2015 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks

Transcription

2015 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks
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Authors:
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Date:
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2015 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks (Edition 3)
M. Baquiran, D. Wren
PassMark Software
30 March 2015
3
totalsecuritysuites-mar2015.docx
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................................................................... 2
REVISION HISTORY............................................................................................................................................ 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... 5
OVERALL SCORE ................................................................................................................................................ 6
PRODUCTS AND VERSIONS ............................................................................................................................... 8
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE .................................................................................................................................. 8
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................................................... 8
PERFORMANCE METRICS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 9
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ............................................................................................ 13
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME (SECONDS) ................................................................................................................... 13
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME (SECONDS) .................................................................................................................... 14
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME (MILLISECONDS) .................................................................................. 15
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE (MEGABYTES) ........................................................................... 16
BENCHMARK 5 – MEMORY USAGE DURING INITIAL SCAN .............................................................................................. 17
BENCHMARK 6 – BROWSE TIME (SECONDS)................................................................................................................ 18
BENCHMARK 7 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME (MILLISECONDS) ............................................................................. 19
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION TIME (SECONDS) ........................................................................................................ 20
BENCHMARK 9 – INSTALLATION SIZE (MEGABYTES) ...................................................................................................... 21
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE (SECONDS)........................................................................................ 22
BENCHMARK 11– INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS (SECONDS) .................................................................... 23
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT (SECONDS) ............................................................................................... 24
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION (SECONDS)............................................................................................. 25
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION (SECONDS)......................................................................... 26
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE DOWNLOAD (SECONDS) .......................................................................................................... 27
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME (SECONDS) ............................................................................................................. 28
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK (SECONDS) ................................................................................................. 29
BENCHMARK 18 – FILE COPY OVER NETWORK (SECONDS) ............................................................................................ 30
BENCHMARK 19 – PCMARK .................................................................................................................................... 31
BENCHMARK 20 – WORD DOCUMENT LAUNCH AND OPEN TIME (MILLISECONDS) ............................................................. 32
BENCHMARK 21 – RUN EXCEL MACRO (SECONDS) ...................................................................................................... 33
BENCHMARK 22 – SAVE WORD DOCUMENT TO PDF (SECONDS) .................................................................................... 34
BENCHMARK 23– USB 3.0 FILE COPY (SECONDS) ....................................................................................................... 35
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ................................................................................................. 36
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME (SECONDS) ................................................................................................................... 36
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME (SECONDS) .................................................................................................................... 36
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME (MILLISECONDS) .................................................................................. 37
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE (MEGABYTES) ........................................................................... 37
BENCHMARK 5 – MEMORY USAGE DURING INITIAL SCAN .............................................................................................. 38
BENCHMARK 6 – BROWSE TIME (SECONDS)................................................................................................................ 38
BENCHMARK 7 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME (MILLISECONDS) ............................................................................. 39
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BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION TIME (SECONDS) ........................................................................................................ 39
BENCHMARK 9 – INSTALLATION SIZE (MEGABYTES) ...................................................................................................... 40
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE (SECONDS)........................................................................................ 40
BENCHMARK 11– INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS (SECONDS) .................................................................... 41
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT (SECONDS) ............................................................................................... 41
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION (SECONDS)............................................................................................. 42
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION (SECONDS)......................................................................... 42
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE DOWNLOAD (SECONDS) .......................................................................................................... 43
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME (SECONDS) ............................................................................................................. 43
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK (SECONDS) ................................................................................................. 44
BENCHMARK 18 – FILE COPY OVER NETWORK (SECONDS) ............................................................................................ 44
BENCHMARK 19 – PCMARK .................................................................................................................................... 45
BENCHMARK 20 – WORD DOCUMENT LAUNCH AND OPEN TIME (MILLISECONDS) ............................................................. 45
BENCHMARK 21 – RUN EXCEL MACRO (SECONDS) ...................................................................................................... 46
BENCHMARK 22 – SAVE WORD DOCUMENT TO PDF (SECONDS) .................................................................................... 46
BENCHMARK 23– USB 3.0 FILE COPY (SECONDS) ....................................................................................................... 47
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE ON SSD – TEST RESULTS ............................................................................... 48
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME (SECONDS) ................................................................................................................... 48
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME (SECONDS) .................................................................................................................... 48
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE & DELETE (SECONDS) ........................................................................................... 49
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK (SECONDS)................................................................................................. 49
BENCHMARK 18– FILE COPY OVER NETWORK (SECONDS) ............................................................................................. 50
DISCLAIMER AND DISCLOSURE ....................................................................................................................... 51
CONTACT DETAILS .......................................................................................................................................... 51
APPENDIX 1 – TEST ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................ 52
APPENDIX 2 – METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................. 53
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
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Rev
PassMark Software
Revision History
Edition 1
Initial version of this report.
