First post, by justin1985
A while back I asked for advice on the platform with the fastest integrated GPU that has drivers for Windows XP. My aim was to use one of the super compact A09 ITX cases with internal flexATX PSU (rather than needing a power brick) and be able to play games right through to late XP era titles like Medieval Total War 2.
Originally I tried an i5-3470 with an MSI H61 ITX board, but found that I was often only getting 15fps in MTW2. It seems a consensus that the final XP compatible AMD APUs had much better graphics performance, and the "Trinity" core was the final generation with official driver support.
So this time I've got:
MSI A88Xi AC ITX motherboard with miniPCIe Intel WiFi (had to swap this for an older model with XP drivers)
AMD A8 5500 APU with Radeon HD 7560D
4Gb DDR3-1600 RAM (should probably find a second stick?)
Kingston 480Gb SATA SSD (had spare)
A09 ITX case with hard drive bracket in place
FSP 280W flexATX PSU
All seems to be working well, and I'm really pleased with performance. MTW2 ranges between 35 and 65fps on "best" graphical detail settings, and usually around 120fps, occasionally as low as 85 or 90, on medium. 3DMark2001 came out at 24725.
I guess doubling up to 8Gb RAM would improve things further (considering the graphics take more than 1.5Gb).
I think I've seen suggestions that some later AMD APUs for FM2 will work on XP in practice as well, even if Trinity are the final ones with official support. Would any be a worthwhile upgrade? All FM2 CPUs seem pretty cheap!