Phrozin
08-25-08, 02:18 PM
I decided to take a look at Bitdefender Gamesafe 3 days ago and this is my take on it.
[System Specifications]
Windows 2000 Professional Silent Hunter IV Sniper Elite Crysis S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3D Mark 03 3D Mark 05
[Subject]
Bitdefender Game Safe (http://www.bitdefender.com/media/html/gamesafeintro.html)
Install is pretty straight forward, during the install progress you will be asked to update the database, and do a quick system scan. That's normal however. I did find though that the quick system scan was not very quick for me, however I have 6 hard drives (6 drives in raid 0 = 3 total hard drives visible), 1 with windows 2000 pro (fresh install, 1 with windows XP Home, and 1 with Vista Home Pro. So given that information it's easy to see why it took so long.
Before installing any anti virus I updated 2k to the newest updates, all drivers were updated, and the system was defragged and compacted moving everything to the beginning of the HD. I then started each game after a reboot (to make sure resident memory was as clean as possible) and then used ATItools to spit out the FPS of each game for 10 minutes. After installation I followed the same method both for "not in game mode", and "in game mode".
As far as their claims of "BitDefender’s GameSafe keeps the impact on processing power, memory & virtual memory to a minimum, allowing gamers to maintain “in game” responsiveness and eliminating interruptions while fighting epic battles!" I find them amazingly true. While not in game mode you will notice a hit in performance, and there is the possibility of a false positive (as is the case with Crysis and AVG). However, switch it to game mode and it's like it's not even there. This would lead to the natural assumption of "Well, it can't be protecting you all that well then. Not true to an extent. While some of it's more aggressive traits are calmed down drastically, it still does a good job of noticing things. Of course, who is expecting to get a Trojan, virus, etc from a game server while playing WOW or the like?
My testing involved many different tactics, and while not thorough, they served the purpose for me. I have not used any antivirus/antispam/firewall for a good 8 years now and have never had 1 hiccup as reported by various online scans, and periodic downloads of AV software just to make sure. I first tested Game safe in full "not in game mode" mode.
[Test files]
eicar.com - Caught it before I could even download it. I then booted XP downloaded it and saved it to the 2k drive. upon boot up it found it.
eicar.com.txt - same as before, caught it before I could download it. used xp to test and when i rebooted 2k game safe found it.
eicar.com.zip - was able to download, soon as I tried to open it Game safe caught it. Using a download manager with virus scan it detected it before I could open it.
eicarcom.zip - This is a tricky file. the purpose it to test a zip within a zip, so you have the same file as before (eicar.com.zip) compressed a second time in the eicarcom.zip file. I was able to download it, but upon opening the first zip file Game Safe detected the virus in the second zip file.
[Firewall Test]
GRC portscan - using the default settings in the builtin firewall, I scanned file sharing/Common ports/All Service ports/messenger spam/ All Browser headers. everything is stealth except port 113 (ident). Port 113 showed that there is a computer at my IP addy, but it was closed and not accepting transmissions.
GRC LeakTest - This test attempts to get through the firewall, if you follow the instruction (you do read those right?) it does this in 3 ways. Masquerading as a Trusted Program Masquerading as a "Standard" Program Slipping Right Under a Firewall
I tried all 3 styles of test and all 3 were blocked*.
The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that dowz started and shutdown slower (might just be me, remember I haven't used AV in 8 years), and the scans (quick, system, and Deep) seemed to be slow. Again, this could just be me and not the AV program as I'm not used to using anything that resides in memory and uses system resources, so the scan time could be average or better I just don't know. Game safe did show that is was scanning anywhere from 40 to 53 files per seconds. My only other gripe is that you can't create profiles with the AV itself. (like ATITools to overclock when a certain game is started) I would have loved to be able to double click an icon for a game and have it automatically go into "game mode", and have ATI Tools OC my card, but that ability is just not there.
All in all, for $24.95 USD's I can't fault this program at all. It does exactly what it aims for and it does it well. So if you are looking for a new AV program and you play games, you might want to give Bitdefender Game Safe a look see.
Joe
* Anything blocked was not blocked automaticlly on the first runthrough, a popup asks you if you wish to allow or disallow it (very much like zonealarm). However, on repeated tests it was then blocked automaticlly.