Edition 2
Second version of this report with total security category added.
Edition 3
Third version of this report with internet security on SSD category added.
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Date
17 September 2014
5 February 2015
2 April 2015
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PassMark Software® conducted objective performance testing on twelve (12) Internet Security software products
and five (5) Total Security software products on Windows 7 Ultimate Edition (64-bit) SP1 between August 2014
and March 2015. 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 2015 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 twenty-three (23) performance metrics. These performance metrics
are as follows:
 Boot Time;
 Scan Time;
 User Interface Launch Time;
 Memory Usage during System Idle;
 Memory Usage during Initial Scan;
 Browse Time;
 Internet Explorer Launch Time;
 Installation Time;
 Installation Size;
 File Copy, Move and Delete;
 Installation of Third Party Applications;
 Network Throughput (previously named “Binary Download Test”)
 File Format Conversion;
 File Compression and Decompression;
 PE Scan Time;
 File Copy Disk to Disk;
 File Copy Over Network;
 File Download;
 PCMark;
 Word Document Launch and Open Time;
 Run Excel Macro;
 Save Word Document as PDF; and
 USB 3.0 File Copy.
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PassMark Software assigned every product a score depending on its ranking in each metric compared to other
products in the same category.
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 276; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 23 metrics. Internet Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name
Overall Score
Norton Security
203
Kaspersky Internet Security
180
ESET Smart Security
169
Bitdefender Internet Security
157
McAfee Internet Security
153
AVG Internet Security
151
Avira Internet Security
147
Panda Internet Security
140
Avast Internet Security
127
F-Secure Internet Security
136
G Data Internet Security
122
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
109
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 115; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 23 metrics. Total Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Overall Score
Norton Security with Backup
91
Kaspersky PURE
80
McAfee Total Security
63
Bitdefender Total Security
58
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security
53
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In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 25; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 5 (SSD) metrics. Internet Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:
Product Name
Norton Security
21
Bitdefender Internet Security
20
Trend Micro Internet Security
15
Kaspersky Internet Security
10
McAfee Internet Security
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Overall Score
9
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Unless otherwise specified, we have tested the full, retail release of the newest generation of security products.
The names and versions of products which were tested can be found below from each category table:
Product Name
Release
Year
Product Version
Date Tested
Norton Security
2014
22.0.2.17
Dec 2014
F-Secure Internet Security
2014
14.115 build 100
Aug 2014
Kaspersky Internet Security
2014
14.0.0.4651
Aug 2014
McAfee Internet Security
2014
Security Centre
13.6.1138
Sep 2014
Bitdefender Internet Security
2014
18.14.0.1088
Aug 2014
ESET
ESET Smart Security
2014
7.0.3.14
Sep 2014
AVG
AVG Internet Security
2014
2.02.1012
Sep 2014
Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security
2014
19.01.00
Sep 2014
G Data Software AG
G Data Internet Security
2014
25.0.1.2
Sep 2014
Panda Security SL
Panda Internet Security
2014
15.0.3
Oct 2014
Avira Operations
Avira Internet Security Suite
2014
14.0.7.468
Jan 2015
Avast! Internet Security
2014
2015.10.0.2206
Nov 2014
Release
Year
Product Version
Date Tested
Norton Security with Backup
2014
22.0.2.17
Dec 2014
Trend Micro Titanium Maximum
Security
2014
8.0.1133
Aug 2014
Kaspersky PURE
2014
3.0 13.0.2.558
Dec 2014
McAfee Total Security
2014
Security Centre
13.6.1138
Dec 2014
Bitdefender Total Security
2014
18.20.0.1429
Dec 2014
Manufacturer
Symantec Corporation
F-Secure Corporation
Kaspersky Lab
McAfee, Inc.
Softwin
Trend Micro
Avast
Manufacturer
Symantec Corporation
Trend Micro
Kaspersky Lab
McAfee, Inc.
Softwin
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Product Name
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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.
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.
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 enduser machines, such as media files, system files and Microsoft Office documents.
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.
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.
