Performance Counters for Win7 to Improve Game Play: Fact or Fiction?

ECH · 17 Jul 2011

I've read that it maybe beneficial to remove performance counters in win7 to help improve frame rates in games. I'm not sure how true this is but from what I've read it's always running in the background. I recall that with XP but I'm not sure if that's true for Win7. All I know is that performance counters help graph what you see in Performance Monitor.

The best way I know to disable performance monitor is to use an old program (from windows 2000) called Extensible Counter List Tool. Mid-way to the left of Extensible Counter List Tool popup screen there is an option to remove a check mark for 'Performance Counter Enabled' for each application listed. Problem is, I'm reading that some applications may need Performance Counters. Or Performance Monitor may report that performance counters are disabled. Is there any expert opinion out there that could suggest if this is worth disabling for each application or not for frame rate improvement in games?

sygnus21 · 17 Jul 2011

Game performance on any OS is highly dependant on hardware/software installed as well as the game - some older games struggle on new OS's (Windows 7), while others struggle based on hardware.

Anyway I wouldn't (haven't) disable any processes on Windows 7 while gaming and have had no more issue then I would have running uner XP. In short I wouldn't disable/remove performance counters.

My two cents.

BTW you might find this helpful - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

logicearth · 17 Jul 2011

It would not do a darn thing. Performance Counters are not affecting your games in the slightest.

sygnus21 · 17 Jul 2011

logicearth said:

It would do a darn thing. Performance Counters are only active when you have Performance Monitor active. They do not run in the background, never have.

Would or wouldn't? :)

logicearth · 17 Jul 2011

Typing fail :C

sygnus21 · 17 Jul 2011

I figured you meant wouldn't. Anyway awaiting to OP's reply.

Peace

**cluberti** · 17 Jul 2011

Well, unless the system was actively running a counter log (and saving it to a very large file on disk), it wouldn't make a difference because they wouldn't be getting queried at all. And ETW tracing is built-into many binaries, and has been since XP - so assuming it wasn't an issue under XP, it shouldn't be under Win7 anyway. I suppose it could make a frame or two difference, potentially (although I can't think of any possible scenario at the current time where it could), but it wouldn't be enough for a human to notice. For example, ETW tracing (when active, no less) can consume upwards of 10,000 events a second. That equates to less than 3% of CPU time on a modern 2GHz CPU in that timeframe (and less time for faster CPUs with more cores), to give an idea of how much hammering you would have to do to a system via ETW (or technically perfmon) to make a difference. Sure, you could hammer away at certain types of counters in perfmon or an ETW trace and make a bit more difference, but even on semi-modern hardware it wouldn't be a great load. It could potentially make a difference to running apps if you were writing all of that then to disk, but that isn't a normal scenario either - you should only see perfmon or ETW traces hitting the disk if you're actively tracing (minus what the event log is already doing, and most of those you cannot disable anyway).

This one would be for the myth busters, and it most certainly would come back "busted".

ECH · 17 Jul 2011

Thanks for the info.

boogieboy · 17 Jul 2011

sygnus21 said:

Game performance on any OS is highly dependant on hardware/software installed as well as the game - some older games struggle on new OS's (Windows 7), while others struggle based on hardware.

Anyway I wouldn't (haven't) disable any processes on Windows 7 while gaming and have had no more issue then I would have running under XP. In short I wouldn't disable/remove performance counters.

Agreed.... Me either :)