Timer
Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual Studio for Mac
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
The VSPerfCmd.exe Timer option sets the profiling event that is sampled to processor clock cycles and optionally changes the number of cycles in a sampling interval from the default of 10,000,000. On a 1GH (one gigahertz) processor, 10,000,000 clock cycles is approximately 100 samples per second. The minimum number of cycles that can be specified is 50,000.
Timer can only be used when you use the sampling profiling method, and it can only be used in a command line that also contains the Launch or the Attach option.
By default, the profiler sampling event is set to processor clock cycles and the sampling interval is set to 10,000,000. The Timer, PF, Sys, and Counter options enable you to set the sampling event and the sampling interval. The GC option collects .NET memory data at each allocation and garbage collection event. Only one of these options can be specified on a command line.
The sampling event and the sampling interval can be set only in the first command line that contains a Launch or an Attach option.
Syntax
VSPerfCmd.exe {/Launch:AppName|/Attach:PID} /Timer[:Cycles] [Options]
Parameters
Cycles
An integer value that specifies the number of processor clock cycles in a sampling interval. If Cycles is not specified, the interval is set to 10,000,000. Specify the value without commas.
Required options
Timer can only be specified on a command line that contains one of the following options.
Launch: AppName
Starts the profiler and the application specified by AppName.
Attach: PID
Attaches the profiler to the process specified by the process ID (PID).
Invalid options
The following options cannot be specified on the same command line as Timer.
PF[:Events]
Sets the sampling event to page faults and optionally sets the sampling interval to Events. The default PF interval is 10.
Sys[:Events]
Sets the sampling event to operating system calls and optionally sets the sampling interval to Events. The default Sys interval is 10.
Counter[:Name,Reload,FriendlyName]
Sets the sampling event to the CPU performance counter specified by Name and sets the sampling interval to Reload.
GC[:{Allocation|Lifetime}] Collects .NET memory data. By default (Allocation), data is collected at every memory allocation event. When the Lifetime parameter is specified, data is also collected at each garbage collection event.
Example
This example demonstrates how to set the profiler sampling interval to 1,000,000 processor cycles.
VSPerfCmd.exe /Start:Sample /Output:TestApp.exe.vsp
VSPerfCmd.exe /Launch:TestApp.exe /Timer:1000000