Here's an interesting option I found after some research:
Lenovo Thinkpad P16 gen 1, 16" 1920x1200 IPS, i7-12800HX (8 pcore + 8 ecore), quadro rtx a2000 8gb (3050ti-equivalent). More powerful gpus also available but I prefer cool and quiet over hot and noisy

Assuming that A) I can disable the e-cores in the bios to remove some of the power-waste and avoid task-scheduler issues
and B) I can do the setup with linux host os on 2 of the p-cores and igpu + win7 VM with the remaining 6 p-cores and passtrough to the rtx a2000
and C) the rtx a2000 can be made to work on win7 via inf-modding the 3050ti win7 drivers
and D) the rtx a2000 can be made to output to the laptop display even while being passed trough to the win7 VM

... if all 4 of those conditions are met, this might potentially be the best win7 laptop. A bit of a stretch perhaps as its technically a win11 laptop, but if it can be configured to work for win7, should be about as good as we can get. However these were sold new till recently for like 3500-4000 eur, so... will be a while before I can find one used for cheap to try this out 😀

God Of Gaming wrote on 2023-12-15, 22:54:

Hello guys, posting a new thread on this topic because I couldn't find an existing one that quite matches what I wanna talk abou […]
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Hello guys, posting a new thread on this topic because I couldn't find an existing one that quite matches what I wanna talk about here.

I want to have both desktop builds as well as laptops for the major eras of PC gaming - DOS/win9x, NT5.x (win2000/XP/2003), and NT6.x (vista/7/8.1). I already have pretty good idea what Im doing for most of these, but I want to focus here on figuring out what is the ideal laptop for windows 7 gaming. I already spent some time digging online and comparing different models, and I figured the ideal is probably this:

Dell Precision 7720 mobile workstation, with a skylake Xeon E3-1545M or 1575M v5 cpu, and a pascal Quadro P3000M gpu. Full official driver support for win7 and 8. Workstation class has probably better build quality than the average gaming class laptop. Performance should be on point, I specifically picked these cpus out of all the cpus these laptops are available with because they kinda mimic the i7-5775c broadwell cpu on desktop, with iris pro igpu and 128mb edram. For gpu, the P3000M is similar to a gtx 1060, and seems like a better idea than the higher end P4000M and P5000M (similar to 1070 and 1080) from point of view of fan noise and heat output. Found an old review on some site for the lenovo thinkpad P71 where the guy was praising its P3000M for being cool and quiet under heavy load, measuring 30-something db of fan noise compared to an old review they did of the P70 with M4000M (gtx970) at 45db of fan noise. So yes, this seems to be about the optimal config here. The 7720 has a 17" 1080p IPS (optional 4K variant too but I'd take the 1080p), usually 32gb of DDR4 ram, 2400mhz ECC or 2667mhz non-ECC, and has dual M.2 nvme slots and one 2.5" slot so plenty of storage.

Other options:
Dell Precision 7710 mobile workstation - the predecessor, its almost the same thing with minor differences, can have the 1545mv5 or 1575mv5 cpu too, and while gpu is probably gonna be maxwell, supports upgrade to a pascal like P3000M (mxm slot)
Lenovo Thinkpad P70 - can have Xeon E3-1575M v5 cpu as well, but gpus limited to maxwell generation. Pascal listed on their website, but seems to be a mistake, forum and reddit threads say due to bios whitelist pascal cards will not work on the P70, only on the P71
HP Zbook 17 G3 - same, can have the cpu, but gpu limited to maxwell generation, also looks uglier
smaller 15.6" versions of all the ones mentioned here can also be configured with similar specs, though I think going for the larger 17" versions will be a benefit for my use case

So, yes, this is what I have found so far, and the Dell Precision 7720 seems to be the one to go for, but Im making this thread to see if any of you guys know of an even better laptop for win7 than the ones mentioned?

As youre looking at laptops I take it that you are not really looking for a serious gaming performance PC for Win7, but a powerful laptop for Win7 that can game.
Then yes the 7710 can be picked up nice and cheap if you wait for the right deal to come up and it will play Win7 games alright... Only alright as it is a laptop.