This metric measures the amount of memory (RAM) used by the product during an initial security scan. The total
memory usage was calculated by identifying all security software processes and the amount of memory used by
each process during the scan.
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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.
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 10. 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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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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.
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.
This test measures the amount of time taken to download a set of setup files from a local server using the
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The data set comprised a total file size of 290MB, and the formats used
include executables and Microsoft installation packages.
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).
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.
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files from a local drive to a local server. The data set
comprised a total file size of 5.44GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, images and executables.
This test measures the overall performance as an overall score over a range of areas, including memory, video,
gaming, music, communications, productivity and HDD performance.
This metric measures how much security software impacts on the responsiveness and performance of the system.
This metric measures the amount of time it takes to open a large, mixed media document with Microsoft Word.
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.
This test measures the amount of time taken to open an Excel document and run a macro to perform a range of
operations. The test is run five times with a reboot in between each run. Our final result is taken as an average of
these five measurements.
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This test measures the amount of time taken to open a large Word document and save it in PDF format. The test
is run five times with a reboot in between each run. Our final result is taken as an average of these five
measurements.
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files from a USB 3.0 drive to a local disk. The data set
comprised a total file size of 6.06GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, system files and
executables.
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In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton Security in yellow. The average
has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for each
security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in this
category.
McAfee IS
18.5
ESET SS
20.4
Avast IS
20.5
Norton Security
20.8
Panda IS
21.6
G Data IS
23.6
Trend Micro Titanium IS
23.7
Average
23.7
AVG IS
25.2
Kaspersky Internet Security
25.7
Bitdefender IS
27.3
Avira IS
28.1
F-Secure IS
29.0
0s
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5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
30 s
35 s
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The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each 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.
Kaspersky Internet Security
7.0
Bitdefender IS
9.4
AVG IS
10.6
Norton Security
10.8
ESET SS
18.0
G Data IS
19.8
F-Secure IS
23.2
McAfee IS
25.8
Average
33.6
Avira IS
44.4
Avast IS
56.2
Panda IS
69.3
Trend Micro Titanium IS
108.8
0s
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20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
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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.
ESET SS
Kaspersky Internet Security
92
111
F-Secure IS
Norton Security
Trend Micro Titanium IS
Bitdefender IS
145
158
242
341
Avira IS
362
G Data IS
369
Average
384
McAfee IS
396
Avast IS
403
AVG IS
758
Panda IS
0 ms
Performance Benchmark
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1230
200 ms
400 ms
600 ms
800 ms
1,000 ms
1,200 ms
1,400 ms
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The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a 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.
Norton Security
29.7
Panda IS
30.5
Avast IS
Kaspersky Internet Security
53.9
80.9
Avira IS
90.3
F-Secure IS
93.0
G Data IS
104.7
ESET SS
118.6
Average
127.5
Trend Micro Titanium IS
211.5
McAfee IS
218.6
AVG IS
243.9
Bitdefender IS
0 MB
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254.2
50 MB
100 MB
150 MB
200 MB
250 MB
300 MB
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The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a security product during a scan. This average
is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 12 seconds apart. Products with lower idle RAM
usage are considered better performing products in this category.
Panda IS
ESET SS
Norton Security
Avast IS
F-Secure IS
Kaspersky Internet Security
67.7
77.4
105.3
110.2
154.1
168.5
Average
215.7
Trend Micro Titanium IS
235.2
Avira IS
253.7
McAfee IS
255.5
G Data IS
275.4
Bitdefender IS
391.2
AVG IS
0 MB
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494.3
100 MB
200 MB
300 MB
400 MB
500 MB
600 MB
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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.*
McAfee IS
25.1
ESET SS
25.6
Avira IS
27.6
Avast IS
28.1
Norton Security
28.2
AVG IS
36.7
Panda IS
37.2
G Data IS
38.2
Average
39.2
Trend Micro Titanium IS
41.5
F-Secure IS
43.5
Bitdefender IS
99.7
0s
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
*Kaspersky was omitted from the above comparison chart due to the test script being blocked by the software.
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The following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine for each
security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing products in this
category.
AVG IS
714
Bitdefender IS
1203
Panda IS
1262
ESET SS
1343
Kaspersky Internet Security
1431
Avira IS
1526
Average
1528
F-Secure IS
1529
Norton Security
1570
McAfee IS
1734
Trend Micro Titanium IS
1990
Avast IS
2014
G Data IS
2018
0 ms
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500 ms
1,000 ms
1,500 ms
2,000 ms
2,500 ms
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The following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for 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.
