For a 939 build I put together earlier this year I paired an Opteron 180 with a 7950GX2, in games the CPU actually felt held back when I tried to run anything made after 2006. IMO you may as well go with the SLI board as it can make for a fun build and there's a wider range of hardware available, plus being able to use an overkill GPU would let you see how far it'll go with overclocking, optimizing memory timings etc.

Don't forget to align the SSD partition using a later OS, it mitigates one issue of using SSD with an older OS

Fish3r wrote on 2025-08-15, 13:09:

For a 939 build I put together earlier this year I paired an Opteron 180 with a 7950GX2, in games the CPU actually felt held back when I tried to run anything made after 2006. IMO you may as well go with the SLI board as it can make for a fun build and there's a wider range of hardware available, plus being able to use an overkill GPU would let you see how far it'll go with overclocking, optimizing memory timings etc.

Yeah, opteron 180 is pretty much exactly 4800+, i just wanted actual athlon, silly as that sounds.

Also yes, i originally had no doubts i'll go with AGP, but after some benching and experiments... i am seeing exactly what you are saying - more options, more fun possible (2x8800GT would likely be quite a bit of overkill).

Thanks for your input.

Matth79 wrote on 2025-08-15, 13:17:

Don't forget to align the SSD partition using a later OS, it mitigates one issue of using SSD with an older OS

I am usually not installing windows from scratch but restoring pre-configured and sysprepped image with clonezilla, which being modern linux creates partitions correctly. But thanks for the reminder.

If you don't know how much period correct you want to be, or what games you will run on this - it's somewhat harder to recommend a card...

From collection perspective :
Using something means it will stop working eventually, do you want to use really great board now and not have it later ?
If you can "get by" on lower quality VIA board which may be easier to replace can be seen as better choice.
Of course, both cards and boards can die by just sitting on shelves as well 😀
VIA board forces you to use either 1950 Pro AGP or 3850 AGP, which may be not cheap/easy to replace...

From "reasonable" point of point - X1950 Pro would be solid fit (regardless of connector type).
While 8800 GT/GTX 660 and HD 3850/3870 would allow more options for later games or Windows Vista/7 support.
After all, having too fast GPU is always good when you want to push 1080p on older games.

From "survival" and performance point of view : HD 3870 or GTX 660 should be optimal choice (should last longest, and have great performance).

From "compatibility" point of view : There is no difference. You can opt for NV to get somewhat better driver support on older titles or OpenGL, but overall all of cards you mentioned are WinXP minimum and can work with Windows 7 (both x86 and x64).

From "wants" point of view : Only You can decide what tickles You the best way possible out of all those configurations 😁

Note : A8N32-SLI Dlx works with 8GB RAM (4x 2GB ECC) too.

I would definitely go with the PCIe version just to do 2x8800GT SLI for fun. From your description the PCIe board is better so it's a no brainer. Definitely the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ as it has 2x 1MB L2 cache.

Asus A8V is VIA, I would stay away from it. ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is an nForce4 board, just like my Gigabyte GA-K8NE that I'm happy with.

Since you have multiple options, it would be great if you could test Athlon 64 X2 4800+ in both boards with a few AGP and PCIe cards.

For comparison, here is my Gigabyte 939 system.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:52:

If you don't know how much period correct you want to be, or what games you will run on this - it's somewhat harder to recommend a card...

Well, it is pretty flexible. But...

I want a platform from certain period which it will be, not many possibilities here with S939.

GPUs probably +2-3 years because completely period correct simply will not cut it, it never does. Partly because i want higher resolutions and framerates than would be possible on completely period correct GPUs and eye candy like like AA/AF. So HD3850/70 or GF8800GT fit well here. I do not really want to go much further, it is going to be too much anyway and i did experience compatibility issues with GTX660 before, probably because of newer drivers.

Games... it is probably going to be in between "runs well on S462+7600GT" and "runs well on win7". So late XP, but not late enough for Crysis.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:52:

From collection perspective : Using something means it will stop working eventually, do you want to use really great board now […]
Show full quote

From collection perspective :
Using something means it will stop working eventually, do you want to use really great board now and not have it later ?
If you can "get by" on lower quality VIA board which may be easier to replace can be seen as better choice.
Of course, both cards and boards can die by just sitting on shelves as well 😀
VIA board forces you to use either 1950 Pro AGP or 3850 AGP, which may be not cheap/easy to replace...

