High resolution timer [duplicate]

Question

I want to have a timer with about 5millisecond resolution. but the current Timer in .Net has a resolution of about 50ms. I could not find any working solution that creates a high resolution timer, although some claim that you can do it in C#.

Answer 1

In regards to the information that the OP was specifically asking about the Timer class which fires events at regular intervals. I have amended this answer, with my old answer below the horizontal rule.

I tested the following code with the Timer class, and it seems like it can get at least within the 14 - 15 millisecond range on my machine. Try it out for yourself and see if you can reproduce this. So sub-50 millisecond response times are possible, but it can't get down to exactly one millisecond.

using System;
using System.Timers;
using System.Diagnostics;

public static class Test
{
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        Timer timer = new Timer();
        timer.Interval = 1;
        timer.Enabled = true;

        Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        long start = 0;
        long end = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;

        timer.Elapsed += (o, e) =>
        {
            start = end;
            end = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;
            Console.WriteLine("{0} milliseconds passed", end - start);
        };

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

---

NB: The following is my old answer, when I thought the OP was talking about timing things. The following is merely useful information with respect to timing the duration of things, but doesn't provide any way of firing events at a regular interval. For that purpose, the Timer class is necessary.

Try using the Stopwatch class within System.Diagnostics: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.stopwatch.aspx

You can query it to check if it's high resolution through it's IsHighResolution field. Also, you can check the exact resolution of the Stopwatch:

int resolution = 1E9 / Stopwatch.Frequency;
Console.WriteLine("The minimum measurable time on this system is: {0} nanoseconds", resolution);

If you're worried about where this is actually sourced, the documentation seems to imply that it actually internally calls the lower level Win32 functions:

The Stopwatch class assists the manipulation of timing-related performance counters within managed code. Specifically, the Frequency field and GetTimestamp method can be used in place of the unmanaged Win32 APIs QueryPerformanceFrequency and QueryPerformanceCounter.

Answer 2

What about this one?

public class HiResTimer
{
    private bool isPerfCounterSupported = false;
    private Int64 frequency = 0;

    // Windows CE native library with QueryPerformanceCounter().
    private const string lib = "coredll.dll";
    [DllImport(lib)]
    private static extern int QueryPerformanceCounter(ref Int64 count);
    [DllImport(lib)]
    private static extern int QueryPerformanceFrequency(ref Int64 frequency);

    public HiResTimer()
    {
        // Query the high-resolution timer only if it is supported.
        // A returned frequency of 1000 typically indicates that it is not
        // supported and is emulated by the OS using the same value that is
        // returned by Environment.TickCount.
        // A return value of 0 indicates that the performance counter is
        // not supported.
        int returnVal = QueryPerformanceFrequency(ref frequency);

        if (returnVal != 0 && frequency != 1000)
        {
            // The performance counter is supported.
            isPerfCounterSupported = true;
        }
        else
        {
            // The performance counter is not supported. Use
            // Environment.TickCount instead.
            frequency = 1000;
        }
    }

    public Int64 Frequency
    {
        get
        {
            return frequency;
        }
    }

    public Int64 Value
    {
        get
        {
            Int64 tickCount = 0;

            if (isPerfCounterSupported)
            {
                // Get the value here if the counter is supported.
                QueryPerformanceCounter(ref tickCount);
                return tickCount;
            }
            else
            {
                // Otherwise, use Environment.TickCount.
                return (Int64)Environment.TickCount;
            }
        }
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        HiResTimer timer = new HiResTimer();

        // This example shows how to use the high-resolution counter to 
        // time an operation. 

        // Get counter value before the operation starts.
        Int64 counterAtStart = timer.Value;

        // Perform an operation that takes a measureable amount of time.
        for (int count = 0; count < 10000; count++)
        {
            count++;
            count--;
        }

        // Get counter value when the operation ends.
        Int64 counterAtEnd = timer.Value;

        // Get time elapsed in tenths of a millisecond.
        Int64 timeElapsedInTicks = counterAtEnd - counterAtStart;
        Int64 timeElapseInTenthsOfMilliseconds =
            (timeElapsedInTicks * 10000) / timer.Frequency;

        MessageBox.Show("Time Spent in operation (tenths of ms) "
                       + timeElapseInTenthsOfMilliseconds +
                       "\nCounter Value At Start: " + counterAtStart +
                       "\nCounter Value At End : " + counterAtEnd +
                       "\nCounter Frequency : " + timer.Frequency);
    }
}