Mirror’s Edge Performance Explored
 

So what enhancements does PhysX bring to Mirror’s Edge? Quite a few. The most obvious addition to the game is persistent shattered glass.

With or without PhysX, glass shatters pretty similarly when it’s hit by bullets. Whether it’s the glass from a window, display case, etc, the effect looks very good. However with PhysX turned off, the glass shatters and literally disappears into thin air, it doesn’t even hit the floor! With PhysX enabled, the shattered glass hits the floor and rests there. It doesn’t disappear after a few moments, and you can even kick up a few shards when you walk over them.

Along the same lines, one other aspect we noticed with PhysX turned on is added objects. For instance, with PhysX enabled, curtains are placed behind many glass windows. When these windows are then shattered, the curtains flop about realistically as the glass basically explodes right in front of it. Occasionally a few of these curtains will pop off completely and fly across the room onto the ground.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...x_performance/