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Mayhap any of you recognize this game perchance?

bZbZbZ wrote on 2021-05-13, 19:36:

Nice build!

Personally, my opinion is that overkill makes a lot of sense for a Windows XP gaming computer. The problem with the XP era is that it spans such a long period of time. XP came out in 2001, and many people stuck with it until or even beyond 2009 (Win7). So what is a period-correct XP build? It could be a Pentium III, or a Core 2 Duo. And the early and late XP era games are totally different in terms of hardware requirements. So unless you have particular nostalgia for a slim portion of the XP era (understandable! maybe your first PC was an early XP era computer!) you might as well just go overkill... as long as you get the compatibility you need. Why suffer through 5fps in F.E.A.R. if you can get 85fps with everything maxed out?

Imho XP era is not that difficult to play on mid-to-late period correct hardware. The mid-to-late 2000s were a time when AMD/ATI+AMD really dropped the ball and without competition, Intel and Nvidia didn't really do shit. And the system requirements of games reflected that. There are some oddities, like Crysis which was never really meant to be played on contemporary hardware, but with a C2D and a 9800GTX you can play just about anything at 60fps+ high settings in a relevant (in that period) resolution (between 1280×1024 and 1680×1050).

The thing is, I don't see the point of going overkill when period correct hardware is already cheap and puts out triple digit frame rate. However I see a lot of value in passively cooled and/or ultra compact builds. Like something around an ultra low power i3 with a low profile yet powerful graphics card. That's something I can appreciate.

What's your starting point for XP period incorrect (too new) hardware? Is it 1156/AM3 and Geforce 4xx/Radeon HD 5xxx?
When did the XP era end to you? How do you define the XP era?

retroboy87 wrote on 2021-05-14, 05:31:

What's your starting point for XP period incorrect (too new) hardware? Is it 1156/AM3 and Geforce 4xx/Radeon HD 5xxx?
When did the XP era end to you? How do you define the XP era?

If you meant to ask me, than for me an OS (Windows) era is the time frame between the OS releasing (2001 for XP) until it's mainstream support ends (2009 for XP). So for me the XP era is 2001-2009.

So hardware-wise it's from the Athlon XP/Pentium 4 and Geforce3/Radeon R200 up until Intel Nehalem/AMD Phenom 2 andNvidia Fermi/AMD Evergreen.
So Geforce 400 and Radeon HD 5000 is still in, but Intel Sandy/Ivy Bridge is not.

Edit:
Though to be fair, I wouldn't build a very early XP era PC, like something with a 2GHz Northwood or Athlon XP and any GPU without DX9 support. I'd keep them for late Win98 for which mainstream support was kept until 2002.

I can think of a few reasons to use newer-than-period-correct hardware for Windows XP besides overkill performance:

• Certain XP-era hardware had reliability/longevity issues. For example, the capacitor plague. And nVidia bump-gate. Obviously a lot of the hardware has no issues. But maybe the user doesn't want to bother.

• There's a lot of people who have bought a new system recently, and their previous computer might be in the Sandy-Ivy-Haswell range. Instead of hopping on eBay to buy XP specific hardware (even if it's cheap), why not use what you have lying around? Hardware you already own is basically free.

Personally I have a couple of period-correct retro PCs from my childhood which I cherish. I even partially re-capped my old XP-era motherboard. But I can definitely appreciate that some folks are really after the smooth gaming experience with what they have. Actually I think having a CRT might improve the overall experience more than worrying about the period-correctness of what's inside the computer case...

retroboy87 wrote on 2021-05-14, 04:50:

I've got photos: https://i.imgur.com/VE9xlTa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6HuqLz8.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YgpA3yi.jpg […]
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I've got photos:

Mayhap any of you recognize this game perchance?

That daewood monitor looks really good.

There are certain combinations of drivers and versions of nvidia inspector that work together on XP. If you have the performance headroom, you can enable super sampling or other effects that aren't always available in the control panel.

retroboy87 wrote on 2021-05-14, 04:50:

I've got photos: https://i.imgur.com/VE9xlTa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6HuqLz8.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YgpA3yi.jpg […]
Show full quote

I've got photos:

Mayhap any of you recognize this game perchance?

That case looks exactly like I would have wanted it back in 2008/09!