High CPU and RAM Usage by AV-Software during Steam-Downloads

[Countrymusics]

As the title says...

We are talking about the AV-Software "Avira".

Process "AntiVir WebGuard WFP Service (32Bit)" showing a CPU-Usage of 82%!

Process "Avira.SystemSpeedup.RealTimeOptimizer" showing a CPU usage of 15% and a RAM-Usage around 12gb which increases over time (up to 28gb) as the download progresses.

This leads to massive stutters and lags...

When ever I pause or cancel a steam download everything is fine again.
This started yesterday and nothing of the sort has happened to me before.
This does not happen with any other kind of download. Be it another launcher like Origin, website downloads or streaming.

My CPU is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz... in case thats of any importance..

There have been no hardware changes or new software installations...

Avira Support told me to restart the PC and get back to them after. Than the operator hung up on me... after letting me wait on the phone for 45 minutes...

Does anyone here have any ideas, tipps or solutions for me?


Thanks in advance!

[0equals0]

Are you using any other antivirus besides avira?

[Countrymusics]

Originally posted by MyNamelsDan:

Are you using any other antivirus other than avira?

No I dont.
I have been using Avira Prime for years and have been really happy with it. Until now.

[0equals0]

Originally posted by Countrymusics:

Originally posted by MyNamelsDan:

Are you using any other antivirus other than avira?

No I dont.
I have been using Avira Prime for years and have been really happy with it. Until now.

There was also no windows or avira update recently right?
If u turn off avira and start a download does it still use high cpu usage? It shouldn't but see if it does just to be sure.

[Countrymusics]

I tried that. Should have mentioned that in my initial post.
If I uninstall Avira, the steam download is a smooth and fast as it is supposed to be. No high CPU or RAM usage.

[0equals0]

Originally posted by Countrymusics:

I tried that. Should have mentioned that in my initial post.
If I uninstall Avira, the steam download is a smooth and fast as it is supposed to be. No high CPU or RAM usage.

I made a quick search on google since i don't have much experience with avira.
If you deselect web protection, it should fix the problem. I don't know if you wanna do that, but there is a lot of other options to protect you from that.
Anyway, see if it fixes if you disable that option.

[Satoru]

Steam downloads are highly compressed and then need to be recombined into the target file

if its a patch, then it has to not only download the compressed delta, but also has to read the original file, and use CPU and IO cycles to recreate the new file. Thus steam downloads are themselves very locally resource intensive. This is so you don't have to download 50GB everytime Payday2 is updated.

All of these may trigger your anti-virus to scan incoming packets and the file creation process.

You can set up whitelisting if you're finding the impact to your system is large, but functionally its more an issue with consumer level anti-virus in general

[Countrymusics]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Steam downloads are highly compressed and then need to be recombined into the target file

if its a patch, then it has to not only download the compressed delta, but also has to read the original file, and use CPU and IO cycles to recreate the new file. Thus steam downloads are themselves very locally resource intensive. This is so you don't have to download 50GB everytime Payday2 is updated.

All of these may trigger your anti-virus to scan incoming packets and the file creation process.

You can set up whitelisting if you're finding the impact to your system is large, but functionally its more an issue with consumer level anti-virus in general

Steam patches or downloads have never been a problem before. But I will try the exclusion now.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Countrymusics:

Avira Support told me to restart the PC and get back to them after. Than the operator hung up on me... after letting me wait on the phone for 45 minutes...

Does anyone here have any ideas, tipps or solutions for me?

I have 3 tips:

You dont need avira.
Or disable the things that you dont need.
Or exclude things that do not need such invasive features.

[Countrymusics]

Excluding steam from avira does not make any difference.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Exclude the folders.

[Countrymusics]

I excluded the steam folder and all steam processes.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Then disable the avira function......

[Countrymusics]

I want to but at the same time I feel kinda unsafe doing so...

[Countrymusics]

yeah I cant find any way to make steam and avira work together... which is infuriating because it worked great for years...

so i guess i am gonna get rid of avira and I am going to cancel my prime subscription..

any suggestions for a new antivirus software?

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Countrymusics:

I want to but at the same time I feel kinda unsafe doing so...

How to put it, i do not have avira for many years. And yet, here i am.