My point of view here - i want to use this old hardware and have fun with it. If it lasts it lasts. If it dies... is there a difference if a collectible on a shelve is alive or dead? It'll still look the same...

I'd also expect VIA based board to be much more reliable, because it is an older and simpler chipset which does not generate much heat and definitely is not affected by bumpgate, unlike nforce4. A8N32-SLI Dlx is hot, during my testing i hat to put a 80mm fan on top of VRM/NB/SB heatsink, otherwise whole heatpipe/cooler assembly became to hot to touch. On A8V SB has no heatsink and is completely cold, NB has typical small heatsink which is lukewarm at most...

I also happen to have two A8V, because S939 boards with AGP were surprisingly hard to find and i was buying them untested from scrap pile for dirt cheap.

But yeah, then cards become an issue. From what i've seen so far given my goals i'll probably have to use 3850. Which is what i originally intended to do.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:52:

From "survival" and performance point of view : HD 3870 or GTX 660 should be optimal choice (should last longest, and have great performance).

I am not sure about 3870. In fact i am not sure it is 100% functional at all. I've had a few crashes testing it, but those may be driver related too. The issue is - it has extremely crappy fan control curve by default, idles at 80, heats up to 90+ under load, etc. Was probably cooked like this for a while and i still need to do something with fan control. Afterburner works, but i do not really like to run it all the time on this old systems - eats too much resources.

And i also have at least 3x8800GT, because i wanted to fool around with SLI and wanted a spare in case one dies or is DOA 😀

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:52:

From "compatibility" point of view : There is no difference. You can opt for NV to get somewhat better driver support on older titles or OpenGL, but overall all of cards you mentioned are WinXP minimum and can work with Windows 7 (both x86 and x64).

Well, as i said i've had issues with GTX660 before. And i am unlikely to use it in this build, though technically it is probably the most sensible option 😁

What also interests me is x1950pro VS HD3850 in terms of compatibility for this period of games. Since i am not running vista/7 and not using DX10 anyway, will there be any benefits from using older card?

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:52:

Note : A8N32-SLI Dlx works with 8GB RAM (4x 2GB ECC) too.

Apparently A8V does too and even supports registered sticks. I'd need to find the sticks though, which may be a challenge. I'll go do some dumpster diving at work, may be something is still sitting there. Would not there be performance penalties from using such RAM though?

Thanks for your thoughts, this is useful. I've now assembled this monstrosity for testing:

What i want to see is if there will be any benefit from having 2 cards vs one on this platform at all.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-08-15, 16:25:

For comparison, here is my Gigabyte 939 system.

Hmm, thanks, that'll be useful for reference running benchmarks.
So, at least in synthetics, SLI does provide performance boost...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-15, 17:00:

I do not really want to go much further, it is going to be too much anyway and i did experience compatibility issues with GTX660 before, probably because of newer drivers.

GTS 250 would be a good fit for this, it's a rebadged 8800GT less prone to failure.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-08-15, 16:25:

For comparison, here is my Gigabyte 939 system.

Let's focus on 3d mark 2003 and 2005. 3d mark 2001 is not very useful for s939. Also let's post also result details with built-in game fps. It's much easier to interpret than score. In my AM2+ testing I completely ignored the overall score and focused on game fps only. 3d mark 2003 represents games even Athlon XP can handle and 3d mark 2005 represents more demanding games where s939 is needed.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-15, 16:11:

I would definitely go with the PCIe version just to do 2x8800GT SLI for fun. From your description the PCIe board is better so it's a no brainer. Definitely the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ as it has 2x 1MB L2 cache.

Asus A8V is VIA, I would stay away from it. ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is an nForce4 board, just like my Gigabyte GA-K8NE that I'm happy with.

Since you have multiple options, it would be great if you could test Athlon 64 X2 4800+ in both boards with a few AGP and PCIe cards.

I did run "a few" benchmarks, i'll run some more and try to make the data comprehensible. It'll take time, but i'll post it eventually.

