First look at profiling tools (C#, Visual Basic, C++, F#)
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
Visual Studio provides a variety of profiling tools to help you diagnose different kinds of app performance issues depending on your app type. In this article, we give a quick look at the most common profiling tools.
To see profiling tool support for different app types, see Which tool should I use?
Measure performance while debugging
The profiling tools that you can access during a debugging session are available in the Diagnostic Tools window. The Diagnostic Tools window appears automatically unless you have turned it off. To bring up the window, click Debug / Windows / Show Diagnostic Tools (or press Ctrl + Alt + F2). With the window open, you can select tools for which you want to collect data.
While you are debugging, you can use the Diagnostic Tools window to analyze CPU and memory usage, and you can view events that show performance-related information.
The Diagnostic Tools window is a common way to profile apps, but for Release builds you can also do a post-mortem analysis of your app instead. For more information on different approaches, see Run profiling tools with or without the debugger. To see profiling tool support for different app types, see Which tool should I use?
Tools available in the Diagnostic Tools window or during a debugging session include:
Note
Windows 8 and later is required to run profiling tools with the debugger (Diagnostic Tools window). You can use the post-mortem tools with Windows 7 and later.
Measure performance in release builds
Tools in the Performance Profiler are intended to provide analysis for Release builds. In the Performance Profiler, you can collect diagnostic info while the app is running, and then examine the collected information after the app is stopped (a post-mortem analysis).
Open the Performance Profiler by choosing Debug > Performance Profiler (or Alt + F2).
For more information on using the CPU Usage or Memory usage tool in the Performance Profiler vs. the debugger-integrated tools, see Run profiling tools with or without the debugger.
Tools available in the Performance Profiler include:
To see profiling tool support for different app types, see Which tool should I use?
In some scenarios, the window allows you to select multiple profiling tools. Tools such as CPU Usage may provide complementary data that you can use to help in your analysis. You can also use the command-line profiler to enable scenarios involving multiple profiling tools.
Examine performance using PerfTips
Often, the easiest way to view performance information is to use PerfTips. Using PerfTips, you can view performance information while interacting with your code. You can check information such as the duration of the event (measured from when the debugger was last paused, or when the app started). For example, if you step through code (F10, F11), PerfTips show you the app runtime duration from the previous step operation to the current step.
You can use PerfTips to examine how long it takes for a code block to execute, or how long it takes for a single function to complete.
PerfTips show the same events that also show up in the Events view of the Diagnostic Tools. In the Events view, you can view different events that occur while you are debugging, such as the setting of a breakpoint or a code stepping operation.
Note
If you have Visual Studio Enterprise, you can also see IntelliTrace events in this tab.
Analyze CPU usage
The CPU Usage tool is a good place to start analyzing your app's performance. It will tell you more about CPU resources that your app is consuming. You can use the debugger-integrated CPU Usage tool or the post-mortem CPU Usage tool.
When using the debugger-integrated CPU Usage tool, open the Diagnostics Tool window (if it's closed, choose Debug / Windows / Show Diagnostic Tools). While debugging, open the Summary view, and select Record CPU Profile.
One way to use the tool is to set two breakpoints in your code, one at the beginning and one at the end of the function or the region of code you want to analyze. Examine the profiling data when you are paused at the second breakpoint.
Analyze memory usage
The Diagnostic Tools window also allows you to evaluate memory usage in your app using the Memory Usage tool. For example, you can look at the number and size of objects on the heap. You can use the debugger-integrated Memory Usage tool or the post-mortem Memory Usage tool in the Performance Profiler.
.NET developers may choose between either the .NET Object Allocation tool or the Memory usage tool.
- The .NET Object Allocation tool helps you identify allocation patterns and anomalies in your .NET code, and helps identify common issues with garbage collection. This tool runs only as a post-mortem tool. You can run this tool on local or remote machines.
- The Memory usage tool is helpful in identifying memory leaks, which are not typically common in .NET apps. If you need to use debugger features while checking memory, such as stepping through code, the debugger-integrated Memory usage tool is recommended.
To analyze memory usage with the Memory Usage tool, you need to take at least one memory snapshot. Often, the best way to analyze memory is to take two snapshots; the first right before a suspected memory issue, and the second snapshot right after a suspected memory issue occurs. Then you can view a diff of the two snapshots and see exactly what changed. The following illustration shows taking a snapshot with the debugger-integrated tool.
