntiVirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Panda Antivirus Pro
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Microsoft Security Essentials
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 38 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Antivirus
product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in this category.
19516
7071
6363
6359
6323
5276
4994
4903
4837
4541
2969
2719
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
McAfee Antivirus Plus
G Data Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Average
Microsoft Security Essentials
AVG Anti-Virus
Norton AntiVirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Trend Micro Titanium
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 39 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
32.4
30.6
30.4
29.6
28.0
27.8
27.4
27.3
27.1
26.2
25.6
24.2
0 s 5 s 10 s 15 s 20 s 25 s 30 s 35 s
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Trend Micro Titanium
Panda Antivirus Pro
Average
AVG Anti-Virus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
G Data Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 40 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install a third party application for each Antivirus
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
120.3
119.7
112.2
110.0
109.1
109.0
108.8
108.4
103.2
102.6
101.4
101.3
90 s 95 s 100 s 105 s 110 s 115 s 120 s 125 s
Trend Micro Titanium
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Average
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
G Data Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 41 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each
Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
144.7
25.1
19.0
15.1
14.7
13.3
13.3
12.2
11.7
11.2
10.8
10.4
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s 140 s 160 s
G Data Antivirus
Average
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Avast! Free Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
Trend Micro Titanium
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 42 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3 WMA, MP3 WAV) for each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.
78.3
78.0
77.8
77.5
76.8
76.7
76.4
76.2
76.1
75.9
75.8
75.8
75 s 75 s 76 s 76 s 77 s 77 s 78 s 78 s 79 s
Avast! Free Antivirus
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Trend Micro Titanium
Average
G Data Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Norton AntiVirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Microsoft Security Essentials
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 43 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed for
each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
99.7
90.9
86.9
86.0
85.7
85.4
85.1
84.9
81.3
81.0
80.2
78.2
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s
Trend Micro Titanium
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Panda Antivirus Pro
Average
Avast! Free Antivirus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Norton AntiVirus
G Data Antivirus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 44 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened and
closed 180,000 times, for each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.
404.8
271.8
87.3
72.0
38.4
33.5
29.6
26.7
24.8
24.3
17.9
16.4
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s 300 s 350 s 400 s 450 s
G Data Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Average
Trend Micro Titanium
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Virus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 45 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Antivirus product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and
subsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in
this category
191
144
119
116
112
92
78
69
66
52
35
34
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s
Panda Antivirus Pro
AVG Anti-Virus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
Average
Trend Micro Titanium
G Data Antivirus
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 46 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from one local drive to another local
drive for each Antivirus product tested. The test was performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was taken
as the result. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
167
140
135
124
124
124
120
117
115
113
111
102
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s 140 s 160 s 180 s
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Quick Heal Pro Antivirus
Panda Antivirus Pro
Average
Avast! Pro Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus
Norton AntiVirus
AVG Anti-Virus
Kasprsky Anti-Virus
Trend Micro Titanium
G Data Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials
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Total Security Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton 360 in yellow. The average has
also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Total Security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in
this category.
Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each Total
Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 2-5) scan
times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category
35.9
35.0
34.3
33.8
30.0
0 s 5 s 10 s 15 s 20 s 25 s 30 s 35 s 40 s
BitDefender Total Security
Kaspersky PURE
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
Norton 360
89
51
43
42
30
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s 80 s 90 s 100 s
Kaspersky PURE
Average
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
BitDefender Total Security
Norton 360
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Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.
Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a Total Security product during a period of
system idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apart
after reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.
814
778
765
606
65
0 ms 100 ms 200 ms 300 ms 400 ms 500 ms 600 ms 700 ms 800 ms 900 ms
Kaspersky PURE
BitDefender Total Security
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
Norton 360
92.7
79.1
64.5
62.9
23.3
0 MB 10 MB 20 MB 30 MB 40 MB 50 MB 60 MB 70 MB 80 MB 90 MB 100 MB
BitDefender Total Security
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
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Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
The following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.
Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
The following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine for
each Total Security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing
products in this category.