That said from what i am seeing - there is very little actual performance difference between 2 boards. I am seeing less than 10% performance difference between HD3850 AGP and HD3870 pci-e, and x1950pro is showing a couple % higher performance in AGP version, but the card is 512MB vs 256MB pci-e.

And yeah, A8V is annoying in some ways as i posted elsewhere, but it does have its advantages. For example dramatically less heat.

You are probably right though, pci-e gives more options...

If I had ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe I would probably end up just cutting off that stupid heatpipe and replacing chipset heatsink. Connecting VRM heatsink to chipset without active cooling is not a good idea.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-15, 17:56:

If I had ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe I would probably end up just cutting off that stupid heatpipe and replacing chipset heatsink. Connecting VRM heatsink to chipset without active cooling is not a good idea.

From what i am seeing this cooling system might be a necessity here given board layout. From what i understand this chipset is a little weird with each chip providing x16 port for full 2x16, so both of them are toasty, not like cold SB + hot NB. And the second one, "SB", is placed in such a way it is covered by videocard, which is also typical on modern boards. So there is no way to place either a reasonable size heatsink or heatsink+fan there.

That said yeah, i agree, whole thing is stupid. The actual finned part of heatsink (on top of VRM) is small and definitely designed for active cooling. And there is actuall a fan bundled with the board for this purpose, but it is small and noisy. I'll likely find a way to attach 80mm fan there, without it the board will not be usable.

By the way i absolutely love the place they've chosen for that red sata port...

Also annoying this about this board - if i disable Qfan in BIOS windows does not boot crashing with 0x000000A5. Not sure how they managed that.

And annoying thing about asus 8800GT (the one with thermaltake duorb) - no monitoring in either gpu-z or afterburner at all, only aida sees "gpu diode", probably requires asus software for proper monitoring. While the top one (sparkle) shows a bunch of sensors (memory, gpu, board) in every utility. I am starting to dislike asus...

Also one more interesting thing about A8V - CPU VRM is nice. No heatsink, but i can run superPi, place my finger on top of VRM components and it is not going to be hot enough to make me remove the finger. Really mixed feelings about this board - some things are great, some are really bad 😀

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-15, 17:19:

Hmm, thanks, that'll be useful for reference running benchmarks.
So, at least in synthetics, SLI does provide performance boost...

The attachment sli-2003.jpg is no longer available

SLI is definitely having a major impact here. For comparison:

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 3400+, GeForce 9800 GT:

• Wings of Fury - 318 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 255 fps
• Troll's Lair - 202 fps
• Mother Nature - 203 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 3400+, GeForce GTX 260:

• Wings of Fury - 326 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 334 fps
• Troll's Lair - 247 fps
• Mother Nature - 240 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 X2 6000+, GeForce 9800 GT:

• Wings of Fury - 525fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 297fps
• Troll's Lair - 230fps
• Mother Nature - 224 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 X2 6000+, GeForce GTX 260:

• Wings of Fury - 561 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 433 fps
• Troll's Lair - 320 fps
• Mother Nature - 274 fps

GeForce 9800 GT is exactly the same thing as 8800 GT spec wise. AM2 Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with single GeForce 9800 GT loses to your SLI setup decisively. Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with GeForce GTX 260 is roughly equal.

I have an A8N SLI Premium that I've never messed with since I focused all of my time on my AGP 939 boards.

Repo Man11 wrote on Yesterday, 02:29:

I have an A8N SLI Premium that I've never messed with since I focused all of my time on my AGP 939 boards.

Yep, that absolutely was my intention initially too. I went through the trouble of finding those boards with AGP, HD3850 and everything. However what got me thinking - i am taking a platform which was mostly pci-e, using older motherboard in order to have AGP and are putting a card which is natively pci-e with AGP-pci-e bridge into it. Which also costs a lot, while pci-e HD3850 without that bridge is dirt cheap. Am i doing the right thing here? Somehow it just feels... wrong.