When you select one of the arrow links, you are given a differential view of the heap (a red up arrow 
shows an increasing object count (left) or an increasing heap size (right)). If you click the right link, you get a differential heap view ordered by objects that increased the most in heap size. This can help you pinpoint memory problems. For example, in the illustration below, the bytes used by ClassHandlersStore objects increased by 3,492 bytes in the second snapshot.
If you click the link on the left instead in the Memory Usage view, the heap view is organized by object count; the objects of a particular type that increased the most in number are shown at the top (sorted by Count Diff column).
Analyze resource consumption (XAML)
In XAML apps, such as Windows desktop WPF apps and UWP apps, you can analyze resource consumption using the Application Timeline tool. For example, you can analyze the time spent by your application preparing UI frames (layout and render), servicing network and disk requests, and in scenarios like application startup, page load, and Window resize. To use the tool, choose Application Timeline in the Performance Profiler, and then choose Start. In your app, go through the scenario with a suspected resource consumption issue, and then choose Stop collection to generate the report.
Low framerates in the Visual throughput graph may correspond to visual problems that you see when running your app. Similarly, high numbers in the UI thread utilization graph may also correspond to UI responsiveness issues. In the report, you can select a time period with a suspected performance issue, and then examine the detailed UI thread activities in the Timeline details view (lower pane).
In the Timeline details view, you can find information such as the type of activity (or the UI element involved) along with the duration of the activity. For example, in the illustration, a Layout event for a Grid control takes 57.53 ms.
For more information, see Application Timeline.
Examine UI performance and accessibility events (UWP)
In your UWP apps, you can enable UI Analysis in the Diagnostic Tools window. The tool searches for common performance or accessibility issues and displays them in the Events view while you are debugging. The event descriptions provide information that can help resolve issues.
Analyze GPU Usage (Direct3D)
In Direct3D apps (Direct3D components must be in C++), you can examine activity on the GPU and analyze performance issues. For more information, see GPU Usage. To use the tool, choose GPU Usage in the Performance Profiler, and then choose Start. In your app, go through the scenario that you're interested in profiling, and then choose Stop collection to generate a report.
When you select a time period in the graphs and choose view details, a detailed view appears in the lower pane. In the detailed view, you can examine how much activity is happening on each CPU and GPU. Select events in the lowest pane to get popups in the timeline. For example, select the Present event to view Present call popups. (The light gray vertical VSync lines can be used as a reference to understand whether certain Present calls missed VSync. There must be one Present call between every two VSyncs in order for the app to steadily hit 60 FPS.)
You can also use the graphs to determine whether there are CPU bound or GPU bound performance bottlenecks.
Analyze performance (JavaScript UWP)
For UWP apps, you can use the JavaScript Memory tool and the HTML UI Responsiveness tool.
The JavaScript Memory tool is similar to the Memory Usage tool available for other app types. You can use this tool to understand memory usage and find memory leaks in your app. For more details about the tool, see JavaScript Memory.
To diagnose UI responsiveness, slow loading time, and slow visual updates in UWP apps, use the HTML UI Responsiveness tool. Usage is similar to the Application Timeline tool for other app types. For more information, see HTML UI responsiveness.
Analyze network usage (UWP)
In UWP apps, you can analyze network operations performed using the Windows.Web.Http API. This tool may help you to resolve issues like access and authentication problems, incorrect cache-use, and poor display and download performance. To use the tool, choose Network in the Performance Profiler, and then choose Start. In your app, go through the scenario that uses Windows.Web.Http, and then choose Stop collection to generate the report.
Select an operation in the summary view to view more details.
For more information, see Network Usage.
Analyze performance (legacy tools)
If you need features such as instrumentation that are not currently present in CPU Usage or Memory Usage tools, and you are running desktop or ASP.NET apps, you can use the Performance Explorer for profiling. (Not supported in UWP apps). For more info, see Performance Explorer.
Which tool should I use?
Here is a table that lists the different tools Visual Studio offers and the different project types you can use them with:
| Performance Tool | Windows desktop | UWP | ASP.NET/ASP.NET Core |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Usage | yes | yes | yes |
| Memory Usage | yes | yes | yes |
| GPU Usage | yes | yes | no |
| Application Timeline | yes (XAML) | yes | no |
| PerfTips | yes | yes for XAML, no for HTML | yes |
| Performance Explorer | yes | no | yes |
| IntelliTrace | .NET with Visual Studio Enterprise only | .NET with Visual Studio Enterprise only | .NET with Visual Studio Enterprise only |
| Network Usage | no | yes | no |
| HTML UI responsiveness | no | yes for HTML, no for XAML | no |
| JavaScript Memory | no | yes for HTML, no for XAML | no |