i have 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCIE in my Pentium4 build, but you can pick something newer.
Backwards compatibility of PCIe graphics cards with DirectX 3-7 under XP

I like also ATi x1950 Pro-s
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ati- … -pro-pcie-512mb

retep_110 wrote on 2025-11-18, 08:03:

The most obvious choice would be a lg 775 mainboard family. They are not that expensive at the moment and you can get some decent cards for that mainboard too.

Socket 939 might be another option worth looking into. Or maybe even something more modern?

What do you guys think about my plan? Am I an the right track or would you recommend something else?

LGA775 is a really solid choice for XP, especially when paired with something like the late Core 2 Duo CPUs, like E8x00 or E7x00. You could also go with the later Core 2 Quads, but you probably won't see as much benefit, since most games from that era were optimized for 2 cores at most.

That being said, don't stop at LGA775. The reason I say this is because most LGA775 boards use DDR2 RAM and fewer use DDR3 or may be more expensive. Likewise, DDR2 is pretty old now and may not be as easy to find compared to 2 GB DDR3 modules, which are rock-bottom cheap just about everywhere in the world now.

So see if there's anything cheaper or more easily available from the 1st and 2nd gen core i3 or i5 series - i.e. LGA1366, LGA1156, and LGA1155. i7 would be too overkill and probably not worth the price. Moreover, an OC-ed 2nd gen i3 (like the 2120) will easily beat it in gaming performance.

As an owner of many socket 939 motherboards/rigs, I would say they make really nice early/mid XP machines. Unfortunately, it's hard to find dual core CPUs for s939, and many games past 2006-2007 do tend to perform a lot better with a 2nd CPU core available. So I can't really recommend s939 for late XP, unless you have an X2 CPU already.

On the other hand, if you do want to go the AMD route, AM2/+ and AM3/+ should also make pretty solid XP machines.
FWIW, I'm posting right now from an AM2 motherboard with an X2 6000+ downclocked to 2.4 GHz (and heavily undervolted), and it's quite OK for some late XP games (though I mostly use it for early and mid 2000's games.) According to most benchmarks I've read and what I've tested myself, an X2 6000+ at stock speed is somewhere between a C2D E6600 and E6700 - e.g. not really fast, but no slouch either. I have mine paired with 3 GB of RAM and a Radeon HD4650 DDR2 video card, the latter also not quite a fast card. Still, even with this, I can play games like Mirror's Edge (2009, Unreal 3.0 engine) at around 40-60 FPS at 1154x864 (on a CRT), which is quite OK given how cheap such hardware is. So if you scale up to something like a late Core 2 Duo, like the E8400/8500 (the E8600 might jump in price quite abruptly, due to being one of the fastest C2D CPUs) or an i3-2120, paired along with something like an HD4850 or HD5750 or HD6670... you'll probably scream through just about any XP game.

Speaking of video cards, I'm more of a fan of lower mid-range cards that have lower power requirements... hence my mention of the HD5750 and 6670 above. The 4850 tends to run a little hot, at least the ones with the stock reference coolers. Some 3rd party ones can be OK, though. As for the HD4870 and 4890 - those use a lot of power and thus run very hot... and as a result, tend not to last that long. From nVidia, the GTX 260 and higher series is in a similar water to the HD4870 (use a lot of power and run hot or don't last), so I tend to steer clear of those too. GTS 450 / GTX550 and GTX560 [TI] should run just about any late XP game pretty comfortably, though... and without running as hot. Likewise with the HD6850.

Thanks a lot for the answers guys.

@momoka, your detailed answer is very much appreciated. Looking beyond LGA 775 sounds interesting. I will check out the offerings from AM2 or AM3 mainboards for sure. Maybe I'll find a nice mainboard, GPU, and CPU combination.

The good thing of late video cards is that getting a mid-range card would also I will able to save cost without compromising the performance. Later XP area mid-range GPU can still be considered as a high-end card for preferred performance.

Checking out the later LGA series like 1366, 1166 or 1155 is also a good idea. It will take some time to go through all the potential configurations.

Good to know that I got so many options to choose from.

