C0deHunter wrote on 2023-09-04, 20:48:

OK, while we are at it, can you recommend good games besides the one that I originally listed? I need games from 2000 to 2012ish? FPS, Racing, RTS, etc.

Thanks!

For additional FPS games from that era that should run on a P4, I'd recommend:

Battlefield 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (and Vegas 2)
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in Harm's Way
Unreal Tournament series (2003, 2004, UT 3)

Great! I already have those! Thanks!

Now, which graphics card do you recommend? Something that is around 2010~2013ish.
(I just pulled another system that has an i5 (year 2012), and a RADEON HD4350, but I would like to replace this video card based on your recommendations)

Best!

C0deHunter wrote on 2023-09-05, 02:39:

Now, which graphics card do you recommend? Something that is around 2010~2013ish.
(I just pulled another system that has an i5 (year 2012), and a RADEON HD4350, but I would like to replace this video card based on your recommendations)

Just to confirm, for a PCI-E system, or a Northwood? (I am assuming all Northwoods are AGP, although I suppose somebody might have made a PCI-E s. 478 board)

When I was looking for a GPU for a XP/11 dual boot setup, the AMD 7970 was the one that came up the most frequently. It had at least a couple of years of XP driver support, so it's not one of those cards that has only one or two driver versions for the retro OS. The last driver for Windows "10" is only about a year old so it's still quite good on the modern side too. And, well, frankly, they're dirt cheap and plentiful compared to AGP/Win98/etc-friendly cards. They were competitive for a very long time so many people are just now upgrading their gaming rigs, especially with all the GPU shortages in 2020-2021.

PCIe motherboards with Socket 478 exist. Although there's also another option - late Socket 604 motherboard with PCIe, which should work with Xeon CPU equivalent to desktop Northwood.

C0deHunter wrote on 2023-09-04, 20:48:

Wow, you guys are amazing! Thank you for all the awesome insights! OK, while we are at it, can you recommend good games besides the one that I originally listed? I need games from 2000 to 2012ish? FPS, Racing, RTS, etc.

Thanks!

More era apropriate games I've been playing around 2002-2005:
WarCraft 3: Reign of Chaos
Command & Conquer: Generals
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy
Sim City 4
The Sims 2
Codename Panzers: Phase 1
Star Wars: KOTOR 1&2
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman Contracts
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 up to Most Wanted
Call of Duty 1&2
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Manhunt
Mafia
Unreal Tournament 2004
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Afrika Korps vs Desert Rats
GTA III&VC&SA
Quake 4
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Games from those years I played later:
Age of Mythology
Beyond Good & Evil
Halo: Combat Evolved
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Neverwinter Nights
XIII
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Fable: Lost Chapters
Flat Out

These should be appropriate for a P4 based system with a period correct performance/enthusiast level graphics card (Radeon 9800; X700/800; Geforce 6600/6800).

C0deHunter wrote on 2023-09-05, 02:39:

Now, which graphics card do you recommend? Something that is around 2010~2013ish.
(I just pulled another system that has an i5 (year 2012), and a RADEON HD4350, but I would like to replace this video card based on your recommendations)

May I ask why? Correct me if I were wrong, but it seems that you want a Northwood (130 nm)-based system and insist on period correctness yet you pair it with a graphics card almost a decade newer (GeForce 500 / Radeon HD 6000 series; they were newer than all but the last of 45 nm Core 2).

CRTs don't have framerate caps like early LCDs. I remember hooking up an old CRT for testing purposes to my main rig and being surprised how smooth games ran on it. I checked the framerate, and it was over 80 fps, whereas my then-LCD was capped at 60.

Early LCD screens had poor response times (16-20 ms and such) which could result in visible ghosting and blurring.

I remember the advice in 2004 gaming magazines still being "get a high quality CRT" while LCDs were mostly used by businesses due to their lower space requirements. Even today, CRTs have a slight edge due to the "sample and hold" nature of LCD tech. This is most evident in FPS games when you make a quick turn to the side. No blurring on a CRT, while you still get some motion blur on most LCDs.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-09-05, 07:38:

Early LCD screens had poor response times (16-20 ms and such) which could result in visible ghosting and blurring.

I remember the advice in 2004 gaming magazines still being "get a high quality CRT" while LCDs were mostly used by businesses due to their lower space requirements. Even today, CRTs have a slight edge due to the "sample and hold" nature of LCD tech. This is most evident in FPS games when you make a quick turn to the side. No blurring on a CRT, while you still get some motion blur on most LCDs.

I remember the same, I was really impressed by LCDs for Windows usage back in 2002-2005, but I didn't get one myself untill 2006 when prices and specifications finally made it viable for gaming. I got a Samsung 4:3 20" LCD monitor with 5ms response time. It was for me quite the upgrade from my 19" CRT.

Lcds were disgustingly expensive until around 2005-2006.

dormcat wrote on 2023-09-05, 04:48:

C0deHunter wrote on 2023-09-05, 02:39:

Now, which graphics card do you recommend? Something that is around 2010~2013ish.
(I just pulled another system that has an i5 (year 2012), and a RADEON HD4350, but I would like to replace this video card based on your recommendations)

May I ask why? Correct me if I were wrong, but it seems that you want a Northwood (130 nm)-based system and insist on period correctness yet you pair it with a graphics card almost a decade newer (GeForce 500 / Radeon HD 6000 series; they were newer than all but the last of 45 nm Core 2).

I thought we had convinced the OP to go much newer than a Northwood for an XP rig...

I have an early 1280x1024 LCD that ghosts like hell in FPS games (BENQ FP731 25ms late 2003 vintage). The monitor was free because it was broken (cheap and easy soldering job to fix) and I just used it for test bench video since it was lighter than a CRT to lug around.

The first LCD I purchased after my Sony 420GS 19" CRT gave up the ghost was a Syncmaster 943 with 5ms response time and the same 1280x1024 most games supported and what I mostly used on the Sony anyway (higher refresh rates). The colors were better on the CRT (when it was working) but text was better on the LCD when doing work in Windows. The Syncmaster was $2-300 forget what it cost exactly on newegg but was much cheaper than what I was paying for my Sony CRT monitors in the past (new).

CRTs did have refresh rate caps at specific resolutions just like LCDs have hard framerate caps. For example the 420GS was limited to 75hz at 1600x1200. Much older monitors had interlaced modes to get high resolution but those flickered like hell and gave you a headache.