diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2ecbef28..7135760d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -70,6 +70,18 @@ testperf:  # do not use coverage (which is extremely slow)
 testtimer:
 	nosetests tqdm --with-timer -d -v
 
+testasv:
+	asv run -j 8 HEAD~3..HEAD
+	@make viewasv
+
+testasvfull:
+	asv run -j 8 v1.0.0..master
+	@make testasv
+
+viewasv:
+	asv publish
+	asv preview
+
 distclean:
 	@+make coverclean
 	@+make prebuildclean
diff --git a/benchmarks/benchmarks.py b/benchmarks/benchmarks.py
index 68aa43bf..a13ddf43 100644
--- a/benchmarks/benchmarks.py
+++ b/benchmarks/benchmarks.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ class FractionalOverheadSuite:
         self.tqdm = tqdm
         try:
             self.iterable = xrange(int(6e6))
-        except:
+        except NameError:
             self.iterable = range(int(6e6))
 
         t0 = self.time()
@@ -27,9 +27,16 @@ class FractionalOverheadSuite:
         t1 = self.time()
         self.t = t1 - t0
 
-
     def track_tqdm(self):
         t0 = self.time()
         [0 for _ in self.tqdm(self.iterable)]
         t1 = self.time()
-        return (t1 - t0 - self.t) / self.t  # fractional overhead
+        return (t1 - t0 - self.t) / self.t
+
+    def track_optimsed(self):
+        t0 = self.time()
+        [0 for _ in self.tqdm(self.iterable,
+                              miniters=6e5, smoothing=0)]
+        # TODO: miniters=None, mininterval=0.1, smoothing=0)]
+        t1 = self.time()
+        return (t1 - t0 - self.t) / self.t