Timer Methods

This page explains the six timing backends supported by cPerformanceManager, what each one measures, and when each one is appropriate.

Method map

cPerformanceManager supports the following timing methods:

• 1 = Timer
• 2 = GetTickCount / GetTickCount64
• 3 = timeGetTime
• 4 = timeGetSystemTime (MMTIME / TIME_MS)
• 5 = QueryPerformanceCounter (QPC)
• 6 = Now() * 86400

In most cases, method 5 is the preferred benchmark path.

The most important distinction

There are three conceptual families here:

VBA-native clocks

• Method 1: Timer
• Method 6: Now() * 86400

Windows millisecond counters

• Method 2: GetTickCount / GetTickCount64
• Method 3: timeGetTime
• Method 4: timeGetSystemTime

High-resolution performance counter

• Method 5: QueryPerformanceCounter (QPC)

Recommended choices

Best default

Use:

cPM.StartTimer 5

Practical fallback

If QPC is unavailable or you deliberately want a simpler uptime-style counter, method 2 is the next most practical choice.

Teaching / comparison methods

Methods 1 and 6 are useful for comparison, diagnostics, or teaching, but they are not the preferred benchmark path.

More specialized methods

Methods 3 and 4 are valid and supported, but they are more specialized than QPC.

About AlignToNextTick

StartTimer supports:

cPM.StartTimer 5, True

This aligns the start capture to the next observable tick. Use it only in deliberate micro-benchmark scenarios, because it adds polling overhead.