Well, yeah, that's about the idea, leave the heavy lifting for the desktop builds, have laptops to fill in as well as they could for the times when the desktops are not accessible. For both of them I'm looking at all aspects - performance, as high as possible, game compatibility, as good as possible, and also efficiency (no hot or loud stuff to spoil the fun). I think you guys can relate? So for win7 right now my focus is on trying to do 7800x3d + rtx a4000 16gb on desktop, and with some luck that thinkpad p16 with i7-12800hx + rtx a2000 8gb for the laptop side. Unless theres anything even more optimal. Goal is to get all 16:9 aspect ratio games compatible with win7 to work nicely, starting with, idk, call of duty 2 should be one of the earliest proper widescreen PC games, and ending with the last, which, there were still some recently released games that work on win7, cyberpunk 2077 gotta be about the most demanding of those. Theres also emulators to consider, like rpcs3 and xenia and such. Targetting 1440p for desktop and 1080p for laptop, no point in 4K for win7 as desktop scaling was still rather wonky in windows in that era. 4:3 games and emulators can be done on my win98 and winXP machines which will be connected to a CRT, so no need to worry about the win7 machines being able to do those

In that case I should think the Precision 7710 would take Win7 as far as it will go on the laptop front.

Im not sure if gen 7 was supported on Win7. Its not something Ive looked into. I only have 2 systems running Win7 now... Its not old enough to be interesting to me 😀

If you're going for efficiency, I wouldn't suggest Intel 12th-gen and newer. I don't know how Windows 7 will handle E-cores, but someone will probably have figured it out (I've seen community-provided patches and drivers to run Windows 7 on newer hardware, but I don't personally run anything like that - I only use hardware that was produced when the version of Windows I want to run was still supported).

I looked it up, and 7th-gen does not officially support Windows 7. I can say that a Precision 7510 or 7710 will run Windows 7 well, and if you want a dock, it's too old to use Dell's horribly flaky USB C docks.

The competitor to the Dell Precision in ~2010 is the HP Elitebook.

The HP Elitebook 8540w's had the first gen intel quad core CPU's and DDR3-1333 RAM. Quadro FX 1800 GPU. Not quite fast enough for GTA 5.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-HP-Elite … ok.32440.0.html
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/quadro-fx-1800m.c1391

The HP Elitebook 8560w/8570w's had the second & third gen intel quad core CPU's and supported DDR3-1600 RAM. Firepro M5950 GPU. Fast enough for GTA 5 @ 720p.
https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-elitebook-8560w
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/ati-mob … on-hd-5650.b313

How fast is too fast? How smooth/stream-lined is too futuristic looking?

lti wrote on 2023-12-25, 02:07:

If you're going for efficiency, I wouldn't suggest Intel 12th-gen and newer. I don't know how Windows 7 will handle E-cores, but someone will probably have figured it out (I've seen community-provided patches and drivers to run Windows 7 on newer hardware, but I don't personally run anything like that - I only use hardware that was produced when the version of Windows I want to run was still supported).

I looked it up, and 7th-gen does not officially support Windows 7. I can say that a Precision 7510 or 7710 will run Windows 7 well, and if you want a dock, it's too old to use Dell's horribly flaky USB C docks.

E-cores I think are a no-go, they are also probably the primary reason for terrible power efficiency in 12g and newer, which is why if I try a laptop this new, option to disable the E-cores in the bios is a must. Only reason really to consider a laptop this new is for the Ampere graphics, which should be better in every way compared to the Pascal in a dell precision 7720 which appears to be the best laptop to fully support win7 officially

p.s. I wonder why and how nvidia has official win7 drivers for the mobile ampere gpus, but theres not a single laptop with any of those gpus that supports win7.... I think some of them are available in MXM, wonder if theres any older win7 laptop that can be upgraded with one of those MXM ampere gpus? dell, hp and lenovo gotta be out because of bios whitelists

Horun wrote on 2023-12-16, 04:48:

Uhh.. you do realize this is an old hardware section. None of the hardware you mention is "old". (Dell Precision 7720 mobile workstation release date ~2017, Xeon E3-1545M release date: Jan 24th, 2016).
Would like to give some opinions on hardware but have to respect the nature of this forums purpose. Not trying to be disrespectful, just stating the facts.

I always wonder what hardware is considered obsolete/retro. One, two or more generations back?

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-12-25, 10:16:

I always wonder what hardware is considered obsolete/retro. One, two or more generations back?

