The properties of TiC film, a widely used wear-resistant film, are closely dependent on its chemical composition and microstructure. Plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering (PEMS) can obtain a high ion flux around substrates via hot filaments thermionic emission to improve the microstructure and properties of the film, as compared to conventional magnetron sputtering (CMS). To further investigate the effect of hot filaments induced plasma on the film deposited by PEMS technique, the TiC_x films were deposited by reactively sputtering titanium target in a varied methane and argon mixed atmosphere with and without hot filaments induced plasma. The microstructure and properties of as-deposited TiC_x films has been mainly scrutinized with scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, nano indentation, and ball-on-disk tribo-test. A significantly densified microstructure has been observed in the PEMS-TiC_x film, rather than a columnar microstructure in the CMS-TiC_x film. As methane flux is increased from 4 to 16 sccm, the value of x is gradually increased from 0.28 to 0.96 and 0.28 to 0.73 in PEMS-TiC_x and CMS-TiC_x films, respectively. The phase composition of two series of TiC_x films is changed from Ti + TiC phases to pure TiC phase and a pronounced preferred growth along (111) appears in PEMS-TiC_x films. The hardness of the PEMS-TiC_x film is firstly increased and then decreased as methane flux is increased, and a maximum hardness of 29.6 GPa is obtained at 12 sccm, while the hardness of CMS-TiC_x film fluctuates under 10.6 GPa. The wear rate of TiC_x film is firstly decreased and then increased, when the methane flux is increased. The lowest wear rate of PEMS-TiC_x film is 7.2×10^-16 m³/(N·m), nearly one thirteenth of that of CMS-TiC_x film. PEMS technique can be used to deposit the TiC film with a good combination of hardness, toughness, and wear resistance.