Not really. Physics is computed against low-resolution polygon representations.

You don't want to compute physics against your art representation, because it's typically over-described.

Of course. My point is that polygons aren't the limiting factor today, so having unlimited polygons wouldn't "fix" that. The GPU typically determines polygon budget, with the CPU determining physics and AI.

Of course, you can dump physics onto the GPU, but that will cost you polygons. I guess that could, in theory (if you really had unlimited atoms), give you more cycles for physics.