Mafia 2 PC Demo Performance Analysis

Mafia2 is one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and here we have its demo. So it's time to find out if those funky PhysX effects are worth the effort of the developers.

First things first though. You'll need to reinstall the PhysX software that can be located at " /streamapps/common/mafia ii public demo/3rd ". If you don't, the game will run the PhysX effects in CPU mode, so make sure you do it.

We'll use a common PC gaming system (Q6600 @ 3.02Ghz, 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295). We've tested the demo with max details at 2048x1536. Without enabling the APEX settings, the demo run great, with some minor frame drops here and there. The GPU usage was around 80-90% and the game was taking full advantage of SLI and the multicores as you can see bellow.

When we enabled the PhysX, we were shocked with the performance hit. We dedicated one core of the GTX295 for the PhysX effects and the results were quite disappointing. The GPU usage of the first core was around 40-50%, whereas the usage of the other one was around 50-80%. With APEX on High we got 32fps at 2048x1536, whereas without them we got 57fps. What is even more surprising, is that the CPU usage was higher and proves that in order to enjoy the PhysX effects, you need a high-end CPU, even when you're using an Nvidia card to take care of them. This theory is strengthened even more by the fact that the performance (and the minimal GPU) usage is the same even when I run the game at a really low resolution (800x600).

There is at least a way to tweak the PhysX settings, by disabling the clothes simulations. Simply head over to "/streamapps/common/mafia ii public demo/edit/APEX" and delete the files in the "Cloth" folder. If you don't want to disable all the clothes simulation and keep the ones of Vito (the main character), delete everything in this folder except the files that start with 'VIT**', 'm2skeleton.ms' and 'ClothRemapTable.xml'. By doing that we gained a lot of frames, especially in the outdoor environment and we highly recommend it!

All in all, the PhysX effects have a huge performance impact. We'd suggest avoiding them if you don't have a I7 processor and a powerfull GPU, or else you'll be averaging around 30fps. If you can live with that, enjoy the PhysX effects. If you don't, disable them and enjoy a really smooth game!