PIX on Windows

PIX Timing Captures require full PDBs

Steven PratschnerFebruary 26, 2021Feb 26, 202102/26/21

PIX Timing Captures require a title’s PDBs to be generated using the /DEBUG:FULL linker switch. PDBs generated with the /DEBUG:FASTLINK linker switch are not sufficient. Note that, depending on the version of Visual Studio you are using, the linker switch /DEBUG specified without the FULL or FASTLINK option, may default to FASTLINK...

Finding memory leaks using Timing Captures

Steven PratschnerFebruary 23, 2021Feb 23, 202102/23/21

PIX Timing Captures include several analysis features aimed at making it easy to find memory leaks in your title.  These features, coupled with the ability to take captures for extended periods of time, are a compelling combination for finding leaks, even those that can take a considerable amount of time to manifest themselves. To enable ...

WinPixEventRuntime 2102.09: Minor fixes and optimizations

Matt AmertFebruary 16, 2021Feb 16, 202102/16/21

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since our last update to WinPixEventRuntime! This update brings a couple of minor fixes and optimizations, which should hopefully lead to a slightly better quality of life when using the runtime 😊 You can download the new runtime here. Release notes: Known Issue...

Filtering CPU Samples by one or more PIX Events

Steven PratschnerFebruary 3, 2021Feb 3, 202102/3/21

The Sampling Profiler included in the 2101.27 release of PIX on Windows includes a novel new feature that allows you to filter the analysis of CPU samples down to just those samples that were collected during the time when one or more PIX events was running.  This capability is particularly useful for seeing which functions ran the most ...

Function Summary and Callgraph captures are now deprecated

Steven PratschnerFebruary 1, 2021Feb 1, 202102/1/21

Function Summary and Callgraph captures are deprecated starting with the 2102.27 release of PIX on Windows. The workflows supported by these legacy capture types have been replaced with enhancements we're recently made to the Sampling Profiler that is part of Timing Captures.  These enhancements include the ability to group the tree of ...

New documentation page: Analyzing CPU samples in Timing Captures

Steven PratschnerDecember 7, 2020Dec 7, 202012/7/20

Hi PIX users, I've added a new page to our PIX for Windows documentation set.  The new page describes how to use Timing Captures to analyze CPU samples.  Collecting CPU samples allows you to analyze how functions within your title are impacting performance.  We've been steadily adding new features to PIX's sampling profiler and will ...

Analyzing CPU samples in Timing Captures

Steven PratschnerDecember 7, 2020Dec 7, 202012/7/20

PIX includes a CPU sampling profiler that can optionally be run when taking a Timing Capture. Collecting CPU samples allows you to analyze how functions within your title are impacting performance. Viewing CPU samples is useful in several scenarios. For example, CPU samples can help you determine what code is running on a thread or core for...

New documentation page: Analyzing Win32 File IO performance using Timing Captures

Steven PratschnerOctober 28, 2020Oct 28, 202010/28/20

Hi all, I've added another page to our PIX for Windows documentation set.  The new page describes how to use Timing Captures to analyze file io performance.  The addition of file io data to Timing Captures replaces the separate file io capture type that we removed from PIX a few releases ago. Steven Pratschner - PIX Team...