This is why there is no such thing as an all-encompassing retro PC. Windows XP is obviously its own thing; when it comes to anything afterwards you pretty much need only one edition from Vista to 8.1 unless DirectX 12 is demanded, and while Windows 7 is everyone's favorite that's the same reason you should avoid letting this system touch the internet. What it will come down to is exactly which games you are interested in playing (and at what quality); most anything 2020s is going to be too much for your specs.

I had a similar undertaking last decade, converting my Windows 8 business-class PC into a super system for XP & Vista gaming: just added the GeForce plus X-fi (along with upgrading the power supply to handle them) and that was that. The only real complication was with Steam DRM games (which is why I preferred to avoid those back when I could) when Valve discontinued support for those OSs, but some workarounds work better than others. As of 11 I am done with Windows, figuring my Xbox One X can manage anything my Steam Deck can't [and whatever requires something more powerful I am probably not interested in].

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2025-09-09, 18:50:

most anything 2020s is going to be too much for your specs.

Sure. But it is only supposed to run what Win 11 can't run on my current non-retro rig. I wonder how far in time one has to go back to find a game that won't work OK on win 11 but needs an older OS?

The only real complication was with Steam DRM games (which is why I preferred to avoid those back when I could) when Valve discontinued support for those OSs, but some workarounds work better than others.

That was a setback. I tried to aquire most titles through GoG though, if I had a choice. What workarounds for steam do exist?

The i5-3550 and GTX 970 are solid choices for Windows XP and Windows 7 32-bit. They might begin to bottleneck on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 11 with modern AAA games. You can go with much more modern CPUs and the GTX 980 Ti, but you'll run into bottlenecks eventually. You also get into Windows XP "Unsupported" territory beyond Haswell platforms.

Like I said, solid choices and it will certainly handle late 20-teens AAA games with ease.

When Windows 7 was about to be dropped by Steam that was when I built my Win7 PC, Installed my only 2 games I own on Steam (C&C Remaster, Euro Tuck Sim) and took it offline.
Both games still work in Steam offline mode, although can no longer update ETS.
So I can see the benefit of doing something similar in your case with Win11 (but don't think they differ much in resource usage)

I agree, it may be you don't actually need Windows 7. I'd install the more demanding games, see how then run in 11, and only worry about Windows 7 if games are struggling.

I'd install the X-FI, at least for XP this will give you EAX. I think later versions of Windows 11 no longer work with the official X-Fi drivers but are ok with the DanielK

I'd say its worth a test build and see how well it works as it comes down to what games you want to play.
I own very little demanding XP titles let alone Win 7 so find a GeForce GTX 780 is more then enough for my needs.

Even late XP games often run fine on modern hardware and OS. Vista/7 - even more so. Yes, occasional issues exist, but critical ones are not common.

What's more problematic is early-mid XP stuff. And here too new GPU may be... problematic. Even GTX660 i have ends up creating issues for quite a few games. Some do not run at all, some have issues, sometimes unacceptable ones. GTX970 will be even worse.

Ultimately depends on specific games you want to play, many will run just fine, but it is not going to be "a single machine for almost everything".

You may want an older GPU. Then the system will be able to run more older games, sacrificing ability to run newer stuff which'll probably run on modern hardware just fine...

Thank you for your views.

This build has two "adjacent" machines:
- A win 11 i5-9600KF with a 4070 super for everything "modern".
- A win98SE on Asrock Conroe with GF 4200ti and Voodoo² SLI for windows games that won't run on late XP.
Basically, games will end up on the fastest machine they work on.

The oldest card I have for this build would be a GTX-460. I doubt that I would solve many problems by going back those 4 years from 970 to 460.

Regarding steam: I kind of planned this computer to be off the internet anyway. I will instruct my router not let it go online.

I'd install the more demanding games, see how then run in 11, and only worry about Windows 7 if games are struggling.

Funny you mention this. One motivation of this build was to get "Silent Hunter III" back running. The disks have copy protection and work out of the box on win XP. I also had the "gamersgate" version of the game which required an activation and was then working diskless. But the activation servers are gone by now. And I had the steam version, which I can only install on win 11. I tried many "fixes" from the net but no dice. And then I just set win 11 to 1024x768 and BANG! Works. Many games do work on win11 where you would not have expected it, given the fuzz they made on older versions.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-09-10, 03:08:

What's more problematic is early-mid XP stuff. And here too new GPU may be... problematic. Even GTX660 i have ends up creating issues for quite a few games. Some do not run at all, some have issues, sometimes unacceptable ones. GTX970 will be even worse.

I think this largely depends on which games you're playing. For me, the GTX 970 and 980Ti with 355.98 drivers (modded) played most of my favorite WinXP titles from 2001 onward without any major issues. Here are some games that ran well on those cards under WinXP, along with my notes on needed fixes/adjustments, if any:

2001

• Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal
• Deus Ex GOTY
• Gothic (inventory icons are slightly distorted)
• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
• Max Payne (anti aliasing should be turned off)

2002

• Morrowind
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
• Neverwinter Nights
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2
• WarCraft 3

2003

• Deus Ex: Invisible War
• Gothic 2
• Max Payne 2
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (needs ForceVSFog=1 InvertFogRange=0)
• Splinter Cell (needs ForceShadowMode=0)
• Star Wars: KOTOR (needs Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1)
• Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
• Unreal 2

2004

• Doom 3 (needs seta com_videoRam "1024")
• FarCry
• Half-Life 2
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (needs fan made fix for shadows/lights)
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (needs unofficial patch by Wesp5)

2005

• Battlefield 2
• F.E.A.R.
• Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
• Quake 4 (needs seta com_videoRam "1024")
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

2006

• Battlefield 2142
• Gothic 3
• Neverwinter Nights 2
• Oblivion
• Prey (needs seta com_videoRam "2048")
• Tomb Raider: Legend

2007

• BioShock
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• Colin McRae Dirt
• Crysis
• Unreal Tournament 3

2008

• Assassin's Creed
• Fallout 3
• Prince of Persia
• The Witcher

2009

• Mirror's Edge
• Risen

That said, these are mostly mainstream games with good support from both the developers and the fan community. It's possible that some niche titles from that time period might have more prominent issues on those GPUs.

ux-3 wrote on 2025-09-09, 19:39:

What workarounds for steam do exist?

Not something I want to risk breaking forum rules to elaborate on too much, but PCGamingWiki can be your friend (depending on the game) while anything involving DRM override is something you will have to do your own homework on.

Personally I would add that X-Fi to the system. Games that support EAX sound much less flat. Though I guess not everyone likes the EAX sound.