Using Window's
Performance Console
(September 18, 2005)
In doing a couple of analyses of game performance on different computer systems, I made use of Windows XP's Performance Console, which includes System Monitor and Performance Log. I really only have scratched the surface of what these powerful tools are capable of; so, you might wish to explore this feature, yourself, to see what you can do with it. The many capabilities that the Performance Console has available does make it a bit intimidating to get started with. Therefore, I thought that it might be helpful to outline the steps that I followed in setting up a Performance Log and analyzing the results with System Monitor. I think that once you've had a chance to follow these steps, yourself, that you'll be in a good position to strike off on your own.
[The articles in which I've made use of the Performance Console are Desert Combat Final: Video Performance and Memory Usage and Battlefield 2: Performance Analysis.]
To find the Performance Console, drill down through Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Performance. Clicking on the Performance shortcut will bring up the Performance Console in which System Monitor will be running and monitoring some default "counters".
If you just want to explore Performance Console a bit, to see some of what it has to offer, checking out the different counters available in System Monitor is a good place to begin. You can clear the current set of counters by clicking on left most icon above the graph (a rectangular blank page), and you can add new counters by clicking on the + icon (and remove counters you don't want by clicking on the X icon). When you click on the + icon, you'll get an options dialogue box like the one below.
Use the drop down menu under Performance Object to select a general category of counters to be tracked, and then select from the Counters List the specific counter that you are interested in (highlight it and click Add). You can use the Explain button to read a synopsis of what a particular counter is measuring. The above screenshot shows the Processor performance object selected, and the % Processor Time counter is ready to be added.
I'll come back to using the System Monitor, later, but let's move on to using the Performance Log If you scroll back up to the first screenshot, you can see that I've expanded Performance Logs and Alerts and that I have the cursor over the Counter Logs item. When you click on this item, you get the following view in Performance Console.
In order to setup your own log configuration, click on Action and then New Log Settings (see below).
You'll be asked to give a name to your Log configuration and then to add some counters to your log setup. Note that this page also shows you the name of your file and where it is being stored.
You go about adding counters to the Log configuration in the same way as you add counters to the System Monitor.
After you've added all the counters that wish to log, you may want to configure the sampling interval. A 1 second interval should be fine if you are going to be running your log for less than an hour; otherwise, you may want to increase the sampling interval to something a bit more than that.
Before finishing the configuration of your log, click on the Schedule tab, and set the log to be started and stopped manually.
You can manually start and stop your log by right clicking on the desired log in your list and then selecting either Start or Stop. The little icon next to your log's name will be red when the log is not running and it will be green when the log is running.
After you have recorded a log file, you can use the System Monitor to view the results. Bring the System Monitor back up in the Performance Console by clicking on it over on the left side of the console. Go ahead and clear the current counters that are being monitored (click the left most icon just above the graph, i.e., the one that looks like a small, white, blank page). Then, click on the fourth from the left icon (a small cylinder), which will allow you to "View Log Data".
You'll need to add your log file.
And then, you'll need to add your counters.
Only those Performance Objects and specific counters that you recorded with your log file will be available to add to the System Monitor at this point.
If you have several counters displayed at the same time in your System Monitor, you probably will need to tweak a couple of settings to get a useful graph. You can change the the properties of your graph by right clicking on one of the counters.
And from there you can change, by factors of 10, the scaling for your data.
And, by selecting the Graph tab, you can modify the range of the vertical scale on your graph.
Hopefully, when you are done, you'll have a graph that will be fairly easy to read and that you can pick out the pertinent information from.
Back to Sequoyah Computer