Will the performance of SQL Server degrade over time if backups are not done?
I assume the log files grow and are cleared out when a full backup is performed. Would this lead to degraded performance as the log files become very large (assuming recovery is set to FULL so everything is logged)?
Will the performance of SQL Server degrade over time if backups are not done?
Aside from disk space and the resources to run the backup at the time it's performed, there's no overhead. Not having a backup is NOT a good idea...
I assume the log files grow and are cleared out when a full backup is performed.
No, Full recovery mode requires you to archive transaction logs as you see fit. Running out of drive space is the only concern for SQL Server with regard to backups & performance, depending on data growth.