Seeing that I've been messing around with this machine a bit this weekend, a carried out another 3DMark Vantage test with the GTX 690 fitted and SLI enabled and got the following result:

Notice how well this system's currently doing compared to the theoretical maximum output of the 8800 GTX, which I'll use as the base comparison for all future GPU upgrades as it's just one year more modern than the motherboard and CPU's in this system and it was the fastest GPU around in its time!

The 690's performance vs that of the 8800 has basically doubled with the second GPU enabled! So with the TITAN X, and then maybe the RTX 3090 ti fitted, this machine may actually perform pretty well, all considered!!! As you seem to be getting decent scaling here! 😀

I've now also managed to install: Unreal, Soldier of Fortune and Half Life which all obviously run very well. (I haven't been able to get my Orange Box DVD up and running on the system as yet, as it doesn't seem to work with the latest version of Steam!!!)

I also tested out YouTube last night, and it runs perfectly on this system!!! (It's great to have a semi-vintage machine that you can effectively use on the web!)

Here are the current system specs:

I'm still awaiting my 16GB of RAM to arrive from the UK (Which is taking forever!!!) and one of these days the TITAN X (Maxwell) will be fitted!

Interestingly, I've found that this systems performance is significantly reduced when DirectX 11 is installed! (So this is a clean windows 7 Ultimate 64 install with DirectX 10)

I've installed the TITAN X into the system and have recorded the following results so far:

Here's the new windows experience index:

And here's some Alienware branding in F.E.A.R:

Here's the new Vantage score:

Here's the old Vantage score with the GTX 690 fitted for comparative purposes:

Notice that the TITAN X offers superior performance in every parameter tested! (The CPU performance was slightly lower when I tested the TITAN X)

Here's how the TITAN X and the GTX 690 compare specs-wise: (Notice that I've added up the effective SLI performance for the GTX 690 and added the values in red)

This table shows you a direct comparison of the important parameters for the cards:

This shows you that the TITAN X isn't exactly that much better than the GTX 690, except for its much larger frame buffer size, which isn't a factor in a system such as this one, seeing that the games being played here don't push the GTX 690 near its frame buffer limit.

Despite all of this, the TITAN X does offer better performance in this system!

The TITAN X's Pixel Rate is according to 3DMark Vantage it 3.3 times that of the max theoretical output of the 8800 GTX and the TITAN X's Texture Rate is 5 times that of the max theoretical output of the 8800 GTX in this system!

So regardless of the hardware being used to achieve this performance, this is pretty impressive! (Added to this, the system's performance during gaming is buttery smooth!!!)

The RTX 3090 is the last "most modern" GPU that will run under Windows 7 64, supported by the Nvidia 473.30 WHQL driver, so the 3090 ti will be the next card that I attempt to install into this system in February next year! I have to budget for the card a bit, as they're still pretty expensive! (The founders edition anyway!)

I've also downloaded this driver: (Just in case!)

Irinikus wrote on 2023-10-21, 05:45:

I've also downloaded this driver: (Just in case!)

🤣 was just about to suggest doing that ...

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-10-21, 18:19:

Irinikus wrote on 2023-10-21, 05:45:

I've also downloaded this driver: (Just in case!)

🤣 was just about to suggest doing that ...

You do have to cover all your bases and this driver's much newer! 😀

I've installed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and it's running pretty well @ 1920x1080 @ Absolute MAX settings with 4x Anti-aliasing: (I remember this to be the first games to kind of give my 8800 GTX a bit of stick when I played it @ 1280x1024 back in 2007!)

I've just run the Heaven Benchmark in Direct X 11 in ultra quality and normal tessellation with 4 X Anti-Aliasing and here are some screenshots: (I'm seriously impressed with this performance, this is a fricking Pentium 4!!!)