My XP setup
ASUS P8P67-M (not the pro version)
i7-2600k
4Gb DDR3-1600
GTX 460 1Gb

It’s all right at the end of XP era so all drivers are there. Also has legacy stuff still - PCI slot, p/s2 ports and on this particular board it also has an IDE port

Have done some benchmarks on it. Will dig em out when I get a chance

I read somewhere that anything past the fermi generation of nvidia GPUs can be problematic on older games. I would 2nd the above post. The 460/560s are good GPUs. Not power hungry like the 470/480 etc

FullYes wrote on 2025-11-18, 12:43:

My XP setup ASUS P8P67-M (not the pro version) i7-2600k 4Gb DDR3-1600 GTX 460 1Gb […]
Show full quote

My XP setup
ASUS P8P67-M (not the pro version)
i7-2600k
4Gb DDR3-1600
GTX 460 1Gb

It’s all right at the end of XP era so all drivers are there. Also has legacy stuff still - PCI slot, p/s2 ports and on this particular board it also has an IDE port

Have done some benchmarks on it. Will dig em out when I get a chance

I read somewhere that anything past the fermi generation of nvidia GPUs can be problematic on older games. I would 2nd the above post. The 460/560s are good GPUs. Not power hungry like the 470/480 etc

Thanks for sharing your setup. Sounds like a nice system rom the tailend of the xp era. with the i7-2600 all games should run like a dream. And the gtx 460 is a neat pu for sure. I will also research in that direction.

XP drivers go surprisingly far, in Nvidia, up to the GTX 960 (970/980 with inf hack), in AMD, up to the R7 200 series and listed for some R9 200 series, and the HD7000 series which got effectively rebadged as the R? 200 series

Matth79 wrote on 2025-11-18, 22:56:

XP drivers go surprisingly far, in Nvidia, up to the GTX 960 (970/980 with inf hack), in AMD, up to the R7 200 series and listed for some R9 200 series, and the HD7000 series which got effectively rebadged as the R? 200 series

Thanks a lot for the info. That's really impressive how far xp supports go. The GTX 960 is a neat GPU that is also quite cheap at the moment.

In connection with the i7 CPU, it is worth considering.

For AM2(+) read the topic Re: Any love for AM2?

You need a fast LGA 775 (~E8600) or AM2(+). AM2+ tops at 8GB RAM (4x2GB DDR2) and quad core CPUs (Phenom II). AM2 with the fastest dual core Windsor at 3.2Ghz can play many games from Windows XP-Vista era, but you will have to make compromises if you want to play at maximum resolution. There are games like Far Cry 2 or GTA 4 which don't run well on it. On AM2+ Phenom II quad cores at 3.2Ghz work fine, including Far Cry 2 and GTA 4. This CPU is also future proof and can play games in Windows 7 era. E8600 is faster than AM2 Windsor, but will likely struggle with more demanding games, especially from Windows 7 era. It benefits from huge L2 cache. It is not that cheap to find nowadays, unlike Phenom II 3.2Ghz which is super cheap.

I would highly recommend AM2+ with Phenom II 3.2Ghz, 8 GB RAM paired with GeForce GTX 770. It is very cheap to build these days.

I would say as a starting point get 2nd gen i5 or i7 motherboard and CPU bundle. In the UK they are £20-£30.

I went LGA775 (Core 2 Quad) and GTX950 for my XP build.
I didn't really see the point in "early" XP hardware myself. Athlon XP or Athlon 64 can make a real nice fast Win2000 machine though.
Am2/Am3 is also a good option I think, at least up to FX chips.

For whatever reason Core i/FX series stuff just seems to "modern"

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-19, 15:51:

I would say as a starting point get 2nd gen i5 or i7 motherboard and CPU bundle. In the UK they are £20-£30.

The i5's appear to be universally cheap anywhere (often under $10 for the CPU), but the i7's - not always. The cheapest i7 I can find near me on ebay right now is $30 from Germany. If in the US, it's twice as cheap at $15, which is OK I suppose. However, it's worth considering that here I can find a complete 2nd gen i5 system (minus HDD and RAM, perhaps) for that amount... whereas the i7's often jump 2 to 4x in price for the same system.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-11-19, 15:00:

I would highly recommend AM2+ with Phenom II 3.2Ghz, 8 GB RAM paired with GeForce GTX 770. It is very cheap to build these days.

Agreed, but probably no need to go with 8 GB of RAM, since XP won't even see the full 4 GB from that. Only reason to go with that would be if doing a dual-boot build - e.g. WIndows 7 x64 along XP. (Or, if you really want to fiddle, make the unused RAM a RAM-drive and put the OS pagefile on that.)

The GTX770 is a nice card... but again, too much on the power-hungry side for me. Granted it shouldn't get too stressed if running with V-sync On to cap game framerates, so that its utilization is lower. But that will depend on the games played. I personally like the GTX750 a lot better... though these are getting harder to find around here (perhaps too recommended by retro PC builders, hence creating a higher demand for it?) GTX 460 and 560, on the other hand, are abundant and cheap around here... and often still good enough for just about every late XP game.