73
54
53
51
40
0 s 10 s 20 s 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s 70 s 80 s
BitDefender Total Security
Average
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
3130
2535
2473
2238
1989
0 ms 500 ms 1,000 ms 1,500 ms 2,000 ms 2,500 ms 3,000 ms 3,500 ms
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Norton 360
Average
BitDefender Total Security
Kaspersky PURE
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Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
The following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Total Security products to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better
performing products in this category.
Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Total Security products.
Products with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.
294
238
196
194
57
0 s 50 s 100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s 300 s 350 s
BitDefender Total Security
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
1147
585
549
351
292
0 MB 200 MB 400 MB 600 MB 800 MB 1,000 MB 1,200 MB 1,400 MB
BitDefender Total Security
Average
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Norton 360
Kaspersky PURE
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Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Total
Security product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in this
category.
Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
7961
6321
6193
5355
5134
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Kaspersky PURE
BitDefender Total Security
Average
Norton 360
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
31.5
28.8
28.4
28.2
23.9
0 s 5 s 10 s 15 s 20 s 25 s 30 s 35 s
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Kaspersky PURE
BitDefender Total Security
Average
Norton 360
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Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install a third party application for each Total Security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each Total
Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
113.7
109.9
108.4
105.4
104.7
100 s 102 s 104 s 106 s 108 s 110 s 112 s 114 s 116 s
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Kaspersky PURE
Average
BitDefender Total Security
Norton 360
15.2
14.1
13.7
13.5
11.9
0 s 2 s 4 s 6 s 8 s 10 s 12 s 14 s 16 s
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
Average
BitDefender Total Security
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3 WMA, MP3 WAV) for each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.
Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed for
each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
77.3
76.5
76.4
76.0
75.9
75 s 76 s 76 s 77 s 77 s 78 s
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Kaspersky PURE
Average
Norton 360
BitDefender Total Security
97.4
85.6
84.7
80.5
79.8
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
BitDefender Total Security
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
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Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened and
closed 180,000 times, for each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.
Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Total Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and
subsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in
this category
945.9
267.9
71.5
29.1
25.1
0 s 100 s 200 s 300 s 400 s 500 s 600 s 700 s 800 s 900 s 1,000 s
BitDefender Total Security
Average
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Norton 360
Kaspersky PURE
114
106
80
68
33
0 s 20 s 40 s 60 s 80 s 100 s 120 s
BitDefender Total Security
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
Average
Kaspersky PURE
Norton 360
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Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from one local drive to another local
drive for each Total Security product tested. The test was performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was
taken as the result. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
123.9
117.3
116.3
115.6
108.6
100 s 105 s 110 s 115 s 120 s 125 s 130 s
BitDefender Total Security
Norton 360
Average
Kaspersky PURE
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
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Disclaimer and Disclosure
This report only covers versions of products that were available at the time of testing. The tested versions are as
noted in the “Products and Versions” section of this report. The products we have tested are not an exhaustive
list of all products available in these very competitive product categories.
Disclaimer of Liability
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented in this report is accurate, PassMark
Software Pty Ltd assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or out-of-date information and shall not be
liable in any manner whatsoever for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages resulting
from the availability of, use of, access of, or inability to use this information.
Disclosure
Symantec Corporation funded the production of this report, selected the test metrics and list of products to
include in this report, and supplied some of the test scripts used for the tests.
Trademarks
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact Details
PassMark Software Pty Ltd
Suite 202, Level 2
35 Buckingham St.
Surry Hills, 2010
Sydney, Australia
Phone + 61 (2) 9690 0444
Fax + 61 (2) 9690 0445
Web www.passmark.com
Download Location
An electronic copy of this report can be found at the following location:
http://www.passmark.com/tpsreport13
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Appendix 1 – Test Environment
For our testing, PassMark Software used a test environment running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) SP1 with the
following hardware specifications:
Windows 7 (64-bit) System
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Quad Core @ 2.67GHz
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 GT
Motherboard: Intel x58 Motherboard
RAM: 6GB DDR3 RAM
HDD : Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM
Network: Gigabit (1GB/s) switch
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Appendix 2 – Methodology Description
Windows 7 Image Creation
As with testing on Windows Vista, Norton Ghost was used to create a “clean” baseline image prior to testing.
