Is Stopwatch really broken?

Posted by Jakub Šturc on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jakub Šturc
Published on 2010-04-06T14:53:51Z Indexed on 2010/04/06 15:03 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 365

Filed under:

.NET

|

stopwatch

|

discussion

At MSDN page for Stopwatch class I discovered link to interesting article which makes following statement about Stopwatch:

However there are some serious issues:

This can be unreliable on a PC with multiple processors. Due to a bug in
the BIOS, Start() and Stop() must be executed on the same processor to get a correct result.

This is unreliable on processors that do not have a constant clock speed (most processors can reduce the clock speed to conserve energy). This is explained in detail here.

I am little confused. I've seen tons of examples of using Stopwatch and nobody mention this drawbacks. How serious is this? Should I avoid using Stopwatch?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about .NET

Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More
12.04: Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More
What's New in ASP.NET 4

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
The .NET Framework version 4 includes enhancements for ASP.NET 4 in targeted areas. Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express also include enhancements and new features for improved Web development. This document provides an overview of many of the new features that are included… >>> More
.NET Reflector 6, .NET Reflector Pro, TestDriven.NET, .NET 4.0 and Mono

as seen on Simple Talk - Search for 'Simple Talk'
By now you may well have noticed that .NET Reflector 6 and .NET Reflector Pro are out in the wild. The official launch happened today, although we actually put the software out last Thursday as part of a phased release plan to ensure that everything went smoothly today which, so far, it seems to have… >>> More
Redmine on Apache2 with Passenger issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I installed Redmine and run it in Apache2 with the Passenger module. Apache2 boots, Passenger module gets loaded and the Redmine welcome page is shown, however when trying to login or navigate to other parts of the Redmine site, the browser keeps loading and loading and loading forever, although the… >>> More

Related posts about stopwatch

OpenNETCF.Stopwatch -> only ticks changing, not Elapsed

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've been trying to track down a bug I thought was thread-related, but I think instead there is an issue with the way I am using OpenNETCF's Stopwatch. I am using OpenNETCF.IoC in my application, but for the sake of simplicity I moved the following code directly into a view: public partial class… >>> More
How can i use Stopwatch [ apache ] to calculate the time taken by a method?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am using StopWatch [ apache ] to get the time taken by my method. The approach i am following is StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch(); stopWatch.start(); myMethod(); stopWatch.stop(); logger.info( "Time taken by myMethod: " + stopWatch.getTime() + " millisecs"); stopWatch.reset(); stopWatch… >>> More
Blackberry stopwatch implementation

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to write a blackberry app that is basically a stopwatch, and displays lap times. First, I'm not sure I'm implementing the stopwatch functionality in the most optimal way. I have a LabelField (_myLabel) that displays the 'clock' - starting at 00:00. Then you hit the start button and every… >>> More
stopwatch accuracy

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
How accurate is System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch? I am trying to do some metrics for different code paths and I need it to be exact. Should I be using stopwatch or is there another solution that is more accurate. I have been told that sometimes stopwatch gives incorrect information. >>> More
Is Stopwatch really broken?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
At MSDN page for Stopwatch class I discovered link to interesting article which makes following statement about Stopwatch: However there are some serious issues: This can be unreliable on a PC with multiple processors. Due to a bug in the BIOS, Start() and Stop() must be executed on… >>> More