System Timers Timer vs System Threading Timer

Question

I have been checking out some of the possible timers lately  and System Threading Timer and System Timers Timer are the ones that look needful to me  since they support thread pooling     I am making a game  and I plan on using all types of events  with different intervals  etc    Which would be the best

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In his book  CLR Via C    Jeff Ritcher discourages using System Timers Timer  this timer is derived from System ComponentModel Component  allowing it to be used in design surface of Visual Studio  So that it would be only useful if you want a timer on a design surface   He prefers to use System Threading Timer for background tasks on a thread pool thread

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From MSDN  System Threading Timer is a simple  lightweight timer that uses callback methods and is served by thread pool threads  It is not recommended for use with Windows Forms  because its callbacks do not occur on the user interface thread  System Windows Forms Timer is a better choice for use with Windows Forms  For server-based timer functionality  you might consider using System Timers Timer  which raises events and has additional features   Source

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This article offers a fairly comprehensive explanation    Comparing the Timer Classes in the  NET Framework Class Library  - also available as a  chm file  The specific difference appears to be that System Timers Timer is geared towards multithreaded applications and is therefore thread-safe via its SynchronizationObject property  whereas System Threading Timer is ironically not thread-safe out-of-the-box   I don t believe that there is a difference between the two as it pertains to how small your intervals can be

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Information from Microsoft about this  see Remarks on MSDN          System Timers Timer    which fires an event and executes the code in one or more event sinks   at regular intervals  The class is intended for use as a server-based   or service component in a multithreaded environment  it has no user   interface and is not visible at runtime    System Threading Timer    which executes a single callback method on a thread pool thread at   regular intervals  The callback method is defined when the timer is   instantiated and cannot be changed  Like the System Timers Timer   class  this class is intended for use as a server-based or service   component in a multithreaded environment  it has no user interface and   is not visible at runtime    System Windows Forms Timer     NET Framework only   a Windows Forms component that fires an event   and executes the code in one or more event sinks at regular intervals    The component has no user interface and is designed for use in a   single-threaded environment  it executes on the UI thread    System Web UI Timer     NET Framework only   an ASP NET component that performs asynchronous   or synchronous web page postbacks at a regular interval       It is interesting to mention that System Timers Timer was deprecated with  NET Core 1 0  but was implemented again in  NET Core 2 0     NET Standard 2 0   The goal with  NET Standard 2 0 was that it should be as easy as possible to switch from the  NET Framework which is probably the reason it came back   When it was deprecated  the  NET Portability Analyzer Visual Studio Add-In recommended to use System Threading Timer instead   Looks like that Microsoft favors System Threading Timer before System Timers Timer   EDIT NOTE 2018-11-15  I hand to change my answer since the old information about  NET Core 1 0 was not valid anymore

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System Threading Timer is a plain timer  It calls you back on a thread pool thread  from the worker pool    System Timers Timer is a System ComponentModel Component that wraps a System Threading Timer  and provides some additional features used for dispatching on a particular thread   System Windows Forms Timer instead wraps a native message-only-HWND and uses Window Timers to raise events in that HWNDs message loop   If your app has no UI  and you want the most light-weight and general-purpose  Net timer possible   because you are happy figuring out your own threading dispatching  then System Threading Timer is as good as it gets in the framework   I m not fully clear what the supposed  not thread safe  issues with System Threading Timer are  Perhaps it is just same as asked in this question  Thread-safety of System Timers Timer vs System Threading Timer  or perhaps everyone just means that    it s easy to write race conditions when you re using timers  E g  see this question  Timer  System Threading  thread safety re-entrancy of timer notifications  where your timer event can trigger and call you back a second time before you finish processing the first event  E g  see this question  Thread-safe execution using System Threading Timer and Monitor

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I found a short comparison from MSDN     The  NET Framework Class Library includes four classes named Timer    each of which offers different functionality       System Timers Timer  which fires an event and executes the code in one or more event sinks at regular intervals  The class is intended   for use as a server-based or service component in a multithreaded   environment  it has no user interface and is not visible at runtime       System Threading Timer  which executes a single callback method on a thread pool thread at regular intervals  The callback method is   defined when the timer is instantiated and cannot be changed  Like the   System Timers Timer class  this class is intended for use as a   server-based or service component in a multithreaded environment  it   has no user interface and is not visible at runtime       System Windows Forms Timer  a Windows Forms component that fires an event and executes the code in one or more event sinks at regular   intervals  The component has no user interface and is designed for use   in a single-threaded environment       System Web UI Timer  an ASP NET component that performs asynchronous or synchronous web page postbacks at a regular interval

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The two classes are functionally equivalent  except that System Timers Timer has an option to invoke all its timer expiration callbacks through ISynchronizeInvoke by setting SynchronizingObject  Otherwise  both timers invoke expiration callbacks on thread pool threads   When you drag a System Timers Timer onto a Windows Forms design surface  Visual Studio sets SynchronizingObject to the form object  which causes all expiration callbacks to be called on the UI thread

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One important difference not mentioned above which might catch you out is that System Timers Timer silently swallows exceptions  whereas System Threading Timer doesn t   For example   var timer   new System Timers Timer   AutoReset   false    timer Elapsed     sender  args    gt        var z   0      var i   1   z     timer Start      vs  var timer   new System Threading Timer x   gt        var z   0      var i   1   z     null  0  Timeout Infinite

[.net] System.Timers.Timer vs System.Threading.Timer

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