Here's this system's score:

It's really surprising how much better this score is than the score that the guy in this video got: (He was running it with high settings without tessellation or anti-aliasing, and he had a GTX 1080 slotted!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGmF1ucjWNw&t=229s

This is where I am with this: (A demonstration of this machine)

Nice video. Thanks !
Do you use the system on a regular basis for games ? Or just as an hardware project?

It’s a pleasure! 😎

This system’s primarily an experiment!

In recent days I’ve installed Mass Effect 3 as well as Dragon Age 3 “The Inquisition”, in a quest to determine the system’s absolute limit with the TITAN X installed!

The result was actually quite favourable!

Dragon Age 3 averages @ about 20 FPS with ultra Settings @ 1920x1080 with 4X anti-aliasing!

Not extremely good performance, but pretty impressive if you consider that this is a Direct X 11 title released in 2014 being played on a base system which was released in 2005!!!

Despite the lowish frame rate it’s surprisingly playable, so it’s exceeded my expectations, as I expected it to be a slide show! (However, I don’t think that it’s realistic to push this system any further!)

The big test now will be to see if installing an RTX 3090 ti will improve performance at this limit. (Provided that the 3090 ti actually fires up in this system, which is still an unknown!?)

A demonstration as to how well Mass Effect 3 runs on this system @ Max Settings @ 1920x1080 with 4X Anti-Aliasing:

Irinikus wrote on 2023-11-04, 06:22:

It’s a pleasure! 😎 […]
Show full quote

It’s a pleasure! 😎

This system’s primarily an experiment!

In recent days I’ve installed Mass Effect 3 as well as Dragon Age 3 “The Inquisition”, in a quest to determine the system’s absolute limit with the TITAN X installed!

The result was actually quite favourable!

Dragon Age 3 averages @ about 20 FPS with ultra Settings @ 1920x1080 with 4X anti-aliasing!

Not extremely good performance, but pretty impressive if you consider that this is a Direct X 11 title released in 2014 being played on a base system which was released in 2005!!!

Despite the lowish frame rate it’s surprisingly playable, so it’s exceeded my expectations, as I expected it to be a slide show! (However, I don’t think that it’s realistic to push this system any further!)

The big test now will be to see if installing an RTX 3090 ti will improve performance at this limit. (Provided that the 3090 ti actually fires up in this system, which is still an unknown!?)

In a more recent Dawid Does Tech Stuff vidieo he used a 4090 in a EVGA 680i Core 2 quad system for fun. It worked just fine in a PCIe 1.0 system

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-11-04, 12:37:

In a more recent Dawid Does Tech Stuff vidieo he used a 4090 in a EVGA 680i Core 2 quad system for fun. It worked just fine in a PCIe 1.0 system

I also watched that video, but the thing that comes into question with a system such as this one is the older style system BIOS, which may not fire up such a card.

I already have Vulkan SDK 1.3.268.0 installed:

And Quake II RTX is waiting, but currently cannot launch properly, more than likely because the system doesn't possess a raytracing capable card:

The 680i is also a standard legacy bios it's well before any UEFI stuff.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-11-04, 13:29:

The 680i is also a standard legacy bios it's well before any UEFI stuff.

That's very good to know!

I'll only go as far as the 3090 ti in this system, as it's the last card officially supported by Windows 7 64.

Yeah it should work just fine in that system. I know my 3050 and my wife's 3060 work in our X58 boards and that's also got a non-UEFI bios

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-11-04, 13:39:

Yeah it should work just fine in that system. I know my 3050 and my wife's 3060 work in our X58 boards and that's also got a non-UEFI bios

Thanks for the input! I really appreciate it! 😀

It's my pleasure. I'm looking forward to seeing your 3090ti results

This is pretty much the limit as to how far you can push a dual Pentium 4 Xeon fitted with a GTX TITAN X! (A Direct X 11 title released 2014 running on a base system which was released in 2005!)

That honestly doesn't look like it would be a bad gaming experience to be honest. It's quite impressive the level of performance you squeezed out of that platform