diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 14a94ba772..fe83aa6b50 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@ cocos2d-x-3.0final ?.? ?
      [FIX]          ControlButton doesn't support to set scale ratio of touchdown state.
      [FIX]          Particles: Crash was triggered if there is not `textureFileName`section in particle plist file.
      [FIX]          Renderer: QuadCommand::init() does not copy the Quads, it only store a reference making the code faster
-     [FIX]	    Renderer: Performance improved in Sprite and SpriteBatchNode (and subclasses) sprites in about 20%
+     [FIX]          Renderer: Performance improved in Sprite and SpriteBatchNode (and subclasses) sprites in about 20%
+     [FIX]          Sprite: removed _hasChildren optimization. It uses !_children.empty() now which is super fast as well
      [FIX]          Tests: TestCpp works with CMake on Windows.
      [FIX]          Tests: Sprites Performance Test has 3 new tests
      [FIX]          TextureCache: getTextureForKey and removeTextureForKey work as expected
diff --git a/cocos/2d/CCSprite.cpp b/cocos/2d/CCSprite.cpp
index 271f1e8db9..8bf5a3d1b1 100644
--- a/cocos/2d/CCSprite.cpp
+++ b/cocos/2d/CCSprite.cpp
@@ -242,9 +242,7 @@ bool Sprite::initWithTexture(Texture2D *texture, const Rect& rect, bool rotated)
         
         // zwoptex default values
         _offsetPosition = Point::ZERO;
-        
-        _hasChildren = false;
-        
+
         // clean the Quad
         memset(&_quad, 0, sizeof(_quad));
         
@@ -767,7 +765,6 @@ void Sprite::addChild(Node *child, int zOrder, int tag)
     }
     //CCNode already sets isReorderChildDirty_ so this needs to be after batchNode check
     Node::addChild(child, zOrder, tag);
-    _hasChildren = true;
 }
 
 void Sprite::reorderChild(Node *child, int zOrder)
@@ -813,8 +810,6 @@ void Sprite::removeAllChildrenWithCleanup(bool cleanup)
     }
 
     Node::removeAllChildrenWithCleanup(cleanup);
-    
-    _hasChildren = false;
 }
 
 void Sprite::sortAllChildren()
@@ -882,27 +877,24 @@ void Sprite::setDirtyRecursively(bool bValue)
 {
     _recursiveDirty = bValue;
     setDirty(bValue);
-    // recursively set dirty
-    if (_hasChildren)
-    {
-        for(const auto &child: _children) {
-            Sprite* sp = dynamic_cast<Sprite*>(child);
-            if (sp)
-            {
-                sp->setDirtyRecursively(true);
-            }
+
+    for(const auto &child: _children) {
+        Sprite* sp = dynamic_cast<Sprite*>(child);
+        if (sp)
+        {
+            sp->setDirtyRecursively(true);
         }
     }
 }
 
 // XXX HACK: optimization
-#define SET_DIRTY_RECURSIVELY() {                                    \
-                    if (! _recursiveDirty) {    \
-                        _recursiveDirty = true;                    \
-                        setDirty(true);                              \
-                        if ( _hasChildren)                        \
-                            setDirtyRecursively(true);                \
-                        }                                            \
+#define SET_DIRTY_RECURSIVELY() {                       \
+                    if (! _recursiveDirty) {            \
+                        _recursiveDirty = true;         \
+                        setDirty(true);                 \
+                        if (!_children.empty())         \
+                            setDirtyRecursively(true);  \
+                        }                               \
                     }
 
 void Sprite::setPosition(const Point& pos)
diff --git a/cocos/2d/CCSprite.h b/cocos/2d/CCSprite.h
index 0a937a64e1..2081ef8336 100644
--- a/cocos/2d/CCSprite.h
+++ b/cocos/2d/CCSprite.h
@@ -538,7 +538,6 @@ protected:
 
     bool                _dirty;             /// Whether the sprite needs to be updated
     bool                _recursiveDirty;    /// Whether all of the sprite's children needs to be updated
-    bool                _hasChildren;       /// Whether the sprite contains children
     bool                _shouldBeHidden;    /// should not be drawn because one of the ancestors is not visible
     kmMat4              _transformToBatch;