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Date/Time: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:20:52 +0000
[Sticky] [Locked] - Critical Update for Sierra Chart Timers 2867 through 2869 | OS vs. SC Timers | 4 MS!
View Count: 78
| [2026-01-27 05:34:51] |
| Sierra_Chart Engineering - Posts: 22551 |
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Version 2867 had a significant reimplementation of Sierra Chart timers for charts. From the users perspective, this did not matter other than this new setting: General Settings Window: Minimum Delay Between Chart Updates in Milliseconds (Global Settings >> General Settings >> General >> Update Intervals) There was a small issue in this new timer implementation where timers could stop for charts. This is now resolved in 2870. Based on our understanding of the problem an issue like this would only occur when you have one single chart open during a Sierra Chart session, and you were to start a chart replay. So this is not such a common scenario. Nevertheless, update as soon as possible if you are using Sierra Chart Timers and you are on versions: 2867 to 2869. Update instructions: Software Download: Fast Update Sierra Chart Timers are used when "Use OS Timer for Charts" No: General Settings Window: Use OS Timer for Charts (Global Settings >> General Settings >> General >> Update Intervals) Sierra Chart timers are much more efficient than operating system timers and consume no operating system resources. Operating system timers are not well structured and have many events dropped, and could update a chart slowly but this just simply depends upon your system configuration. The most important thing to understand is operating system timers cannot trigger more often than every 10 milliseconds. This is simply a limitation of the windows operating system. Whereas Sierra Chart Timers, have the capability to trigger, at any time interval. Even down to 1 microsecond. Yes and we mean microseconds as compared to milliseconds. There is no lower limit. This is simply dependent upon the speed of the hardware. What we have done, is we have now dropped to the minimum Chart Update Interval to 4 ms in Sierra Chart. Although understand this low of a chart update interval, only applies when using Sierra Chart Timers. It has no effect when "Use OS Timer for Charts" is set to Yes. After further evaluation most likely we will allow the Chart Update Interval to be set as low as 1 ms but not likely lower. Since that setting is based on milliseconds and not microseconds. To test the performance of this low of a Chart Update Interval, open a chart, and set this setting to 4 ms: Chart Settings: Replay Update Interval in Milliseconds (Chart >> Chart Settings >> Display >> Chart Update Interval menu) And then perform a chart replay initially at a speed of like 60 times and then increase that to 960 times. Also open a Time and Sales window for the chart and you will see the extreme, update speed. We cannot post a video of this, because this update speed is far beyond the frame rate of video capture software. You can also set this setting, to 4 ms now as well: Chart Settings: Chart Update Interval in Milliseconds (Chart >> Chart Settings >> Display >> Chart Update Interval menu) In the next release, we will allow this to be set as low as 1 ms. Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy: https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-27 05:56:58
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| [2026-01-27 05:47:29] |
| Sierra_Chart Engineering - Posts: 22551 |
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For an understanding and proof, of the limitation of the operating system timers regarding the minimum update interval, refer to: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-settimer Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy: https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2026-01-27 06:10:01] |
| Sierra_Chart Engineering - Posts: 22551 |
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Now that we are allowing timing below 10 ms we have done some more research and we see that the underlying functionality we use to track times, has a limitation/resolution of about 10 ms in the operating system. We are going to change to different functions in the operating system, which we already use, for other purposes, that gives us a resolution of 1 µs (Microsecond). So therefore using a setting of 4 ms or 1 ms at this time is not likely to make any difference. We need about a week for the additional development. Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy: https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-27 06:10:28
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