Norton Security
65
G Data IS
87
Kaspersky Internet Security
92
Panda IS
110
AVG IS
152
Trend Micro Titanium IS
181
Average
198
Avira IS
209
ESET SS
218
F-Secure IS
288
Avast IS
347
Bitdefender IS
359
McAfee IS
572
0s
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100 s
200 s
300 s
400 s
500 s
600 s
700 s
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The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of security products. Products
with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.
F-Secure IS
Panda IS
Norton Security
ESET SS
238.5
278.2
348.5
361.0
McAfee IS
411.7
AVG IS
476.5
Avira IS
494.5
Kaspersky Internet Security
509.1
Average
615.7
Trend Micro Titanium IS
872.0
G Data IS
881.6
Avast IS
1000.2
Bitdefender IS
0 MB
Performance Benchmark
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1516.8
200 MB
400 MB
600 MB
800 MB 1,000 MB 1,200 MB 1,400 MB 1,600 MB
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The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Kaspersky Internet Security
6.7
Norton Security
6.8
G Data IS
7.1
Avast IS
7.4
McAfee IS
7.7
Trend Micro Titanium IS
8.0
Bitdefender IS
8.0
Average
9.0
AVG IS
9.1
ESET SS
9.1
Panda IS
11.1
F-Secure IS
13.3
Avira IS
13.8
0s
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2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
16 s
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The following chart compares the average time taken to install 3 different third party applications for each security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Bitdefender IS
13.2
Avast IS
17.6
Avira IS
19.1
Kaspersky Internet Security
19.2
ESET SS
19.6
G Data IS
20.4
Norton Security
20.4
Panda IS
20.9
Average
21.5
Trend Micro Titanium IS
24.5
McAfee IS
24.7
AVG IS
27.8
F-Secure IS
30.5
0s
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5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
30 s
35 s
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The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Avira IS
6.5
McAfee IS
7.6
Norton Security
8.1
Kaspersky Internet Security
8.2
Bitdefender IS
8.8
Avast IS
9.5
AVG IS
10.4
Panda IS
12.1
Average
14.3
F-Secure IS
15.6
Trend Micro Titanium IS
16.2
ESET SS
17.5
G Data IS
51.3
0s
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10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
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PassMark Software
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 security product tested. Products with lower times are considered
better performing products in this category.
ESET SS
58.0
AVG IS
58.0
Bitdefender IS
58.1
McAfee IS
58.4
Panda IS
58.5
Norton Security
58.6
Kaspersky Internet Security
58.6
Trend Micro Titanium IS
58.9
Average
58.9
Avira IS
59.0
G Data IS
59.4
F-Secure IS
60.3
Avast IS
61.3
56 s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
57 s
58 s
59 s
60 s
61 s
62 s
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The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed for
each security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Kaspersky Internet Security
44.1
Bitdefender IS
44.5
McAfee IS
44.7
Norton Security
44.8
Panda IS
45.1
AVG IS
45.2
ESET SS
46.2
Average
46.4
Avast IS
47.0
F-Secure IS
47.0
Trend Micro Titanium IS
48.2
G Data IS
48.6
Avira IS
51.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
Page 26 of 64
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PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to download a set of setup files from a local server. 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.*
Trend Micro Titanium IS
5.3
F-Secure IS
5.4
McAfee IS
5.5
Avira IS
5.6
Kaspersky Internet Security
5.8
Norton Security
6.2
AVG IS
7.4
Panda IS
8.7
ESET SS
10.3
Average
15.1
Bitdefender IS
28.0
G Data IS
77.6
0s
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
70 s
80 s
90 s
*Avast was excluded from the above comparison chart due to the test script being blocked by the software.
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Page 27 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling 2076
MB) for each 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.
Bitdefender IS
16.5
Norton Security
17.1
AVG IS
22.9
McAfee IS
28.6
G Data IS
31.8
Kaspersky Internet Security
32.9
F-Secure IS
40.6
ESET SS
50.8
Average
51.1
Avira IS
81.9
Panda IS
89.5
Avast IS
98.6
Trend Micro Titanium IS
102.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
Page 28 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
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 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.
