Crysis runs smooth (no actual framerate measured) with everything high at 1280x1024 and 8xfaa. "very high" requires DX10 ergo something beyond XP.

I don't know if the game is using EAX, the menu doesn't mention it. It all sounded impressive and environmentally immersive. Edit: apparently that's software mode, I need to make a system.cfg with:

con_restricted = 0
s_reverbtype = 1
r_displayinfo = 1
r_VSync = 1
d3d9_TripleBuffering = 1

(I've added some extra fun stuff)

I'll try that.

This seems to be turning into the low budget xp rocket I was hoping (minus the omniflop thingy), and I still have a pile of stuff I can try to sell. Which will be a challenge.

I am looking for am3 or am3+ motherboards with floppy controller and 2 available pci slots when using gpu. The alternative is keeping the Dell pc around. In the attic...

I'm looking around to find something cheap locally.

And when that's done, sell all my other amd mobo's and processors from this project...