The 8800GTX is such a lovely card, I had one but it kept failing, and after the fourth time baking it in the oven I gave up.

I think I'd be inclined to use just one card and keep the other as a spare for when it probably fails.

Absolutely agree you should run 32 bit, some software doesn't even recognise XP 64 bit or Server 2003 x64, it's a pain to get working.

You guys got me thinking... Xp games don't have the problem that I ran into with Windows 95/98 games where some of them were coded expecting a relatively slow CPU clock speed and end up unplayable even in a VM since you can't throttle the emulated CPU.

Given that, I think rather than sticking with my x6800 and going with 8800 GTX cards, it might make more sense to go to the top end of a system that makes sense for maxing out Windows Xp.

Now i"m looking at a Core2 Duo E8600 (3.33ghz)
4gb DDR3 1600mhz
Nvidia Titan Black (this seems to be the most powerful card with official Windows Xp drivers - and is also capable of SLI though they appear to be 6gb cards so I'm not sure how this would even work with the memory address constraints of Xp 32-bit)

Now for the real question - will it run Crysis? 🤣

*EDIT*
Then again I could just go all the way to the absolute most recent platforms with Xp drivers... i7 2700k, or i7 3820/ 3970x on the HEDT platform for more PCI-E lanes. Something like that seems fine for dual booting WIndows 7 64-bit too though so I'd almost be tempted to give it 8gb or 16gb of RAM and just limit Xp to 4gb.

*EDIT 2*
well this is a rabbit hole... I see the Asus Sabertooth X79 board (for the LGA2011 i7 3820 or 3970x cpus) has a PCI slot for my Windows Xp sound card. I blame you guys for spending all my money on retro PC parts...

#Blameme 😀

😁

1) You can't run DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz without 1600MHz FSB on LGA 775 (just FYI).
2) Most recent platform with XP drivers is EVGA's Z390 Dark : LINK
3) PCI isn't needed for XP soundcard if you own Auzentech Forte 😉

agent_x007 wrote:

#Blameme :) https://i.imgur.com/L2HHMR9.png :D […]
Show full quote

#Blameme 😀

😁

1) You can't run DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz without 1600MHz FSB on LGA 775 (just FYI).
2) Most recent platform with XP drivers is EVGA's Z390 Dark : LINK
3) PCI isn't needed for XP soundcard if you own Auzentech Forte 😉

You sir are evil! I don't need to build another z390 machine 😈

Incidentally, my old 775 rig was using a core 2 Duo e8500 (1333 mhz fsb) in an Asus P5Q3 with 1600mhz DDR3 and I'm pretty sure the RAM was running at 1600mhz. Might I have somehow OC'd the fsb to 1600?

Anyway I hold you personally responsible for the emptying of my PayPal balance after work tonight. Congratulations 🤣

agent_x007 wrote:

#Blameme 😀
You can't run DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz without 1600MHz FSB on LGA 775 (just FYI).

Are you basically saying that no DDR3 boards support FSB:DRAM ratios lower than 1:2?

@kalm_traveler You could OC E8500 to 1600MHz FSB (especially on P5Q3). 1600MHz is like nothing compared to how high it should be able to go.
However, if you didn't, on 1333MHz you couldn't set 1600MHz on memory (the required multiplier simply isn't there).

@dr_st I better explain how I think about this, before we go further 😁

Here's how I see this :
1MHz real clock = 2MHz effective clock (that's for DRAM speed [it's like this since DDR1]),
1MHz real clock = 4MHz effective clock (that's FSB effective speed [or "Quad Pumped Bus"]).

Based on that, limits for Intel chipsets are :
Max. effective DRAM speed = effective FSB speed (that's 1:2 ratio [FSB:DRAM], for real clock, [or "2:1" if you think "DRAM:FSB"]).
Min. effective DRAM speed = 1/2 effective FSB speed (or 1:1 ratio, on real clock).
I always use REAL clock ratios to do math for speed.

If you own nVidia chipset, you should be able to go lower than 1:1 ratio on minimum side (I think it's 1:0,8 on FSB:DRAM [?]), however max. effective speed is still locked to effective FSB speed (IIRC).

Yeah, I just checked my P5Q PRO (although it's DDR2), and indeed it seems that 1:2 is the lowest ratio it will allow. I too can only set DDR2-1600 (though purely theoretical, as my RAM doesn't support it) if bus speed is 400).

Hmm I'm having trouble finding a good x79 Sabertooth mb with no damage and including the I/O shield... may need to just source some local persons old gaming rig and pilfer parts.

Xp-era games still had EAX etc, so a hardware sound card would be appropriate, right? Just trying to expand my parts options as I see the Rampage IV Extreme would also work but require a PCI-E sound card and the last one I remember having pre-Windows 7 was a SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty which I think still had legitimate hardware acceleration when used with a pre-Vista OS.

X-Fi PCI-e sound cards (CA20K2 chip) :
1) Titanium series (excluding HD model, no official support for XP)
2) Auzentech (Forte/HomeTheather HD)
Source : Audio sound card and video card for XP with PCI express

Spec sheet : https://www.creative.com/oem/products/chips/ca20k2.asp