[System Specifications]
Windows 2000 Professional Silent Hunter IV Sniper Elite Crysis S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3D Mark 03 3D Mark 05
[Subject]
Bitdefender Game Safe (http://www.bitdefender.com/media/html/gamesafeintro.html)
Install is pretty straight forward, during the install progress you will be asked to update the database, and do a quick system scan. That's normal however. I did find though that the quick system scan was not very quick for me, however I have 6 hard drives (6 drives in raid 0 = 3 total hard drives visible), 1 with windows 2000 pro (fresh install, 1 with windows XP Home, and 1 with Vista Home Pro. So given that information it's easy to see why it took so long.
Before installing any anti virus I updated 2k to the newest updates, all drivers were updated, and the system was defragged and compacted moving everything to the beginning of the HD. I then started each game after a reboot (to make sure resident memory was as clean as possible) and then used ATItools to spit out the FPS of each game for 10 minutes. After installation I followed the same method both for "not in game mode", and "in game mode".
As far as their claims of "BitDefender’s GameSafe keeps the impact on processing power, memory & virtual memory to a minimum, allowing gamers to maintain “in game” responsiveness and eliminating interruptions while fighting epic battles!" I find them amazingly true. While not in game mode you will notice a hit in performance, and there is the possibility of a false positive (as is the case with Crysis and AVG). However, switch it to game mode and it's like it's not even there. This would lead to the natural assumption of "Well, it can't be protecting you all that well then. Not true to an extent. While some of it's more aggressive traits are calmed down drastically, it still does a good job of noticing things. Of course, who is expecting to get a Trojan, virus, etc from a game server while playing WOW or the like?
My testing involved many different tactics, and while not thorough, they served the purpose for me. I have not used any antivirus/antispam/firewall for a good 8 years now and have never had 1 hiccup as reported by various online scans, and periodic downloads of AV software just to make sure. I first tested Game safe in full "not in game mode" mode.
[Test files]
eicar.com - Caught it before I could even download it. I then booted XP downloaded it and saved it to the 2k drive. upon boot up it found it.
eicar.com.txt - same as before, caught it before I could download it. used xp to test and when i rebooted 2k game safe found it.
eicar.com.zip - was able to download, soon as I tried to open it Game safe caught it. Using a download manager with virus scan it detected it before I could open it.
eicarcom.zip - This is a tricky file. the purpose it to test a zip within a zip, so you have the same file as before (eicar.com.zip) compressed a second time in the eicarcom.zip file. I was able to download it, but upon opening the first zip file Game Safe detected the virus in the second zip file.
[Firewall Test]
GRC portscan - using the default settings in the builtin firewall, I scanned file sharing/Common ports/All Service ports/messenger spam/ All Browser headers. everything is stealth except port 113 (ident). Port 113 showed that there is a computer at my IP addy, but it was closed and not accepting transmissions.
GRC LeakTest - This test attempts to get through the firewall, if you follow the instruction (you do read those right?) it does this in 3 ways. Masquerading as a Trusted Program Masquerading as a "Standard" Program Slipping Right Under a Firewall
I tried all 3 styles of test and all 3 were blocked*.
The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that dowz started and shutdown slower (might just be me, remember I haven't used AV in 8 years), and the scans (quick, system, and Deep) seemed to be slow. Again, this could just be me and not the AV program as I'm not used to using anything that resides in memory and uses system resources, so the scan time could be average or better I just don't know. Game safe did show that is was scanning anywhere from 40 to 53 files per seconds. My only other gripe is that you can't create profiles with the AV itself. (like ATITools to overclock when a certain game is started) I would have loved to be able to double click an icon for a game and have it automatically go into "game mode", and have ATI Tools OC my card, but that ability is just not there.
All in all, for $24.95 USD's I can't fault this program at all. It does exactly what it aims for and it does it well. So if you are looking for a new AV program and you play games, you might want to give Bitdefender Game Safe a look see.
Joe
* Anything blocked was not blocked automaticlly on the first runthrough, a popup asks you if you wish to allow or disallow it (very much like zonealarm). However, on repeated tests it was then blocked automaticlly.