Our aim is to create a baseline image with the smallest possible footprint and reduce the possibility of variation
caused by external operating system factors.
The baseline image was restored prior to testing of each different product. This process ensures that we install
and test all products on the same, “clean” machine.
The steps taken to create the base Windows 7 image are as follows:
1. Installation and activation of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.
2. Disabled Automatic Updates.
3. Changed User Account Control settings to “Never Notify”.
4. Disable Windows Defender automatic scans to avoid unexpected background activity.
5. Disable the Windows firewall to avoid interference with security software.
6. Installed Norton Ghost for imaging purposes.
7. Disabled Superfetch to ensure consistent results.
8. Installed HTTP Watch for Browse Time testing.
9. Installed Windows Performance Toolkit x64 for Boot Time testing.
10. Installed Active Perl for interpretation of some test scripts.
11. Install OSForensics for testing (Installation Size and Registry Key Count tests) purposes.
12. Disabled updates, accelerators and compatibility view updates in Internet Explorer 8.
13. Update to Windows Service Pack 1
14. Created a baseline image using Norton Ghost.
Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
PassMark Software uses tools available from the Windows Performance Toolkit version 4.6 (as part of the
Microsoft Windows 7 SDK obtainable from the Microsoft Website) with a view to obtaining more precise and
consistent boot time results on the Windows 7 platform.
The boot process is first optimized with xbootmgr.exe using the command “xbootmgr.exe -trace boot –
prepSystem” which prepares the system for the test over six optimization boots. The boot traces obtained from
the optimization process are discarded.
After boot optimization, the benchmark is conducted using the command "xbootmgr.exe -trace boot -numruns
5”. This command boots the system five times in succession, taking detailed boot traces for each boot cycle.
Finally, a post-processing tool was used to parse the boot traces and obtain the BootTimeViaPostBoot value. This
value reflects the amount of time it takes the system to complete all (and only) boot time processes. Our final
result is an average of five boot traces.
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Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
Scan Time is the time it took for each product to scan a set of sample files. The sample used was identical in all
cases and contained a mixture of system files and Office files. In total there were 6159 files whose combined size
was 982 MB. Most of these files come from the Windows system folders. As the file types can influence scanning
speed, the breakdown of the main file types, file numbers and total sizes of the files in the sample set is given
here:
File Extension Number of Files File Size
.dll 2589 490MB .exe 695 102MB .sys 332 23MB .gif 302 1MB
.doc 281 64MB .wmf 185 2MB .png 149 2MB .html 126 1MB .nls 80 6MB .jpg 70 1MB .ini 59 2MB .ico 58 <1MB
.mof 43 6MB .ax 39 4MB .xls 38 3MB
.ime 35 5MB .drv 31 1MB .txt 31 1MB
.chm 30 6MB .cpl 29 4MB .mfl 29 3MB .inf 26 2MB .hlp 22 3MB .imd 20 18MB .py 20 <1MB
.msc 18 1MB .vbs 18 1MB .xml 18 1MB .rtf 16 62MB .ocx 16 4MB .tsp 14 1MB
.com 14 <1MB .xsl 14 <1MB .h 13 <1MB
.vsd 12 2MB .scr 12 2MB .aw 12 2MB .js 12 1MB
.zip 11 25MB
.lex 9 10MB .ppt 9 4MB .acm 9 1MB .wav 7 5MB Total 6159 982
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This scan was run without launching the product’s user interface, by right-clicking the test folder and choosing
the “Scan Now” option. To record the scan time, we have used product’s built-in scan timer or reporting system.
Where this was not possible, scan times were taken manually with a stopwatch.
For each product, five samples were taken with the machine rebooted before each sample to clear any caching
effects by the operating systems.
In 2009, we noticed many more products showing a substantial difference between the initial scan time (first
scan) and subsequent scan times (scans 2 to 5). We believe this behavior is due to products themselves caching
recently scanned files.
