What kinds of cpu performance counters can VTune detect？

[LIU_Q_]

When I use VTune to analysis which factors affect the performance of a program， I often use a cpu performance counter which named synchronization context switches, for example, if the synchronization context switches go up, the elapsed time of the program will go up. My question is that are there other cpu performance counters in VTune?

[David_A_Intel1 · Accepted solution]

Technically, context switches are not "cpu performance counters".  These are software counters counting the number of context switches caused by the OS.

For general cpu architecture performance analysis, please see the General Exploration analysis type in the product documentation.  Also, we publish tuning guides for the newer processors at http://www.intel.com/vtune-tuning-guides.