Half-Life 2 & Chronicles of Riddick
Half-Life 2
We saw CPU limitations in Half-Life 2 at 2800MHz in the GTX preview, so at 2400MHz they should be even more apparent.
The NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, at reference clocks, is beaten by the ATi RADEON X850 XT PE and it's only at XFX's inflated frequencies that the GT catches up with ATi's top hardware. Even with the CPU limitations, there's a rough 20 percent spread at the highest test level. The GT gives up 18% of performance to the GTX at reference clocks. Half-Life 2 is no match for any of the GPUs on test.
Chronicles of Riddick
'Riddick's Doom3-like rendering engine is a stern test for pretty much any graphics board, ultra high-end included.
The performance of the reference clocked 7800 GT is 42% higher than the X850 XT PE at the highest test setting. With 2x anti-aliasing, the GT is able to provide minimum framerates that barely fall under 60fps at the 1280x1024 setting, giving decent image quality at a V-sync-friendly minimum on a majority of flat-panel displays. The thing to take away from the Riddick performance graph is how close the GT, at both clock settings, is to the GTX. It's always around 15% away, in terms of performance at the resolutions most will play it at with a board like the 7800 GT.
