AV comparatives tested a slew of antivirals and has published it’s results. They do this testing every three months.
This isn’t supposed to be a “mine’s better than yours” post. It is meant to help you decide which software you might wish to obtain to protect your computer/s. Bear in mind the limitations of the testing (see my last paragraph).
The software tested:
“Seven products attained the ADVANCED+ rating: Avira, BitDefender, eScan, F-Secure, Kaspersky, McAfee, and TrustPort. Kaspersky, Trustport, and McAfee all moved up, having rated ADVANCED in last August's on-demand test.
Avast!, ESET, G Data, and Panda would have received the same top rating, but false positives knocked them down to ADVANCED. Microsoft, Norton, and Sophos also rated ADVANCED. That's a step down for Symantec, which rated ADVANCED+ in the last test.
AVG and PC Tools passed the test, receiving a STANDARD rating; both scored better in the last test. Qihoo, which also rated STANDARD, doesn't have many users in this country, so PCMag hasn't reviewed it.
Three products failed to reach STANDARD: K7, Trend Micro, and Webroot. K7 simply scored low for detection; it achieved a STANDARD rating last time. Webroot, tested for the first time, also scored low, and suffered false positives to boot. [After initial release of these findings, AV-Comparatives raised Trend Micro's rating to STANDARD.]
AV-Comparatives also timed how fast each product scanned files. The fastest scanners, in descending speed order, were avast!, Panda, K7, and Webroot. Microsoft and PC Tools were the slowest of this bunch.” – Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383615,00.asp
One thing is clear to me. AV Comparatives tests on XP SP3 Core 2 Duo E8300/Intel 2.3 GHz Processors, 2Gb RAM machines (keep in mind when looking at scan speeds), and these were run on known batteries of trojans/virus/back doors, etc. not on the web.
Also important to note is they did not test “behavior aware” software. To me that is a large minus in their testing.
FYI.
I recommend you review the results for yourselves, straight from the horse’s mouth:
Source: http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_feb2011.pdf