Well I put my retro thinking limit on PC parts up to the Intel soc 775 or about 2007-08 era. Something like a 2017 build is not retro by any ones standards AFAIK, that is within a year of my Z370 based system which can run a i9-9900 CPU from 2019.
You wouldn't call that a retro system would you ? 😁 Win7 is down to only 3% of all computers so to me is a near retro OS now (is 2009 release)..🤣

7800x3d / 3090ti system running win7 is something we call a retro pc in my circle already tho.... as is my winXP build with xeon e5-1680v2 and gtx980

on the other hand, I don't think I will ever be able to consider a current gen win10/11 with rtx 4090 or 7900xtx PC as retro, not even after windows 20 is out. Some people probably will. Guess its all a matter of view point

I get that. I usually swap retro and vintage mentally by mistake. Retro is looking like and functioning like an older vintage item but made newer.
Vintage is 15 to 20 or more years old. So if you can get a new(er) laptop that looks vintage and run a vintage OS (like XP) then yes that be truly retro.
Thanks for reminding me the difference.

Yeah its retro because you didnt have it the first time around.
If you did then its the original.

Ive a dual P3 system sat running as a server that I dont consider to be retro because Ive had it from new. While there is another P3 system I have that is retro because it was built last year.

What is or isn't retro is pretty subjective and I wouldn't worry too much over definitions. Personally, I consider anything pre-XP as retro or vintage. That's an older cutoff than a lot of people here, but it works for me. For me, even Windows XP feels like it should be lumped in with modern gaming because that's when technology reached a point where we got a lot of large 3D worlds and most changes were small and incremental. In contrast, prior to Windows XP, we saw major innovations every few years and we had the Shareware scene. With DOS we also had quite a different OS to work with.

Windows 7 is 2009-2012.

So hardware from that period is first-third gen quad-core intel... AMD FX... DDR3... Nvidia Kepler series GTX 600... AMD Terascale 3 and GCN 1.0, Radeon HD 6000-7000

All of that technology is a big step up from Windows XP era hardware.. 2-4x at least... and you can still do a lot with it today

.... or is 2009-2022, because 2022 is when hardware driver support got dropped, so it was the last time you could build a win7 PC out of new components

God Of Gaming wrote on 2023-12-26, 07:49:

.... or is 2009-2022, because 2022 is when hardware driver support got dropped, so it was the last time you could build a win7 PC out of new components

Yeah but they didnt, I mean XP support lived on unofficially in official drivers for several generations after it was officially dropped from the support list. The same goes for Windows 7.

Ive got a couple of WIndows 7 PCs still... theyre not retro, just a bit old.
You can call them retro if you want, I mean you can big anything up into more than what it actually is but for now its not retro, not yet.
Just because you have the latest hardware you are using now it doesnt make the old tech you used to use all of a sudden retro. And not only that if you had it back then and still have it now its cant be retro anyway, its the original.
To be retro its a remake of the original, but not the original.

That makes no sense, you're telling me if I bought an IBM PC XT new back in the early 80s and still keep it and use it today, it does not classify as a retro PC but as a modern PC? What kind of definition for a retro PC is that? People call a retro PC, a PC optimized for enjoying old games and software in ways that the latest modern PCs cannot.... well, perhaps the confusion comes from that really being classified as a "retro gaming PC" aka a "PC used for retro gaming", but for convenience we just drop the "gaming" part and just shorten it to a "retro PC"

God Of Gaming wrote on 2023-12-26, 16:53:

That makes no sense, you're telling me if I bought an IBM PC XT new back in the early 80s and still keep it and use it today, it does not classify as a retro PC but as a modern PC? What kind of definition for a retro PC is that? People call a retro PC, a PC optimized for enjoying old games and software in ways that the latest modern PCs cannot.... well, perhaps the confusion comes from that really being classified as a "retro gaming PC" aka a "PC used for retro gaming", but for convenience we just drop the "gaming" part and just shorten it to a "retro PC"

No. It would just be an old PC if you had it since the 80s. Otherwise if I didnt own it back then but i wanted to imitate that experience from then now then yes it would be.

If your idea is true then every single PC that isnt at the current tech level would be a retro PC. But we already know theyre not. You can buy last years model brand new from the local computer store but they didnt just sell you a retro PC.

Retro implies to me that you didnt own it back when it was current.

I don't really agree with that definition, but by that definition, if I didn't own a 3090ti win7 PC when it was current (an year ago) and buy it now that it is no longer current, a win7 retro PC it is 😉 Correct?

I look at it differently. If you have an original XT or just built one with original parts it is vintage no matter what. If you build an XT using a NuXT then it is retro because the NuXT is a new item designed to function like the vintage original XT board.
Nintendo: same thing, if you have an original it is vintage Nintendo, if you go buy one of them new ones that looks like the original (but smaller) with the built in 30 games it is a retro Nintendo 😀