How to profile under Windows?

Question

I have a C++ program that I want to profile as it needs too much running time.

Im am using windows for this program and I'd like to use a free profiler. I searched the net and found the AMD CodeAnalyst and very sleepy . The AMD tool does not work very good as I have an intel CPU. So nearly no information is coming out.

When using very sleepy , I have the problem, that I do not see the names of the functions in the summary. That means: The profiling itself works, but I cannot see what function took how long. I see just something like [123456789] as function name and 0 as line number. I think this is a problem of the debugging symbols.

Can you tell me, what I have to do to get it working (Visual Studio 2010)?

Thanks

Answer 1

Visual Studio Profiler here : http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23205

Instructions : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182372.aspx

Answer 2

I've tried a number of them, including LTProf and ANTS, but I keep going back to this method . It's not a tool; it's just a technique. Here's a step-by-step example of using it. A lot of other people also use it, if you want links.

Answer 3

There are two kinds of profiler.

The non-intrusive kind, which do not require modification to your code. IMHO these do not provide satisfactory results, although they are easier to use.

The intrusive kind, which require additions to your code. These provide better results, I think. I developed my own profiler of this kind, which has received good reviews. You can check it out at http://ravenspoint.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/timing/