Avast IS
48.7
G Data IS
57.9
Kaspersky Internet Security
58.8
AVG IS
60.0
Bitdefender IS
60.3
McAfee IS
61.3
Trend Micro Titanium IS
62.9
Norton Security
64.3
Average
68.3
F-Secure IS
68.4
Avira IS
72.4
ESET SS
85.4
Panda IS
119.2
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
140 s
Page 29 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to transfer a total of 8,501 files over the local network, with
a total file size of 5.44GB files, from a local drive on the test machine to a local server. 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.
F-Secure IS
171.3
G Data IS
171.7
Kaspersky Internet Security
175.1
Norton Security
181.6
AVG IS
191.9
McAfee IS
193.7
Bitdefender IS
195.9
ESET SS
199.3
Avast IS
212.3
Average
213.2
Avira IS
228.2
Trend Micro Titanium IS
268.8
Panda IS
368.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
50 s
100 s
150 s
200 s
250 s
300 s
350 s
400 s
Page 30 of 64
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PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average PCMark score for each security product tested. The test was performed
2 times, and the average of both runs was taken as the result. Products with higher scores are considered better
performing products in this category.
McAfee IS
7922
G Data IS
9361
Trend Micro Titanium IS
9708
Average
9732
AVG IS
9753
Avast IS
9755
Panda IS
9912
Bitdefender IS
9919
Norton Security
9930
Avira IS
9972
ESET SS
10104
Kaspersky Internet Security
10155
F-Secure IS
10289
0
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
Page 31 of 64
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PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Word and open a 10MB document.
Products with lower launch times are considered better performing products in this category.
Bitdefender IS
4638
AVG IS
4750
Norton Security
4775
ESET SS
4836
Avira IS
4853
Trend Micro Titanium IS
4880
Avast IS
4921
Average
4981
Panda IS
5035
F-Secure IS
5112
McAfee IS
5208
Kaspersky Internet Security
5244
G Data IS
4,000 ms
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
5516
4,200 ms
4,400 ms
4,600 ms
4,800 ms
5,000 ms
5,200 ms
5,400 ms
5,600 ms
Page 32 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Excel and run a macro. Products with
lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
F-Secure IS
10.6
Trend Micro Titanium IS
10.7
Avira IS
10.8
AVG IS
11.1
G Data IS
11.1
Bitdefender IS
11.2
Average
11.3
Panda IS
11.4
ESET SS
11.5
McAfee IS
11.6
Avast IS
11.8
Norton Security
11.9
Kaspersky Internet Security
12.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
Page 33 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Word and open a 10MB document and
save it as a PDF. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security
10.1
ESET SS
10.1
Avira IS
10.3
Kaspersky Internet Security
10.3
Panda IS
10.5
McAfee IS
10.7
AVG IS
10.8
Average
10.9
Bitdefender IS
11.0
G Data IS
11.3
F-Secure IS
11.9
Avast IS
12.0
Trend Micro Titanium IS
12.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
Page 34 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from an external USB 3.0 drive to a local
disk. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security
85.9
McAfee IS
87.4
Bitdefender IS
101.6
Avira IS
112.4
Avast IS
114.5
Kaspersky Internet Security
128.9
Panda IS
133.8
Average
143.2
ESET SS
143.6
G Data IS
144.9
AVG IS
150.2
F-Secure IS
253.2
Trend Micro Titanium IS
262.0
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
50 s
100 s
150 s
200 s
250 s
300 s
Page 35 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
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In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton Security with Backup in yellow. The
average has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for each
security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in this
category.
McAfee TS
19.1
Kaspersky PURE
20.2
Norton Security w/ Backup
20.4
Average
20.8
Trend Micro TMS
21.6
Bitdefender TS
22.5
0s
5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each 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.
Kaspersky PURE
4.8
McAfee TS
10.4
Norton Security w/ Backup
10.6
Bitdefender TS
12.2
Average
28.6
Trend Micro TMS
105
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
Page 36 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
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.
Norton Security w/ Backup
56
Trend Micro TMS
137
Average
317
Bitdefender TS
374
McAfee TS
472
Kaspersky PURE
545
0 ms
100 ms
200 ms
300 ms
400 ms
500 ms
600 ms
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a 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.
Norton Security w/ Backup
Kaspersky PURE
33.7
53.1
Average
158.8
Trend Micro TMS
194.9
McAfee TS
254.1
Bitdefender TS
0 MB
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
258.1
50 MB
100 MB
150 MB
200 MB
250 MB
300 MB
Page 37 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a security product during a scan. This average
is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 12 seconds apart. Products with lower idle RAM
usage are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
36.4
Kaspersky PURE
88.0
Average
187.6
Trend Micro TMS
208.4
Bitdefender TS
237.7
McAfee TS
367.6
0 MB
50 MB
100 MB
150 MB
200 MB
250 MB
300 MB
350 MB
400 MB
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.