As a result of this mechanism, we have averaged the four subsequent scan times to obtain an average
subsequent scan time. Our final result for this test is an average of the subsequent scan average and the initial
scan time.
Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
The launch time of a product’s user interface was taken using AppTimer (v1.0.1006). For each product tested, we
obtained a total of fifteen samples from five sets of three UI launches, with a reboot before each set to clear
caching effects by the operating system. When compiling the results the first of each set was separated out so
that there was a set of values for the initial launch after reboot and a set for subsequent launches.
We have averaged the subsequent launch times to obtain an average subsequent launch time. Our final result
for this test is an average of the subsequent launch average and the initial launch time.
In some cases, AppTimer did not correctly record the time taken for UI launch. For instance, some applications
would open their window and look like they were ready, but then continued to be unresponsive. Where the
measurement from AppTimer appeared inaccurate, we have taken the time manually with a stop watch.
AppTimer is publically available from the PassMark Website.
Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The Perflog++ utility was used to record process memory usage on the system at boot, and then every minute
for another fifteen minutes after. This was done only once per product and resulted in a total of 15 samples. The
first sample taken at boot is discarded.
The PerfLog++ utility records memory usage of all processes, not just those of the anti-malware product. As a
result of this, an anti-malware product’s processes needed to be isolated from all other running system
processes. To isolate relevant process, we used a program called Process Explorer which was run immediately
upon the completion of memory usage logging by PerfLog++. Process Explorer is a Microsoft Windows
Sysinternals software tool which shows a list of all DLL processes currently loaded on the system.
Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
We used a script in conjunction with HTTPWatch (Basic Edition, version 6.1) to record the amount of time it
takes for a set of 106 ‘popular’ websites to load consecutively from a local server. This script feeds a list of URLs
into HTTPWatch, which instructs the browser to load pages in sequence and monitors the amount of time it
takes for the browser to load all items on one page.
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For this test, we have used Internet Explorer 9 (Version 9.0.8112.16421) as our browser.
The set of websites used in this test include front pages of high traffic pages. This includes shopping, social,
news, finance and reference websites.
The Browse Time test is executed five times and our final result is an average of these five samples. The local
server is restarted between different products and one initial ‘test’ run is conducted prior to testing to install
Adobe Flash Player, an add-on which is used by many popular websites.
Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
The average launch time of Internet Explorer interface was taken using AppTimer. This test was practically
identical to the User Interface launch time test. For each product tested, we obtained a total of fifteen samples
from five sets of three Internet Explorer launches, with a reboot before each set to clear caching effects by the
operating system. When compiling the results the first of each set was separated out so that there was a set of
values for the initial launch after reboot and a set for subsequent launches.
For this test, we have used Internet Explorer 8 (Version 8.0.6001.18783) as our test browser.
We have averaged the subsequent launch times to obtain an average subsequent launch time. Our final result
for this test is an average of the subsequent launch average and the initial launch time.
Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
This test measures the minimum Installation Time a product requires to be fully functional and ready for use by
the end user. Installation time can usually be divided in three major phases:
The Extraction and Setup phase consists of file extraction, the EULA prompt, product activation and user
configurable options for installation.
The File Copy phase occurs when the product is being installed; usually this phase is indicated by a progress
bar.
The Post-Installation phase is any part of the installation that occurs after the File Copy phase. This phase
varies widely between products; the time recorded in this phase may include a required reboot to finalize the
installation or include the time the program takes to become idle in the system tray.
To reduce the impact of disk drive variables, each product was copied to the Desktop before initializing
installation. Each step of the installation process was manually timed with a stopwatch and recorded in as much
detail as possible. Where input was required by the end user, the stopwatch was paused and the input noted in
the raw results in parenthesis after the phase description.
Where possible, all requests by products to pre-scan or post-install scan were declined or skipped. Where it was
not possible to skip a scan, the time to scan was included as part of the installation time. Where an optional
component of the installation formed a reasonable part of the functionality of the software, it was also installed
(e.g. website link checking software as part of an Internet Security Product).
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Installation time includes the time taken by the product installer to download components required in the
installation. This may include mandatory updates or the delivery of the application itself from a download
manager. We have noted in our results where a product has downloaded components for product installation.
