Most XP-era games did work ok in 7 as far as I recall. However, you might as well stick to XP 32 bit for full compatibility. As an added bonus, 9x games that have issues in 7 should work better in XP.

Windows 7 will require workarounds, at minimum, with some old DRMs. If you want to experience hardware 3D sound fully - Windows XP is better.

I don't understand why someone would bother with Windows 7 or 8 when 10 exists. XP is where a lot of retro benefits stop. The 1650 will not have drivers for XP. Your best bet is to get something powerful from the Geforce 900 series like a 970 or higher and then do a dual boot with XP and 10.

Haki26 wrote on 2023-03-21, 10:34:

Since I am interested in assembling a pc for windows xp games, is it better to install xp and "limit myself" to the nvidia gtx 7xx series, or can I install windows 7, thus being able to access, for example, a gtx 1650 and some Win 7 games? (But focus Is Xp games)
Would I lose a lot of compatibility running xp games on 7?
The motherboard is a msi h81m-e33. It has yet to arrive and includes an intel I3-4xxx which I don't know the model yet. There are no xp drivers on the manufacturer's site, but I know that someone who has the same motherboard has installed xp on it without problems.

extra w7 games and the 1650 with only a few minor issues with games of the xp era - sounds ok to me

plus, as you said, makes it easy for drivers (though it seems no problems with xp)

maybe try it out and see if the games you intend to play have problems on w7, most should be ok

If the focus is on XP then I would go with XP.

My most modern gaming PC runs Win7 and has a GTX 780, which does everything I need but then I have to admit I don't own many games past the XP era either.
As that card also has XP drivers I went and installed XP and got a cheap OEM variant of the X-Fi (SB0770) which is a bit wasted in Win7 however now rather then mess around with alchemy I simply boot into XP where everything "just works"

ptr1ck wrote on 2023-03-21, 12:22:

I don't understand why someone would bother with Windows 7 or 8 when 10 exists. XP is where a lot of retro benefits stop. The 1650 will not have drivers for XP. Your best bet is to get something powerful from the Geforce 900 series like a 970 or higher and then do a dual boot with XP and 10.

In fact, I was initially thinking of Windows 10 instead of 7! Just informing me, I read on a website that 10 has more compatibility problems with XP and previous OS, than 7. But I hope this is not true or that there is a minimal difference.
Yes, I know that the GTX 1650 doesn't have drivers for XP, in fact I would only consider it if I abandoned the idea of ​​installing XP.
The GeForce 900 series has no official drivers for XP. It has modified drivers, but which I've read don't work well.
In the end my choice was just to give up XP and install Windows 10 and play everything that it will allow me to play in backwards compatibility.

Thank you all for the answers you have given me

Haki26 wrote on 2023-03-23, 13:54:

. But I hope this is not true or that there is a minimal difference.

disc drm games says hi

win10's also got worse support for midi, no color schemes/fonts (could break some interface games) and a sentient updater that thinks it knows best with the surprise regressions.

If new windows releases had no compatibility issues with prior games, this forum wouldn't exist.

Bingo. That would be the dream OS for sure.

Face the truth, although there is a high level of compatibility between Windows 7 and XP there are things that will only work on XP, just using Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 7 32-bit already makes a big difference. And using an ATI or Nvidia graphics card also makes a difference, such as the way to scale the image of games created for 4.3 and not intended for widescreen, in my experience, ATI does this better than Nvidia, but Nvidia can be More compatible at the Driver level, but I don't know which will be the latest version that is more compatible with DX9, because the most modern Nvidia I have is an 8800GT.
If this didn't happen, many of us wouldn't have so many computers from different eras and with very different hardware.
From my experience, once you overcome the problems with anti-copy systems, the big difference is in the hardware you use, not so much in whether you use Windows 7 or XP. And Using 32-bit Windows 7 greatly increases compatibility, since 16-bit applications still work without problems while in 64-bit Windows 7 it is not so easy, and that causes you to not even be able to use the original installer of some games.
But I think at least 90% of the games released for XP will work without any problem on Windows 7.
Like I said, on Windows 7 32-bit, I haven't run into any serious problems yet.

If Vista's memory consumption is no problem on x86, then it's a nice alternative.

2K: NT 5.0
XP: NT 5.1
Vista: NT 6.0
Win7: NT 6.1
Win8: NT 6.2
Win8.1: NT 6.3
Win10: Originally NT 6.4 but renamed to "10"

IMHO if you want to enjoy XP-era games, either use dual-boot (if your MB/CPU/GPU support both OS) or build a dedicated XP-era system, namely, from Core 2 to Core-i Ivy Bridge + GeForce up to 700 series.

Yes, dedicate the machine to XP only is easiest. Core 2 duo E8600 thru Ivy Bridge.

Cheers,

Quick and cheap XP machine that ought to max out a lot of games: Dell Optiplex 790 running an i5 or i7 Sandy Bridge, stick a Quadro 2000 on it and an X-Fi. Ought to be able to get it all for $200 or less.

ptr1ck wrote on 2023-03-24, 01:00:

Quick and cheap XP machine that ought to max out a lot of games: Dell Optiplex 790 running an i5 or i7 Sandy Bridge, stick a Quadro 2000 on it and an X-Fi. Ought to be able to get it all for $200 or less.

US$200? That's a bit expensive for such a build. 🤑 My current XP build (C2D E7400 + 2*2GB DDR2 + Radeon HD 5670 + 120GB SSD) costs me ~US$60.

Buying each and every component from eBay or similar auction sites can cost a lot; try local bargain strores, e-waste recycler, garage sales, flea market, or ask around friends and relatives. Sometimes you can have them for free or almost free.

When using Windows Vista, 7, 10 etc. instead of WinXP, you lose native DirectSound3D and EAX support.

There are many games from that era which make good use of EAX, and not all of them are supported by Creative Alchemy on newer operating systems. Sure, you can use other wrappers instead, but that doesn't sound quite as good as playing the game on real hardware under WinXP.

Some games have glitches even with ALchemy support.

Optiplex 30XX (4th gen intel/Haswell) coupled with GTX 7XX would cover pretty much anything XP with ease (@ 1440p too)...
Can be had pretty cheap on uk ebay right now as there are oodles of them (recycled from enterprise), and just a bit too old for many other uses (although still good for most not intensive things).

You can even go SFF with a low profile 750ti if you want to forgo a dedicated sound card (low power too, PSU is like 250 watts, and I doubt it will ever get there).

Recently got a Optiplex 5070 SFF (9th gen i3, 512GB nvme) & RTX A2000 for work for total of 320GBP, not tried modern games but it should give a damn good go at them @ 1080p, maybe even 1440p (mine never goes above 110 Watt consumption at the wall, even with all GPU and CPU pistons firing).

if you want to forgo a dedicated sound card

There are some low-profile options, including Creative.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-03-24, 17:08:

if you want to forgo a dedicated sound card

There are some low-profile options, including Creative.

Yeah no space though after a double slot low profile 750ti goes in. Single slot low profile quadro might be better then. Also might need an optiplex with 2 PCIe (models can vary), and they tend to have a slower (but open ended) non-x16 as the only slot that can take double slot card. But most gpu's work fine at that bandwidth anyway (x4 or x8), especially xp era.