Should I prefer variables or multiple indirections on arrays in C# in perf critical code?

Question

in some perf critical program (single threaded), if I have arrays of primitive types, and need to access the same index of those more than once in loops.

Should I us

Answer 1

In general access to an array is slower than a temporary because it has 2 additional pieces of overhead

• A layer of indirection
• A bounds check

However I would not be changing any code I had today based on that knowledge unless a profiler clearly showed a tight loop to be a significant perf problem in my application. And furthermore showed that changing to a cached local produced a significant perf benefit.