Norton Security w/ Backup
21.7
McAfee TS
28.8
Kaspersky PURE
32.4
Trend Micro TMS
35.5
Average
41.0
Bitdefender TS
86.8
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
70 s
80 s
90 s
100 s
Page 38 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine for each
security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Kaspersky PURE
1388
Norton Security w/ Backup
1441
Bitdefender TS
1496
Average
1664
Trend Micro TMS
1940
McAfee TS
2056
0 ms
500 ms
1,000 ms
1,500 ms
2,000 ms
2,500 ms
The following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for 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.
Norton Security w/ Backup
76
Kaspersky PURE
121
Trend Micro TMS
258
Average
288
Bitdefender TS
367
McAfee TS
618
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
100 s
200 s
300 s
400 s
500 s
600 s
700 s
Page 39 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of security products. Products
with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.
McAfee TS
380.8
Norton Security w/ Backup
467.2
Kaspersky PURE
600.5
Average
765.7
Trend Micro TMS
884.7
Bitdefender TS
1495.4
0 MB
200 MB
400 MB
600 MB
800 MB
1,000 MB 1,200 MB 1,400 MB 1,600 MB
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
6.6
Kaspersky PURE
6.9
Average
7.4
McAfee TS
7.6
Trend Micro TMS
7.8
Bitdefender TS
8.2
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
1s
2s
3s
4s
5s
6s
7s
8s
9s
Page 40 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to install 3 different third party applications for each security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Bitdefender TS
12.9
Kaspersky PURE
18.6
Average
19.3
Norton Security w/ Backup
20.1
McAfee TS
21.6
Trend Micro TMS
23.5
0s
5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
McAfee TS
7.5
Kaspersky PURE
8.0
Bitdefender TS
8.1
Norton Security w/ Backup
8.1
Average
9.1
Trend Micro TMS
13.8
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
16 s
Page 41 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
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 security product tested. Products with lower times are considered
better performing products in this category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
58.3
Bitdefender TS
58.5
Average
58.7
McAfee TS
58.7
Trend Micro TMS
58.8
Kaspersky PURE
59.0
0s
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
70 s
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed for
each security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
44.2
Bitdefender TS
44.6
McAfee TS
44.8
Kaspersky PURE
45.1
Average
45.3
Trend Micro TMS
47.7
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
Page 42 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to download a set of setup files from a local server. 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.
Kaspersky PURE
5.5
McAfee TS
5.6
Norton Security w/ Backup
5.7
Trend Micro TMS
6.0
Average
10.2
Bitdefender TS
28.0
0s
5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
30 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling 2076
MB) for each 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.
Bitdefender TS
18.1
Kaspersky PURE
22.5
Norton Security w/ Backup
27.9
McAfee TS
42.0
Average
42.1
Trend Micro TMS
99.9
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
Page 43 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
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 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.
Kaspersky PURE
59.6
Trend Micro TMS
60.5
Norton Security w/ Backup
60.6
Average
61.1
McAfee TS
61.7
Bitdefender TS
63.3
0s
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
70 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to transfer a total of 8,501 files over the local network, with
a total file size of 5.44GB files, from a local drive on the test machine to a local server. 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.
Kaspersky PURE
172.9
Norton Security w/ Backup
180.6
McAfee TS
187.1
Bitdefender TS
187.8
Average
193.5
Trend Micro TMS
239.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
50 s
100 s
150 s
200 s
250 s
300 s
Page 44 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average PCMark score for each security product tested. The test was performed
2 times, and the average of both runs was taken as the result. Products with higher scores are considered better
performing products in this category.
McAfee TS
9033
Trend Micro TMS
9484
Average
9640
Norton Security w/ Backup
9875
Bitdefender TS
9880
Kaspersky PURE
9932
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Word and open a 10MB document.
