C# performance counters impact performance?

I’ve been using System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter to get at CPU and memory usage stats – but it looks like whenever I call NextValue it spikes CPU usage. Running my app through the VS profiler points straight at NextValue as the main CPU load.

It looks, then, like querying PerformanceCounter.Next value seriously impacts CPU usage – on my dual core laptop it flipflops between 5 and 10% utilization.

I’m pretty sure that the same thing doesn’t happen when you use ProcessExplorer, or TaskManager, or Perfmon. I’ve been trying to work out a native way of getting at the same data, but it’s been surprisingly difficult. I just found these that look like decent leads:

SO question on logging performance metrics

Logman -- command line perfmon use

Writing performance data to a log file