Image Quality Comparison

Note that the screenshots have been taken from the game's built-in benchmark and are not captured at exactly the same time, so expect a little variance between them. Having that said they clearly show the difference made by the anti-aliasing and PhysX features.

PhysX Off/AA Off Quality Sample #1
PhysX Off/AA On Quality Sample #1
PhysX On/AA On Quality Sample #1

In the first set of images you will notice that with anti-aliasing turned off there is not a huge difference in visual quality. There are just a few jagged edges that are smoothed over such as the window frame, still overall not a huge difference in this scene.

With PhysX turned on in the third screenshot the only key difference is the rubble on the window sill. This alone saw our GeForce GTX 480 drop around 15% of its original performance. That's a big hit for a few pebbles.

PhysX Off/AA Off Quality Sample #2
PhysX Off/AA On Quality Sample #2
PhysX On/AA On Quality Sample #2

Again please remember that these screenshots were not taken at the exactly same time so not all changes are relevant.

We see little difference in visual quality with anti-aliasing disabled and enabled. The real difference can be seen with PhysX. Now when the rubble explodes from the wall it stays on the ground and creates a real mess. However the cost of all this mess was huge when using our GeForce GTX 480 graphics card, over 60% of the original frame rate was lost.

PhysX Off/AA Off Quality Sample #3
PhysX Off/AA On Quality Sample #3
PhysX On/AA On Quality Sample #3

When looking at the comparison shots from this scene we find much the same story. Anti-aliasing doesn't significantly clean up the image while PhysX adds rubble and a much more realistic feel that will come at a heavy cost as we will look into shortly.

PhysX Off/AA Off Quality Sample #3
PhysX Off/AA On Quality Sample #3
PhysX On/AA On Quality Sample #3

This last series of screenshots are a little different as they give us a wider view of an outdoors scene. Still we see that anti-aliasing doesn't do much and with it turned on we still see quite a few rough edges. As before, the difference between having PhysX on and not having it is debris. With PhysX on we have lots of shattered glass on the ground along with a little rubble.