Assertions are often free or nearly so. On modern out of order processors, it’s a fully predictable branch and a cheap assertion that nothing depends on. So the

Assertions are often free or nearly so. On modern out of order processors, it’s a fully predictable branch and a cheap assertion that nothing depends on. So the pipeline is unaffected and there’s usually a cheap test that often is completely free because there’s spare capacity. If the assert tests something expensive, I will usually switch to a debug assert.