We have excluded product activation times due to network variability in contacting vendor servers or time taken
in account creation.
Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
A product's Installation Size was previously defined as the difference between the initial snapshot of the Disk
Space (C: drive) before installation and the subsequent snapshot taken after the product is installed on the
system. Although this is a widely used methodology, we noticed that the results it yielded were not always
reproducible in Vista due to random OS operations that may take place between the two snapshots. We
improved the Installation Size methodology by removing as many Operating System and disk space variables as
possible.
Using PassMark’s OSForensics we created initial and post-installation disk signatures for each product. These
disk signatures recorded the amount of files and directories, and complete details of all files on that drive
(including file name, file size, checksum, etc) at the time the signature was taken.
The initial disk signature was taken immediately prior to installation of the product. A subsequent disk signature
was taken immediately following a manual update and system reboot after product installation. Using
OSForensics, we compared the two signatures and calculated the total disk space consumed by files that were
new, modified, and deleted during product installation. Our result for this metric reflects the total size of all
newly added files during installation.
Benchmark 9 – Registry Key Count
This test measures the amount of keys and values added to registry, after rebooting the test machine following a
successful product installation. The test was conducted using PassMark’s OSForensics, to count the number of
keys, errors and values that were added under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. The Create Signature
feature is used to take a before and after signature of these folders, and the signatures are then compared so
that the new keys can be identified.
Benchmarks 10-15 – Real-Time Performance
We used a single script in testing Benchmarks 10-15. The script consecutively executes tests for Benchmarks 10-
15. The script times each phase in these benchmarks using CommandTimer.exe and appends results to a log file.
Benchmarks 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
This test measures the amount of time required for the system to copy, move and delete samples of files in
various file formats. This sample was made up of 812 files over 760,867,636 bytes and can be categorized as
documents [26% of total], media files [54% of total] and PE files (i.e. System Files) [20% of total].
The breakdown of the main file types, file numbers and total sizes of the files in the sample set is shown in the
following table:
File format Number Size (bytes)
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DOC 8 30,450,176
DOCX 4 13,522,409
PPT 3 5,769,216
PPTX 3 4,146,421
XLS 4 2,660,352
XLSX 4 1,426,054
PDF 73 136,298,049
ZIP 4 6,295,987
7Z 1 92,238
JPG 351 31,375,259
GIF 6 148,182
MOV 7 57,360,371
RM 1 5,658,646
AVI 8 78,703,408
WMV 5 46,126,167
MP3 28 191,580,387
EXE 19 2,952,914
DLL 104 29,261,568
AX 1 18,432
CPL 2 2,109,440
CPX 2 4,384
DRV 10 154,864
ICO 1 107,620
MSC 1 41,587
NT 1 1,688
ROM 2 36,611
SCR 2 2,250,240
SYS 1 37,528,093
TLB 3 135,580
TSK 1 1,152
UCE 1 22,984
EXE 19 2,952,914
DLL 104 29,261,568
AX 1 18,432
CPL 2 2,109,440
CPX 2 4,384
DRV 10 154,864
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ICO 1 107,620
MSC 1 41,587
NT 1 1,688
ROM 2 36,611
SCR 2 2,250,240
SYS 1 37,528,093
TLB 3 135,580
TSK 1 1,152
UCE 1 22,984
Total 812 760,867,636
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to copy, move and delete the sample files, with
the test machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 11 – Third Party Program Installation
This test measured how much time was required to install and uninstall a third party application. For this test, CommandTimer.exe timed how long it took to install and uninstall the following applications on the test machine:
Firefox 3.6.3 (11,909 KB) (MSI File)
Microsoft .NET 3.5 (34,121 KB) (MSI File)
Steam (1,551 KB) (MSI File)
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to install/uninstall the above third party programs, with the test machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
This benchmark measured how much time was required to download a sample set of binary files of various sizes
and types over a 100MB/s network connection. The files were hosted on a server machine running Windows
Server 2008 and IIS 7. CommandTimer.exe was used in conjunction with GNU Wget (version 1.10.1) to time and
conduct the download test.
