Anisotropic Filtering can increase and sharpen the quality of textures on surfaces that appear far away or at odd angles, such as road surfaces or trees. Anisotropic Filtering has a small performance cost (FPS) and can increase image quality in most 3D applications.

Should anisotropic be on or off?

As you look farther away, the surfaces become blurrier. The effect is more pronounced when the in-game camera is in motion. Then turn anisotropic filtering on, the far-off surfaces become much more detailed.

Does Nvidia anisotropic filtering affect performance?

Anisotropic filtering is a technique used to improve the quality of textures applied to the surfaces of 3D objects when drawn at a sharp angle. Enabling this option improves image quality at the expense of some performance. ... Higher values yield better image quality while reducing performance.