Products with lower launch times are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
4636
Bitdefender TS
4682
Kaspersky PURE
Average
Trend Micro TMS
McAfee TS
0 ms
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
5211
5364
5881
6413
1,000 ms 2,000 ms 3,000 ms 4,000 ms 5,000 ms 6,000 ms 7,000 ms
Page 45 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Excel and run a macro. Products with
lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Bitdefender TS
10.5
Average
11.4
Trend Micro TMS
11.4
McAfee TS
11.5
Kaspersky PURE
11.6
Norton Security w/ Backup
11.8
0s
2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to launch Microsoft Word and open a 10MB document and
save it as a PDF. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
10.3
Trend Micro TMS
10.9
McAfee TS
11.1
Average
11.2
Bitdefender TS
11.6
Kaspersky PURE
12.2
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
2s
4s
6s
8s
10 s
12 s
14 s
Page 46 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from an external USB 3.0 drive to a local
disk. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.
Norton Security w/ Backup
83.1
Trend Micro TMS
87.8
McAfee TS
88.2
Kaspersky PURE
88.3
Average
91.1
Bitdefender TS
107.9
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
Page 47 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton Security in yellow. The average has
also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.
The following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for each
security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Trend Micro IS
4.1
Norton Security
4.2
Kaspersky IS
5.1
McAfee IS
6.5
Average
8.2
Bitdefender IS
21.3
0s
5s
10 s
15 s
20 s
25 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each 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.
Bitdefender IS
6
Norton Security
7
Kaspersky IS
16
McAfee IS
23
Average
25
Trend Micro IS
72
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
10 s
20 s
30 s
40 s
50 s
60 s
70 s
80 s
Page 48 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files for
each security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this
category.
Norton Security
6.8
Kaspersky IS
7.4
Bitdefender IS
7.4
McAfee IS
7.7
Average
7.8
Trend Micro IS
9.5
0s
1s
2s
3s
4s
5s
6s
7s
8s
9s
10 s
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from one local drive to another local
drive for each 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.
Kaspersky IS
136.0
Norton Security
137.9
Bitdefender IS
138.5
McAfee IS
138.9
Average
139.2
Trend Micro IS
144.6
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
20 s
40 s
60 s
80 s
100 s
120 s
140 s
160 s
Page 49 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
The following chart compares the average time taken to transfer a total of 8,501 files over the local network, with
a total file size of 5.44GB files, from a local drive on the test machine to a local server. 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.
Kaspersky IS
153.2
Norton Security
155.6
Bitdefender IS
157.8
McAfee IS
164.0
Average
173.0
Trend Micro IS
234.3
0s
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
50 s
100 s
150 s
200 s
250 s
Page 50 of 64
2 April 2015
2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
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.
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.
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.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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
An electronic copy of this report can be found at the following location:
http://www.passmark.com/isreport14
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Page 51 of 64
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2015 Consumer Security Products
PassMark Software
For our testing, PassMark Software used a test environment running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) SP1 with the
following hardware specifications:
Model:
HP Pavilion P6-2300A
CPU:
Intel Core i5-3330
Video Card:
1GB nVIDIA GeForce GT 620M
Motherboard:
Foxconn 2ABF 3.10
RAM:
6GB DDR3 RAM
HDD :
Hitachi HDS721010CLA630 931.51GB
nd
2 Drive :
Samsung 1000GB 7200RPM Model: HD103UJ
Network:
Gigabit (1GB/s) switch
For network tests (wget, http), PassMark Software used a server with the following specifications:
CPU:
Intel Xeon E3-1220v2 CPU
Video Card:
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) ECC
Motherboard:
Intel S1200BTL Server Motherboard
RAM:
4GB DDR3 RAM, 1333 Mhz
HDD :
Samsung 1.5TB 7200RPM
Network:
Gigabit (1GB/s) switch
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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.
Disabled Superfetch to ensure consistent results.
7.
Installed HTTP Watch for Browse Time testing.
8.
Installed Windows Performance Toolkit x64 for Boot Time testing.
9.
Installed Active Perl for interpretation of some test scripts.
10.
Install OSForensics for testing (Installation Size) purposes.
11.
Disabled updates in Internet Explorer 10.
12.
Update to Windows Service Pack 1
13.
Created a baseline image using Norton Ghost.
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.