The complete sample set of files was made up of 553,638,694 bytes over 484 files and two file type categories:
media files [74% of total] and documents [26% of total]. The breakdown of the file types, file numbers and total
sizes of the files in the sample set is shown in the following table:
File format Number Size (bytes)
JPEG 343 30,668,312
GIF 9 360,349
PNG 5 494,780
MOV 7 57,360,371
RM 1 5,658,646
AVI 8 78,703,408
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WMV 5 46,126,167
MP3 28 191,580,387
PDF 73 136,298,049
ZIP 4 6,295,987
7Z 1 92,238
Total 484 553,638,694
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to download this sample of files, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion (MP3 WAV, MP3 WMA)
This test measured how much time was required to convert five (5) different MP3 files into WAV files and
subsequently, convert the same MP3 samples into a WMA files. The total size of the five (5) MP3s used was
25,870,899 bytes.
To encode the MP3 into another format, we used an application called ffmpeg.exe. The format conversion
process was timed using CommandTimer.exe.
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average conversion speed between these formats, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
This test measured the amount of time required to compress and decompress a sample set of files. For this test,
we used a subset of the media and documents files used in the File Copy, Move and Delete benchmark.
CommandTimer.exe recorded the amount of time required for 7zip.exe to compress the files into a *.zip and
subsequently decompress the created *.zip file.
This subset comprised 1,218 files over 783 MB. The breakdown of the file types, file numbers and total sizes of
the files in the sample set is shown in the following table:
File Type File Number Total Size
.xls 13 9.23 MB
.xlsx 9 3.51 MB
.ppt 9 7.37 MB
.pptx 11 17.4 MB
.doc 17 35.9 MB
.docx 19 24.5 MB
.gif 177 1.10 MB
.jpg 737 66.2 MB
.png 159 48.9 MB
.mov 7 54.7 MB
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
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.rm 1 5.39 MB
.avi 46 459 MB
.wma 11 48.6 MB
.avi 46 459 MB
.wma 11 48.6 MB
Total 1218 783 MB
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average file compression and decompression speed, with the
test machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
This benchmark was derived from Oli Warner’s File I/O test at http://www.thepcspy.com (please see Reference
#1: What Really Slows Windows Down).
For this test, we developed OpenClose.exe, an application that looped writing a small file to disk, then opening
and closing that file. CommandTimer.exe was used to time how long the process took to complete 180,000
cycles.
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average file writing, opening and closing speed, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.
Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
This test measures the on demand scan times of a file set comprised only of executable files (.exe, .dll and .sys
files). We performed five scans of the sample file set, with a machine restart between each scan to remove
possible caching effects. The time taken to scan the files is taken from an antivirus product’s scan logs, or where
logs are not available, manually with a stopwatch. Scans were launched by right clicking on the folder to be
scanned.
A breakdown of the sample file set is as follows:
File Type Number
of Files
File Size
Sys Files 2174 329MB
Dll Files 2037 920MB
Exe Files 2140 827MB
Total 6351 2076MB
The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples.
Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files between two local drives. The data set comprised of
8,501 files with a total file size of 5.44GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, images and
executables. A breakdown of the sample file set is given below:
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2013 Consumer Security Products PassMark Software
Performance Benchmark Page 67 of 67 Edition 2 6 November 2012
File
Extension
Number
of Files
File Size
.jpg 2903 588MB
.dll 773 25MB
.exe 730 197MB
.gif 681 63MB
.wav 430 260MB
.sys 501 79MB
.png 451 27MB
.mp3 333 2157MB
.wma 585 925MB
.docx 267 81MB
.avi 247 1079MB
.doc 160 57MB
.xls 329 132MB
.ppt 97 148MB
.zip 14 177MB
Total 8501 5995MB
A total of five runs of this test were performed, with a machine restart between each run. The time taken to
copy files was measured and recorded by CommandTimer.exe. All the files were copied between a folder on the
local drive and a 2nd
folder on a different drive. Files were deleted from the 2nd
drive once the copy was
complete. The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples