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Cheap and efficient all-PCIe Haswell build for DirectX 1-11

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First post, by vvbee

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MB: ASUS B85M-G in a Chieftec CI-02B-OP
RAM: 12 GB DDR3
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 with a passive Thermalright Macho Rev.B
OS1: Linux 64-bit
OS2: Windows 7 64-bit
OS3: Windows XP
OS4: Windows 98 (VM in OS1)
GPU1: AMD Radeon HD 7750 (OS1, OS2, OS3)
GPU2: Matrox G550 PCIe (OS4)
HD1: 250 GB SSD (OS1, OS4)
HD2: 500 GB SSD (OS2, OS3)

The hardware will cost about 100 e (without case and cooler), depending on where you are and what deals and bundles you happen across.

Based on testing many of these parts in other configurations, total system power draw in XP era gaming should be in the 40 W range.

The Radeon HD 7750 was selected after testing about 20 PCIe cards of that era, including the GeForce 700 and 900 series. It has broad Direct3D support all the way to early versions using the AMD iCafe driver in XP. Hassle-free SSAA that looks good and is compatible with just about every old game. A less efficient alternative for better performance in DX10-11 would be the GeForce GTX 560 while still maintaining reasonable backwards compatibility. Obviously details need to be reduced in more demanding later games, but the support is there if needed.

The Matrox G550 PCIe is known as the most backwards-compatible Windows 98 PCIe card. Used here as a passthrough GPU to a Windows 98 guest in QEMU to avoid OS incompatibilities with other hardware. Its role is to run any older game the HD 7750 or later Windows might have issues with, and generally to provide a performance experience similar to a graphics card from ~1998.

The CPU can easily run passive with a large heatsink as the case is an effective wind tunnel. Temperatures in non-heavy gaming should be in the 45 C range with the case fans running at quiet speed. For better XP support in theory you might go with an Ivy Bridge instead of a Haswell.

Linux is here to provide a modern OS with Steam and good passthrough virtualization.

I'm fine with onboard sound but the motherboard has room for a PCIe x1 sound card if you use a single-slot main GPU, or just go with a non-micro motherboard.

The system will be tested further in this thread as time goes on, maybe modified as needed:
1. Efficiency
2. Compatibility
3. Thermals
4. Performance
5. Highlights

Last edited by vvbee on 2025-09-08, 15:49. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by vvbee

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First, total system power draw, efficiency.

Idling on the desktop, XP, 7 and Linux all draw about 40 W. The reading for Windows 98 in its virtual machine I looked at but didn't write down, so we can say 50 W.

Thief 2 (original) pulled just over 40 W in Windows 7 and about 70 W in Windows XP, vsynced at 60. Quake 3 Arena did 55 W in 7 and 65 W in XP. GLQuake in Windows 98 (G550) showed 65 W.

With relatively newer games, Assetto Corsa ate about 100 W in Windows 7 and Spintires in Linux through Proton with amdgpu about 90 W. This is with hyperthreading disabled.

Overall, we can predict the system will do 1995~2015 gaming with a 40-100 W total draw. Probably won't exceed 150 W. For best efficiency you'd favor Windows 7 over XP for older games, maybe install the 32-bit version as well.

Reply 2 of 6, by DarthSun

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Great compilation! Win98 can be installed natively on it, it is not necessary to put it in an emulator.

The 3 body problems cannot be solved, neither for future quantum computers, even for the remainder of the universe. The Proton 2D is circling a planet and stepping back to the quantum size in 11 dimensions.

Reply 3 of 6, by vvbee

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I don't know that there's much to be gained from running it natively. CPU and GPU performance should be relatively close to native with KVM and passthrough, plus among other things you get legacy sound emulation and in theory the ability to emulate a slower CPU for the few speed sensitive Windows 9x games. The only downside to emulation I can see is if the G550 loses any performance vs. native, since it's not a fast card to begin with. With passthrough in 98 it's close to native in XP, but I don't know what its performance would be in 98 natively.

There's also an experimental VFIO fork of 86Box that lets you pass through PCIe and PCI devices. It only partially supports the G550 at the moment, but maybe in the future this would be an extra way to go for compatibility. Might also allow for emulation of faster CPUs on this hardware since it doesn't have to emulate the video then.

Reply 4 of 6, by DarthSun

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vvbee wrote on 2025-09-06, 15:23:

I don't know that there's much to be gained from running it natively. CPU and GPU performance should be relatively close to native with KVM and passthrough, plus among other things you get legacy sound emulation and in theory the ability to emulate a slower CPU for the few speed sensitive Windows 9x games. The only downside to emulation I can see is if the G550 loses any performance vs. native, since it's not a fast card to begin with. With passthrough in 98 it's close to native in XP, but I don't know what its performance would be in 98 natively.

There's also an experimental VFIO fork of 86Box that lets you pass through PCIe and PCI devices. It only partially supports the G550 at the moment, but maybe in the future this would be an extra way to go for compatibility. Might also allow for emulation of faster CPUs on this hardware since it doesn't have to emulate the video then.

It also depends on how you look at it, or what your goal is.
For example, the following is impossible to do in an emulator:

The attachment Win98_69164.jpg is no longer available

The 3 body problems cannot be solved, neither for future quantum computers, even for the remainder of the universe. The Proton 2D is circling a planet and stepping back to the quantum size in 11 dimensions.

Reply 5 of 6, by vvbee

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I don't immediately see it being impossible, run KVM on the Ryzen and pass through a 7900 GTX. But I found the Nvidia G71 to not have the greatest backwards compatibility in DX. The G550 smokes it, runs much slower but is more period correct if you will.

Reply 6 of 6, by vvbee

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Second, compatibility.

I briefly tested 50 Windows games from 1995-2015 (median 1999). All were playable except F1 Racing Simulation, which is sensitive to CPU speed.

Four games needed to be run in software mode to work well: Delta Force 2, Warhammer: Dark Omen, Castrol Honda Superbike World Champions, and Agile Warrior F-111X. Depth glitches in Delta Force 2 in Direct3D mode are common on many systems, in this case the G550 rendered it correctly but only at 15 FPS. Agile Warrior F-111X would freeze after one frame of gameplay on the G550, but I didn't immediately see any glitches.

To support 256-color video modes on the G550 bus mastering has to be disabled. This is relevant to run Windows 98 games in true 256-color software mode. Otherwise bus mastering has to be on for 3D support.

With 98% of the 50 games being playable we can say the system supports DirectX 1-11 and generally will run anything in this range. Games that are speed sensitive will give issues, and the handful of retained mode D3D games may all need to be run in software mode, which the CPU is easily fast enough for.

The HD 7750 also supports Vulkan, useful for DX8+ in Wine and Proton.

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