Does Anti-virus/spyware slows down gaming?

As long as it just remains idle in the background, then you should not notice any decrease in performance.

If you are downloading something while playing a game, then at the end of the download your anti-virus will scan the file and can temporarily slow down your games during the scan process.

I use Avast Free and Malwarebyte's Anti Malware.

JaguarSKX is right, but i would personally use avira antivir personal free antivirus it's got better detection rates than avast, and superantispyware that removed spyware/malware on a laptop that i could not remove with malwarebytes

Best answer selected by leandrodafontoura.