HardwareOC farcry bench tool does not uses sound when testing so all 3 platforms are practically neck in neck. No winner here as the 2% advantage of the KV8 is well within the margin of error!

44. Next game is Half life 2, one of the best games of all times. I tested the original version and not the modern Steam version which is far more tougher on the system of this era.
Because HardwareOC half life 2 benchmark tool refused to work I used again Fraps 3.4.7 in order to test a 60 seconds interval in the first level in front of the train station where Dr Breen is making his infamous speech. I waited 1 minute before pressing F11 and i walked around the monument; after fraps finished i changed the resolution and waited 1 minute before testing again and so on. Repeated 3 times, the last runs are the actual results that I kept. Tested with sound!
Again tested at max settings - this game is very optimized and poses no problem for the 7800gs, only at the extreme 1600*1200 we are starting to be GPU-bound but we still get an average of 60+ FPS.

1024*768
A. NF8
2025-07-30 05:52:55 - hl2
Frames: 4765 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 79.417 - Min: 13 - Max: 121

B. KU8
2025-10-30 13:25:39 - hl2
Frames: 4293 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 71.550 - Min: 60 - Max: 95

C. KV8
2025-08-21 05:36:51 - hl2
Frames: 4608 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 76.800 - Min: 63 - Max: 97

45. 1280*1024
A. NF8
2025-07-30 05:51:28 - hl2
Frames: 4337 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 72.283 - Min: 56 - Max: 94

B. KU8
2025-10-30 13:24:00 - hl2
Frames: 4267 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 71.117 - Min: 17 - Max: 99

C. KV8
2025-08-21 05:35:17 - hl2
Frames: 4499 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 74.983 - Min: 57 - Max: 96

46. 1600*1200

A. NF8
2025-07-30 05:49:57 - hl2
Frames: 4029 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 67.150 - Min: 51 - Max: 89

B. KU8
2025-10-30 13:22:20 - hl2
Frames: 3939 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 65.650 - Min: 39 - Max: 83

C. KV8
2025-08-21 05:33:25 - hl2
Frames: 4100 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 68.333 - Min: 56 - Max: 92

For the first time nforce3 has a small lead at 1024*768 that disappears at 1280*1024 when K8T800 has a very small one. The problem is with the ULI board that has very low performance at 1024*768 - something is holding back the system!

47. The final 2004 game is Doom 3. Exceptionally tough on the video card I disabled AA in order to not overwhelm the poor 7800gs. The game has a built in benchmark that does NOT use sound!
1024*768
a. nf8
b. ku8
c. kv8

48. We go up to 1280*1024
a. nf8
b. ku8
c. kv8

49. We reached the grand daddy of the retro resolutions: 1600*1200; even with AA disabled we are completely GPU-bound:
a. nf8
b. ku8
c. kv8

It seems that one could actually play Doom 3 even at 1600*1200 at ultra quality with a geforce 7800gs on any of the 3 systems. RAM consumption reaches 1.2-1.3gb so 2gb is plenty! Also keep in mind that afterburner and fraps eat away some of the framerate so unless you are benchmarking you do not actually need them - you can activate the built in FSP counter with the com_showFPS 1 command.
Because i used the in game benchmark for ease of reproducibility - anyone can check those numbers with an identical system - the results are from tests done without sound.
When you actually play the game with any of the 3 platforms the average FPS will be lower because all sound will be processed by the CPU. Remember, all 3 use the same realtek AC97 codec.
At 1024*768 with NVIDIA and VIA you get an average of around 50 FPS; not so with ULI which drops to an average of 47 FPS - this is based on the Fraps testing on the second level after all hell broke loose!

We reached the second opengl game: Quake 4 from 2005.
Important considerations: because of ease of use and because it is very easy to fact check by anyone with an identical system I used HardwareOC Quake 4 benchmark tool. When testing the HOC demo a partial level is loaded! Total RAM consumption will reach 1.3-1.4gb which seems more than enough.
However when actually playing the game RAM utilization will reach sky high levels: with MSI afterbuner 4.3.0, fraps 3.4.7, everest 5.50 and the game running it will go above 2gb to around 2.3-2.4gb. That means using the page file!
You get a horrific experience: the game freezes for 1 second, than unfreezes and you play for something like 10 seconds when the game freezes again and so on!
Quake 4 is RAM and video card limited; you really need 3gb of ram in a 2*1gb + 2*512mb configuration or better 4*1gb and also a far stronger card - geforce 7800gs is practically overwhelmed even with AA disabled.

