SQL Server 2000 Page Splits per second higher han 12 million?

Question

I was reading about index fill factors & performance, and out on a whim I tried the query given by the webpage on the company's production SQL Server 2000 server:

SELECT *
FROM MASTER.dbo.sysperfinfo
WHERE counter_name ='Page Splits/sec' AND
OBJECT_NAME LIKE'%Access methods%'

Imagine my shock when I saw the result is 12164778 (yes, that's larger than 12 million).

Is it actually possible to have 12 million page splits per second? Or am I reading the numbers incorrectly? Or is there a mistake in the query?

Answer 1

Please read Calculating Counter Values to understand what performance counter values are and how you use them. Per second values are computed from two samples delta divided by time.

Jason Strate has a SQL Server specific discussion here.