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
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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
.exe
.sys
.gif
.doc
.wmf
.png
.html
.nls
.jpg
.ini
.ico
.mof
.ax
.xls
.ime
.drv
.txt
.chm
.cpl
.mfl
.inf
.hlp
.imd
.py
.msc
.vbs
.xml
.rtf
.ocx
.tsp
.com
.xsl
.h
.vsd
.scr
.aw
.js
.zip
.lex
.ppt
.acm
.wav
Total
2589
695
332
302
281
185
149
126
80
70
59
58
43
39
38
35
31
31
30
29
29
26
22
20
20
18
18
18
16
16
14
14
14
13
12
12
12
12
11
9
9
9
7
6159
490MB
102MB
23MB
1MB
64MB
2MB
2MB
1MB
6MB
1MB
2MB
<1MB
6MB
4MB
3MB
5MB
1MB
1MB
6MB
4MB
3MB
2MB
3MB
18MB
<1MB
1MB
1MB
1MB
62MB
4MB
1MB
<1MB
<1MB
<1MB
2MB
2MB
2MB
1MB
25MB
10MB
4MB
1MB
5MB
982
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.
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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.
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.
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.
The Perflog ++ utility was used to record process memory during an on-demand scan of the boot drive over a 2
minute period. This was done only once per product and resulted in a total of 10 samples each.
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.
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We used a script in conjunction with HTTPWatch (Basic Edition, version 9.0.8.0) 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.
For this test, we have used Internet Explorer 11 (Version Version 11.0.9600.17207) 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.
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 11 (Version 11.0.9600.17207) 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.
AppTimer is publically available from the PassMark Website.
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
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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).
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.
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.
We used a single script in testing Benchmarks 9-14. The script consecutively executes tests for Benchmarks 9-14.
The script times each phase in these benchmarks using CommandTimer.exe and appends results to a log file.
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
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
Number
Size (bytes)
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Edition 3
PassMark Software
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.
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.
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:
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
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.


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.
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:
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
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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.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.
This test measures the time it takes to complete an http download of a sample set of installation files over a
100MB/s network connection. The files are hosted on a local server machine running Windows Server 2013 and
IIS 7. CommandTimer.exe was used in conjunction with the native .NET DownloadFile() method to time and
conduct the download test. The file set includes the following:




Firefox Setup 31.0 (30.7 MB) (EXE file)
GIMP Setup 2.8.10 (86.2 MB) (EXE file)
LibreOffice Installer Package 4.2.5 (209 MB) (MSI file)
Adobe Reader Installer 3.5.4.25 (1.00 MB) (EXE file)
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.
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
File Size
of Files
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.
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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:
File
Number
Extension
of Files
.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
File Size
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
This test measures the amount of time taken to transfer files from a local drive on the test machine to a shared
folder on the local server. 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:
Performance Benchmark
Edition 3
File
Number
Extension
of Files
.jpg
2903
588MB
.dll
773
25MB
.exe
730
197MB
.gif
681
63MB
.wav
430
260MB
File Size
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.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
transfer files was measured and recorded by CommandTimer.exe. Files were deleted from the server once the
copy was complete. The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples
This test aims to benchmark the test machines performance over several subtests, including music,
communications, productivity, memories, TV and movies, gaming and HDD. The PCMark Vantage benchmark is
run twice with a reboot in between. The final result is an average of the overall scores of the two iterations.
The average launch time of Word interface was taken using AppTimer. This includes the time to launch the Word
2013 application and open a 10MB document. 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 Word 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.
AppTimer is publically available from the PassMark Website.
This test measures the time it takes to open an excel document and run an excel macro. The macro performs a
range of operations, including reading data from the file system, mathematical calculations, and writing data to
the spreadsheet. This test is run using a Windows PowerShell script. We obtained a total of five samples with a
reboot in between each to clear caching effects by the operating system. The final result is calculated as an average
of the five samples.
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This test measures the time it takes to open a large Word Document (~10 MB) and save it as a PDF document. This
test is run using a Windows PowerShell script. We obtained a total of five samples with a reboot in between each
to clear caching effects by the operating system. The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples.
This test measures the amount of time taken to transfer files from an external drive to a local disk via a USB 3.0
connection. The data set comprised of 6,834 files with a total file size of 6.06GB, and the formats used included
documents, movies, images, executables and system files. A breakdown of the sample file set is given below:
File
Number
Extension
of Files
.dll
1429
627MB
.doc
496
164MB
.docx
324
76MB
.exe
280
1.2GB
.jpg
1564
469MB
.mp3
394
1.06GB
.pdf
567
246MB
.pptx
556
1.06GB
.pst
2
59.1MB
.sys
568
145MB
.xlsx
584
81.0MB
.zip
70
911MB
File Size
A total of five runs of this test were performed, with a machine restart between each run. The time taken to
transfer files was measured and recorded by CommandTimer.exe. Files were deleted from the local disk once the
copy was complete. The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples
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