50 & 51 & 52 Quake 4
Abit KV8 PRO

Abit KU8 - the only time where SSD really helps! You still get bad stutters but the game will not freeze with this system! Still it is unplayable; maybe we need a better card - I wonder how radeon X1950 pro will handle Quake!

You cannot run MSI Afterburner, Fraps and Everest while benchmarking or playing Quake 4 due to very high memory demands. Swapping leads to skewed results.

With 2 GB RAM I get memory allocation error if I run just MSI Afterburner with Quake 4. Without MSI Afterburner it works. High memory consumption may also me caused by low video memory, only 256MB in your case. Data that didn't fit into video RAM has to stay in system RAM. I have 896 MB video memory and it may help. Ultra details requires more than 512MB video memory so you played with reduced details. The conclusion is Quake 4 is not playable on GeForce 7800 GS with high details as it's too underpowered despite being released a few months later and expensive at that time.

I wasn't successful with HardwareOC Quake 4 benchmark tool, but the standard approach of running timedemo worked - Re: Quake 4 benchmarks . In 1280x1024, ultra details, 4x antialiasing I got 68fps. GeForce GTX 275 is not fast enough for 8x or 16x antialiasing. With 16x antialiasing I get just 28fps when facing the radio guy in the first mission. With 4x antialiasing I get 60fps which is v-sync limit. So even card from 2009 cannot play it on maximum possible details. We are very close to max details though. In 2009 you would no longer be playing Quake 4 but at least Crysis.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-11-11, 11:26:

You cannot run MSI Afterburner, Fraps and Everest while benchmarking or playing Quake 4 due to very high memory demands. Swapping leads to skewed results.

I did not benchmarked with the page file enabled! I already wrote that HardwareOC quake 4 bench tool does not load a full level with all the assets and PC controlled enemies. That is why it takes around 1.3-14gb of ram with the page file disabled of course. Playing is a different matter entirely: for 2005 games 3gb is strongly recommended; actually you are better off with 4gb and be done with it. The problem with socket 754 is the RAM limitation: either you use 2 gb at DDR 400 or you use 3gb if you got 3 slots on your board and run them at DDR 333.

Abit NF8 PRO

Nforce3 is off to a strong start in Quake 4 - relatively speaking - however all 3 platforms are strongly bottlenecked by the weak 7800gs!

We reached the final game: striking FEAR in even the most powerful video cards of 2005 the last 3 tests will be at the same 1024/1280/1600 resolutions with all the details maxed out of one of the best games ever made!
53. 1024*768
a. NF8
b. KU8
c. KV8

54. 1280*1024
A. NF8
B. KU8
C. KV8

nd22 wrote on 2025-11-11, 16:20:

Nforce2 is off to a strong start in Quake 4 - relatively speaking - however all 3 platforms are strongly bottlenecked by the weak 7800gs!

I'm guessing you meant nforce3.

The 7800GS is definitely not a top performing GPU for a game like Quake 4, but the 3400+ is also pretty weak for a game like this:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-char … 07,1644-17.html

The fact that you're only dropping from 36fps at 1024x768 to 23fps at 1600x1200 shows that there is also a substantial CPU limitation preventing the frame rates from ever getting much over 40.

55. 1600*1200
A. NF8
B. KU8
C. KV8

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-11-11, 16:49:

I'm guessing you meant nforce3. […]
Show full quote

nd22 wrote on 2025-11-11, 16:20:

Nforce2 is off to a strong start in Quake 4 - relatively speaking - however all 3 platforms are strongly bottlenecked by the weak 7800gs!

I'm guessing you meant nforce3.

The 7800GS is definitely not a top performing GPU for a game like Quake 4, but the 3400+ is also pretty weak for a game like this:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-char … 07,1644-17.html

The fact that you're only dropping from 36fps at 1024x768 to 23fps at 1600x1200 shows that there is also a substantial CPU limitation preventing the frame rates from ever getting much over 40.

You are correct sir! Sorry for the typo!