Detecting deviations from targeted design performance in accelerator/emulator environment

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, a system, and a computer readable storage medium for detecting deviations from targeted design performance in accelerator/emulator environment. In an embodiment, the method comprises loading target vales for a performance metric onto a hardware-accelerated simulator; setting breakpoints to pause the simulator at defined intervals; simulating, by the hardware-accelerated simulator, execution of a circuit design. The method further comprises during the simulating, using said breakpoints to pause the simulating at the defined intervals, and during each pause, comparing a measured value for the performance metric to the target value for the performance metric; and ending the simulation when a specified condition based on said comparing is met. In embodiments, when a difference between the measured value for the performance metric and the target value for the performance metric is within a preset tolerance, the pause is ended and the simulation continues.