Flash / Actionscript CPU profiler

Question

Have you found such a tool and used it successfully?

Answer 1

I've used the profiler that comes with Flex Builder 3 with moderate success. I find out especially useful in finding memory leaks and or GC issues.

It was much less useful for me in the area of time-in-method performance due to the asynchronous nature of the application in question and the amount of time given to [onEnterFrame] and other internal methods, though I was still able to make some optimisations based on the output.

Answer 2

It's important to note that the Flash Player implementation is different on each platform and to an extent each browser, so expect notable speed differences. So if you're developing a resource intensive application you should be using profiling tools specific to each OS you're targeting, like for example Instruments on OS X and of course test the performance in each browser.

Answer 3

I have found The Miner to be very useful, and it's free for non-commercial projects. It has a wide range of features but the tab labelled "Performance Profiler" has been the most helpful. I find that it's a great way to find bottlenecks in your code, or at least know what the main cause is (Rendering, Text, Network, etc..).

It took me a bit to find the installation instructions, but it's pretty simple. Include the .swc file in your project, then add 1 line of code in your document class constructor.

this.addChild(new TheMiner(true));

More info: http://www.sociodox.com/theminer/support.html