It’s disputable issue, is Batman Arkham Asylum that long-awaited killer-ap for hardware PhysX technology, but one is undoubtedly – supplementary PhysX effects are very well done, and can greatly increase overall game immersion level. Unfortunately,  heavy PhysX content requires appropriate Nvidia GPU, to help you understand which one – we’ve prepared an overview of PhysX benchmark articles, available on the web.

[17.09.09] Batman Arkham Asylum: PhysX or not PhysX by Revioo.com

Worth viewing article as it contains PhysX comparison videos, and benchmarks with variety of hardware (main – 9800GTX, GTX275, GTX280, dedicated – 8600GT, 9800GTX, GTX275)

[17.09.09] Batman Arkham Asylum Physx Preview by Chris Ray

This article is focused on multi-GPU (SLI, Tri-SLi, quad-SLI) configurations, and include some comparison PhysX screens too.

[21.09.09] Batman: Arkham Asylum – PhysX benchmarks with comparison shots and video by PCgameshardware.com

Contains comparison screenshots and video for in-game benchmark, and some perfomance testing for different PhysX settings as well.

[22.09.09] Batman Arkham Asylum — pořádná akce s PhysX by PCtuning

Massive and interesting overview – benchmarking results with decent amount of AMD and Nvidia GPUs, and even CPU influence tests.

[25.09.09] Batman nVidia PhysX Analysis by DriverHeaven

Probably, best article available currently. Decent descriptive part (videos included), and great benchmarking with various configurations (different CPU, varied PhysX GPU setups) tested.

[25.09.09] Optymalne karty graficzne do Batman: Arkham Asylum. PhysX, porównanie wersji PC, X360 i PS3 by benchmark.pl

Article with a small part related to GPU PhysX perfomance.

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Maybe some of you already heard about PhysX “trick”, that allows GPU PhysX effects in Batman Arkham Asylum to run with decent framerates (~30) on fast CPU ?

There is no magic or hack here, as in this metod MaxPhysicsSubsteps parameter value is reduced to 1 (instead of 5 by default), that result in faster simulation speed, but greather decreased calculations quality.

TheElMoIsEviL has uploaded video to YouTube, that shows how well this trick works:

In the second part of this video, you can notice how papers (simulated by cloth, actually) get stuck in Batman’s character model,  their vertexes are jumping and jittering all over the screen – that’s result of simulation quality trimming.

Use this solution or not – it’s up to you, but if you want to see complex PhysX effects at their best, I’ll need appropriate Nvidia GPU, without alternatives these days.