AlexZ wrote on Yesterday, 01:24:

SLI is definitely having a major impact here. For comparison: […]
Show full quote

SLI is definitely having a major impact here. For comparison:

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 3400+, GeForce 9800 GT:

• Wings of Fury - 318 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 255 fps
• Troll's Lair - 202 fps
• Mother Nature - 203 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 3400+, GeForce GTX 260:

• Wings of Fury - 326 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 334 fps
• Troll's Lair - 247 fps
• Mother Nature - 240 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 X2 6000+, GeForce 9800 GT:

• Wings of Fury - 525fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 297fps
• Troll's Lair - 230fps
• Mother Nature - 224 fps

3d mark 2003 breakdown, 1024x768, Athlon 64 X2 6000+, GeForce GTX 260:

• Wings of Fury - 561 fps
• Battle of Proxycon - 433 fps
• Troll's Lair - 320 fps
• Mother Nature - 274 fps

GeForce 9800 GT is exactly the same thing as 8800 GT spec wise. AM2 Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with single GeForce 9800 GT loses to your SLI setup decisively. Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with GeForce GTX 260 is roughly equal.

That's very curious. I'll have to play around with it a bit more to see if this is representative of how actual games work. What's strange is that SLI is seemingly having a noticeable effect on a system which seemingly is bottlenecked by CPU.

The funny thing is, my 939 system back in the day was PCIe - an Epox 9NPA3 Ultra, a 3200+ (later a 4600+) a 6800GS (later an X1950), but a few years ago, hanging out here gave me the urge to build a fast AGP system, well beyond the fastest AGP system I ever had back then (which was an 8RDA3+, an XP-M, and a 9800 Pro). Then I put it together, and realized that even with a fast 939 CPU I still had to overclock it quite a bit to get the performance I desired, and I still wasn't getting the full potential of the 3850 AGP. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that nothing short of a C2D AGP board really matches a 3850.

I should probably switch over to the A8N, use the GTS250 I have and sell off the rest, curiosity satisfied.

Repo Man11 wrote on Yesterday, 04:21:

The funny thing is, my 939 system back in the day was PCIe - an Epox 9NPA3 Ultra, a 3200+ (later a 4600+) a 6800GS (later an X1950), but a few years ago, hanging out here gave me the urge to build a fast AGP system, well beyond the fastest AGP system I ever had back then (which was an 8RDA3+, an XP-M, and a 9800 Pro). Then I put it together, and realized that even with a fast 939 CPU I still had to overclock it quite a bit to get the performance I desired, and I still wasn't getting the full potential of the 3850 AGP. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that nothing short of a C2D AGP board really matches a 3850.

I should probably switch over to the A8N, use the GTS250 I have and sell off the rest, curiosity satisfied.

Overclocking is something i do not really want to do, partly because of not wanting to torture this old hardware, but mainly because i see no reason to - if i wanted something faster i could get faster hardware...

As for the question of "bottleneck" and "potential"... from what i've seen so far it is not that simple. There usually is no specific part which sets hard limit on performance, unless the configuration is outright ridiculous like GTX780+S939. Yes, 3850 can give you better results on faster platform (AM2, LGA775), but also it is not useless on S939. There is a significant difference between x1950pro and 3850 and also 3870 still offers better performance, even if slightly, and 2x8800GT somehow show significantly better performance, at least in 3dmark.

Then there is the question of resolution and settings. 3850 definitely can not run crysis at 1920x1080, even without AA. And it is not a CPU limitation. I am tempted to try those GTX660 (and i likely will) just to see how far S939 can go with totally overpowered GPU.

So i think 3850 is actually a good match for S939. Yes, in many cases at lower resolutions in older games it will not be completely utilized. But it does allow higher resolutions and better settings than something like x1950pro. Does not have to be AGP though.

I've seen similar things on S462 before. Comparing something like 7300GT and 7600GT it is easy to conclude that slower card is "sufficient". Yet faster one is still useful in the same way 3850 is on S939.

Hope this rambling makes some sense....

Fish3r wrote on 2025-08-15, 17:38:

GTS 250 would be a good fit for this, it's a rebadged 8800GT less prone to failure.

The GTS 250 is a rebadged 9800GTX(+)

8800GT or 9800GT : core config - 112:56:16

9800GTX(+) or GTS 250 : core config - 128:64:16