Thanks igor for the input, appreciated.
With all due respect igor, I don't know the tech specs or in-depth analysis of the Avast software, I can only tell you what I see and feel are the resources used when a version is installed and for my systems the fact is accurate.....the newer versions DO USE more resources. Maybe it's mostly the GUI, I don't know for sure, I can only account for my experience on my specific OS's.
As far as I'm aware, The Behavior Shield, for example, was not included in the earlier version nor was the Anti Ransom or Anti Exploit just to mention a couple of security improvements... These techniques all use extra resources that were not part of the old version stated v. 4.8
I might add that this resource use only become very obvious when using OS's with limited RAM> I don't notice any change on my ENVY with 16 GB of RAM