Hey guys. I have Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3LR mainboard with an Intel 2 Quad Q9400 CPU (borderline vintage?) that I'm planning on turning it into a Windows XP machine, mostly for a bit of XP gaming and some nostalgic software I used to use back in the day.
I was wondering what would be a good GPU for this board?
Any suggestions welcome.
Put 4 or 5 of those quadro FX cards in that have a PCIe 1x connector and run the asymmetric SLI hack.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
It depends on what games you want to play. Since I made my core 2 duo winxp system to play newer winxp games with higher resolution I did just put 780ti that I had from my previous computer in it.
I do have a Geforce GTX 950 but it seems to be to new for this board... Not to familiar with this era of hardware, was just using it for work stuff. It used to be a Linux workstation and it has a Radeon HD 5450, fanless, which gets quite hot. However, it has been decommissioned long ago and can be repurposed now. Games wise, not sure, probably what was around between 2000 and 2010.
Basically just looking for a GPU that is a good match for the board and probably not something I would not have picked back then (since I'm not a gamer).
Nvidia GTX580
AMD HD6970
Or you could do a fun "Hybrid" build with both AMD and Nvidia.. There are the "Hybrid" modded drivers out there. That way you could use Nvidia for Physx and AMD for rendering.
Cards above are what was newest in 2010.
Newer cards would work fine.
An AMD HD7970 or Nvidia GTX680 would work well.
As far as older games, specifically ones with Palletized textures, you would want an Nvidia PCX-5900.
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-11-30, 14:29:Or you could do a fun "Hybrid" build with both AMD and Nvidia.. There are the "Hybrid" modded drivers out there. That way you could use Nvidia for Physx and AMD for rendering.
I can't remember what the versions are, but there's at least one pairing of official drivers that let you, or forget to stop you, doing that. I had it working with a 9500 PCI and a HD4650. Had that PhysX benchmark and it was scoring 4-5x faster running PhysX on 9500 vs running on CPU which was X2 at 5600 speed. So it appears you only need the crappiest PhysX capable Geforces to unload the CPU quite a bit.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-11-30, 14:29:Newer cards would work fine.
Yeah, sorry, I should have been more clear. The card itself works, but the drivers for the Geforce GTX 950 don't work under Windows XP... 🙁
I'd say depends on how period correct do you want to be.
For most XP era games you don't 'need' anything than a GTX580. Only the likes of Crysis will struggle if you max them out in 1080p.
If you want to be very PC for late-XP, then something GTX200, if you prefer convenience (low fan nois/heat production), then the GT740 is about 9800GTX+ performance level while the GTX750 Ti is roughly GTX470.
The 9800GTX+ performance level is best fit for around 1280x960 resolution, the GTX470 is good for 1680x1050 (16:10) or 1440/1080 (4:3) if you target a consistent 60+ fps in all games (excl. Crysis).
Core 2 Quad with WinXP makes the system not period correct in the first place. Original Crysis at 1440p gives my 780ti a decent workout.
Not really interested in period correctness for this system. Just want an XP system, preferably with parts I already have. If its super over powered, so be it.
Edit: So, maybe the question could be; Are there any substitute drivers I could use for the Geforce GTX 950 that run on XP?
Baoran wrote on 2021-12-01, 05:39:Core 2 Quad with WinXP makes the system not period correct in the first place. Original Crysis at 1440p gives my 780ti a decent workout.
Except that it is. WinXP mainstream support lasted until 2009 april, Win7 released in 2009 fall (pre-release RC version in February or March I think), the Q9000 series released in 2008 Q1 and the Q6000 series released in 2007 Q1.
Unless you imply Vista actually had a period and its release ended the XP era, it's absolutely period correct for late XP. Pointless, because nothing used more than 2 cores, but period correct.
pan069 wrote on 2021-12-01, 06:12:Not really interested in period correctness for this system. Just want an XP system, preferably with parts I already have. If its super over powered, so be it.
Edit: So, maybe the question could be; Are there any substitute drivers I could use for the Geforce GTX 950 that run on XP?
I don't know if unofficial drivers exist or not, official ones do not. I'd go for GTX760 then.
RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-01, 07:07:Baoran wrote on 2021-12-01, 05:39:Core 2 Quad with WinXP makes the system not period correct in the first place. Original Crysis at 1440p gives my 780ti a decent workout.
Except that it is. WinXP mainstream support lasted until 2009 april, Win7 released in 2009 fall (pre-release RC version in February or March I think), the Q9000 series released in 2008 Q1 and the Q6000 series released in 2007 Q1.
Unless you imply Vista actually had a period and its release ended the XP era, it's absolutely period correct for late XP. Pointless, because nothing used more than 2 cores, but period correct.
Agree'd. MS even supplied XP to OEMs until mid-2008 and to shops until early 2009. If you wanted a new copy they were still readily avaliable in stores in Q1 2009.
Doornkaat wrote on 2021-12-01, 13:55:RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-01, 07:07:Baoran wrote on 2021-12-01, 05:39:Core 2 Quad with WinXP makes the system not period correct in the first place. Original Crysis at 1440p gives my 780ti a decent workout.
Except that it is. WinXP mainstream support lasted until 2009 april, Win7 released in 2009 fall (pre-release RC version in February or March I think), the Q9000 series released in 2008 Q1 and the Q6000 series released in 2007 Q1.
Unless you imply Vista actually had a period and its release ended the XP era, it's absolutely period correct for late XP. Pointless, because nothing used more than 2 cores, but period correct.
Agree'd. MS even supplied XP to OEMs until mid-2008 and to shops until early 2009. If you wanted a new copy they were still readily avaliable in stores in Q1 2009.
You are probably right, My core 2 duo E8500 system I built back in 2008 must have had winxp back then too since I never used vista. For some reason I always felt like core 2 duo systems were too powerful for winXP.
Unfortunately the gtx 280 that I put in the system back in 2008 does not work so I have to use the 780ti that I used in main pc that I built in 2013 instead.
pan069 wrote on 2021-12-01, 06:12:Not really interested in period correctness for this system. Just want an XP system, preferably with parts I already have. If its super over powered, so be it.
Edit: So, maybe the question could be; Are there any substitute drivers I could use for the Geforce GTX 950 that run on XP?
There is a whole page of XP drivers for the GTX 950 on Nvidia's web site.
The GTX 960 is the fastest Nvidia card that officially supports XP
With some .inf modding, you can run up to a 980Ti and even a Titan-X:
https://mattpilz.com/windows-xp-drivers-nvidi … 980-ti-titan-x/
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-12-02, 05:06:pan069 wrote on 2021-12-01, 06:12:Not really interested in period correctness for this system. Just want an XP system, preferably with parts I already have. If its super over powered, so be it.
Edit: So, maybe the question could be; Are there any substitute drivers I could use for the Geforce GTX 950 that run on XP?
There is a whole page of XP drivers for the GTX 950 on Nvidia's web site.
GTX950.JPG
Thanks! The Nvidia site is a bit weird (understand why you posted images) but I found the XP drivers. Working now. 😀
