In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering (abbreviated AF) is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces of computer graphics that are at oblique viewing angles with respect to the camera where the projection of the texture (not the polygon or other primitive on which it is rendered) appears.

Does anisotropic filtering affect performance?

Generally, anisotropic filtering can noticeably affect framerate and it takes up video memory from your video card, though the impact will vary from one computer to another. When the in-game camera views textures from an oblique angle, they tend to become distorted without anisotropic filtering.

Should you use anisotropic filtering?

Trilinear filtering helps, but the ground still looks all blurry. This is why we use anisotropic filtering, which significantly improves texture quality at oblique angles. That’s the area we should be sampling for this pixel, and in the form of a rough analogy, this is what anisotropic filtering takes into account.