lassista wrote on 2024-10-16, 17:29:Hello there […]
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Hello there
Lads, I have a problem, unlike one Apollo mission had when they saw a cat casually walking on the moon, but still, I am in need of someone with a bit more knowledge about old systems. While I could recreate system I had during kinda late xp era. I want something a bit more power inside and some info about few games I worry about.
OG config I had back in 2007/2008 - c2duo E6300 (clocked to 2,2 GHz), DFI Infinity i975x, 1 gb DDR2 667 and radeon 3870. Did a change later for pentiumdc E6600 and gigabyte EP45-DS3, 1 more gb of ram and GTX460 and this system went with me into windows 7 era. What I am thinking about now:
1. cpu - c2duo E8400 - 8600, depending on what I can find cheap. Why not c2q? Simple, if I wanted to 4-core late xp I'd go for X58 platform.
2. ram - 2 gb
3. mb - ASUS P5Q3 or something other from P5 line OR if I can reasonably priced the same gigabye EP45-DS3 I had before.
4. disk - sata ssd
5. sound - SB Audigy 1st gen PCI
And GPU - that is the real question. I'd like to play titles up to 2006-2007. Mostly late 9x/Me and prime xp games. The list goes - unreal and unreal 2, RTCW, Call of Duty with United Offensive, NFS Underground, U2, MW and Carbon, PoP Sands of Time trilogy, Colin McRae Rally 2.0, Spilnter Cell, Far Cry, Devastation, Alien vs Predator 2 and both No One Lives Forever parts. Games that I could play on my 1st system (not the one above, was ways worse), but they were hard to play on amazingly low fps or min details.
For max perf I can get GF GTX770 or 780 at reasonable price, but how it will do with old games? Broken compatability etc? Maybe I am better off with early shader model 4 cars like GeForce 9800GT/GTS250 or Radeon HD4850? Maybe I should look for Shader Model 3 cards like Radeon X19xx or geforce 7xxx or 6xxx series? Is there a middle ground with good compatability with DX7/DX8 games?
i think your second build would be sufficient for xp era, the gtx460 will probably perform pretty well, ive just picked up a gainward one im thinking of using for the same, i got it to replace a GT640 1GB GDDR5 which is on par with an 8800ultra, that will run some more modern games at 30-60 fps on low setttings so XP era should be no problem, the gtx460 being more powerful i expect will be a better option, though i havent tested it yet so cant say for sure.
my current higher powered 98 build which also runs upto win 11, is a core2duo e5400 2.6GHZ (OC@3.25GHZ), gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L, 4GB DDR2, nvidia 7950gt 512mb, SB live CT4760, it wont do sound in dos so mainly use it for a few 98 games, though haven't tested extensively so some may have compatibilty issues, i also use it for win7 for xp/ps2/ps3/xbox360 era games, emulators and some games released this year (mainly arcade)
for early ps2 era games like max payne 1/2,RTCW,NFS underground,red faction,project eden, it works great, some later ps2 games like POP two thrones dont quite make 60fps, on max settings at 720 it made 50-55fps, also above 2xAA you lose the sand effect on the pause menu and lights and torches wash out the screen completely white until you turn it back down to 2xAA, even doom 3 maxed out at 720 only makes 50-55fps
for ps3/360 era games anything 3D on low settings at 720 will be around 30fps such as mass effect trilogy, arkham asylum makes 30-45fps, one game i played through was hydrophobia that was 25-30fps, without a physX card anytime there was moving water it would drop to 5fps, tomb raider 2013 does 45fps on minimum settings/resolution and looks potato, even tho it requires a less powerful 8600gt.
i did swap out the dual core for a Q9450 but wasnt able to get a stable clock at 3.25ghz due to my ram, at stock it was getting a few fps lower than the E5400, i was expecting higher fps in emulators like pcsx2 and dolphin as well as games running in wrappers/software, didnt make a difference so i went back to the dual core, if your going for a dual core make sure its at least 2.6ghz, the gigabyte boards are good overclockers, if you can go at least 3.3ghz it will do you well, a core2duo E8xxx overclocked even better,
if a core2duo can run RDR2 it will probably run most things as long as you dont need a specific instruction set.
anyway this system was built for 98 and early xp games in mind, i was curious how games released around the time of the 7950gt would run, back then it was probably enough for people to make do, i know alot of console games did run at 30fps at 720, even then they probably looked better on the 7950gt, if you want better performance then you'll need something a fair bit more beefy than a 7900/x1950, if thats the case then go with joestars recommendation, that should handle everything of that era without breaking a sweat, ive got a i5-3450/gtx960 and an i5-2500k/gtx980ti but mine are for win7/10 games 🤣 so yeah xp no problem, im also convinced max payne 2 looks better on the 7950gt than the 980ti tho that might just be me.
if you're set on a core2duo 775 with a 98 compatible chipset then a VIA board like an asrock combo is probably your best option, especially if you want pci-e for xp and an AGP GPU for 9x, tho i've heard those boards only support up to a pci-e gtx580, ive got an MSI P4M900m-2 with a VIA chipset and my GT640 wouldnt output anything, so anything higher is a no-go.
as for sound i've heard X-fi are good cards, theres someone by me selling a pc with one i was thinking about picking up, just found it doesnt have 9x drivers even tho it has a gameport, i like things with all round compatibility so decided to pass on it, the CT SB live i've got sounds great even in more modern stuff on win7/10/11 thats probably down to the kxaudio drivers, audigy 1's weren't much of an improvement over the live's, so an audigy 2 is the better option if you want higher than EAX2 while still retaining 98 support, also as far as i know the audigy is supported by the same kxaudio drivers as the live so should work up to win11
