Query on Standby redo logs - Oracle
NOAFFIRM means the redo transport will be acknowledged before writing the received redo to disk (standby redo logs).


  ASYNC noaffirm means the log transfer method is ARCH right?


No, it does not. Without specifying LGWR or ARCH, LGWR is the default. You can check it on the primary database by:

select archiver from v$archive_dest where dest_id = 5;


There you should see LGWR. However, specifying ARCH or LGWR became deprecated in 11g:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e40402/initparams125.htm#CHDJDFCJ

Deprecated does not mean it will not work, so it is still possible to specify ARCH in log_archive_dest_n and revert to the way it worked in 10.2 (and what you described). But that is not how you configure MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE anymore, because of the changes, even MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE uses LGWR and standby redo logs. See below:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e41134/log_transport.htm#BABCBEGJ


  The synchronous and asynchronous redo transport modes require that a
  redo transport destination have a standby redo log.