You can boot with notsc and perf still seems to work
e.g.
$ dmesg | grep -i tsc
[ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0+ root=UUID=f1b4c71a-15aa-41a6-8898-cdde49966bce ro ignore_loglevel earlyprintk=ttyS0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 no_console_suspend notsc=1
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0+ root=UUID=f1b4c71a-15aa-41a6-8898-cdde49966bce ro ignore_loglevel earlyprintk=ttyS0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 no_console_suspend notsc=1
[ 0.000000] tsc: Kernel compiled with CONFIG_X86_TSC, cannot disable TSC completely
[ 0.000000] tsc: Fast TSC calibration using PIT
[ 0.004000] tsc: Detected 2593.932 MHz processor
[ 0.224000] TSC deadline timer enabled
$ tools/perf/perf record -e instructions:u uname
Linux
[ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
[ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.032 MB perf.data (~1414 samples) ]
$ tools/perf/perf script
# ========
# captured on: Thu Oct 3 17:31:38 2013
# hostname : ivb01
# os release : 3.11.0+
# perf version : 3.11.rc4.gde8db8
# arch : x86_64
# nrcpus online : 8
# nrcpus avail : 8
# cpudesc : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz
# cpuid : GenuineIntel,6,58,9
# total memory : 8074624 kB
# cmdline : /home/ahunter/git/linux-perf/tools/perf/perf record -e instructions:u uname
# event : name = instructions:u, type = 0, config = 0x1, config1 = 0x0, config2 = 0x0, excl_usr = 0, excl_kern = 1, excl_host = 0, e
# HEADER_CPU_TOPOLOGY info available, use -I to display
# HEADER_NUMA_TOPOLOGY info available, use -I to display
# pmu mappings: cpu = 4, software = 1, tracepoint = 2, uncore_cbox_0 = 6, uncore_cbox_1 = 7, uncore_cbox_2 = 8, uncore_cbox_3 = 9, b
# ========
#
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f3315af3 [unknown] (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: ffffffff813a1ad0 page_fault ([kernel.kallsyms])
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f3316136 _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: ffffffff813a1ad0 page_fault ([kernel.kallsyms])
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: ffffffff813a1ad0 page_fault ([kernel.kallsyms])
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: ffffffff813a1ad0 page_fault ([kernel.kallsyms])
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33161b4 _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33161af _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33161af _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33161af _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33161bd _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f3316388 _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f3316590 _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)
uname 3914 451.484000: instructions:u: 7fe3f33165a0 _dl_start (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
ld-2.13.so)