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-19, 15:56:

I didn't really see the point in "early" XP hardware myself.

Depends on the games you want to play.
Most of what I play is from the early to mid 2000's era (e.g. NFS Underground/2, CMR3/04/2005, Half-Life 2, and etc) and will happily run on that older hardware.

While I wouldn't go out of my way to buy parts for such a rig anymore (given how prices of such hardware has gone up, at least on Ebay), I would still consider it if I find the hardware cheap enough locally (which around here I still do... though I don't need to as I have more s939, 754, and 478 systems than I'd ever need.)

Also, I just love mid-era XP on it's era-appropriate hardware. Once you take care of the caps that affect some of it, these systems, IME, make some of the most stable and bullet-proof systems.

Jasin Natael wrote on 2025-11-19, 15:56:

For whatever reason Core i/FX series stuff just seems to "modern"

Agreed.
Though the low-end Core i series (e.g. i3, or Pentium G) is probably too slow for a "modern" rig.
And again, being that most XP games rarely utilize more than 2 cores, an OC-ed i3 or PG can actually outperform an i7 easily. Now you might say, but what if we OC-ed the i7? - Well, being more power-hungry, it probably won't allows as crazy overclocks as the i3 or PG. Plus, an OC'ed i3 or PG will barely pull more power than the i7 at stock clocks, if at all. So IMO, everyone that's overlooking the low-end i3's and PGs is possibly spending more money without a need for it.
Then again, it all depends on what's available in your local market.
Here, both Phenom II and FX series stuff was mostly used in custom gaming rigs. So for whatever reason, people still think these are worth something (more). In contrast, i3 and PG "office" desktops are dime-a-dozen. Slap a mid-range "modern" GPU from yesteryear, and you've got a screaming XP gaming rig.

I'm going to recommend an nvidia 750ti for your GPU

Reasons -

Excellent driver compatibility in XP
Powered from the PCIE slot - no external power needed
Runs cool and quiet
More than enough grunt to max out pretty much everything that you would play on an XP system.

I have a 960 and a 980ti that I chucked in my XP system to go maximum overkill and it's just not worth it. Marginal gains for a whole load more heat.

Platform-wise 775 Core2Duo is nice. I wouldn't go higher than dual core on an XP system and even then some games don't like multicore CPUs. 939 is also a nice choice as you can get really high performance single core processors very cheap and have a dual core to swap in and out if you want. I use a San Diego 3700+ as my single core - and that lives in my XP rig most of the time. Then I have a 4000+ dual core that I can swap in if I'm in the mood.

I also have a 775 motherboard - and that is very nice. Fast, cool and very compatible. I just have an emotional attachment to 939

Lostdotfish wrote on 2025-11-19, 17:04:

I have a 960 and a 980ti that I chucked in my XP system to go maximum overkill and it's just not worth it. Marginal gains for a whole load more heat.

Depends on the use case.

For simply playing with in-game settings maxed at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200, that stands true. But if you add something like 8xSGSSAA on top of that, while also bumping the resolution up to 1080p or even 1440p, then you start appreciating the extra horsepower. Heat isn't an issue if you use a modern mesh case. Cleaning, repasting and possibly also undervolting your GPU helps too.

What happens to your available system RAM when you put in a GPU with large amounts of VRAM? I’ve never tried anything more than 2Gb VRAM which gave me 2.75Gb of system RAM. Does it keep going down when you have more and more VRAM?

It feels to me like cards with 1Gb VRAM give the best balance of VRAM:system RAM but I suppose there could be game-specific exceptions.

Thanks a lot for providing the further info @all. I will continue to look for some neat AM2 boards or LGA 775 boards now. Both motherboard families seem to be available at a good price.

Picking a proper GPU seems about tricky. Anything between GTX 770 and tx 970 seems to the sweet spot.

Reading about the extra heat the 960 or 980 ti might creat makes me move more towards the gtx 770. The gtx 770 should more more than enough for my gaming needs and it also still cheap card. Is there anything to note when getting the gtx 770. According to ebay there seems to 2 gb and 4gb version?

Seems 1st/2nd/3rd gen Intel i series are also ok for XP, better to have a 4 core 4 thread i5 (or on i7, turn off HT if possible), as XP doesn't know the difference between cores and threads, or a 2 core Pentium (or turn off HT on an i3 if possible) - checked my H61 board manual and it does NOT have HT disable option

My advice for XP is go with the fastest stuff you can get working in the OS!

I have the following in my XP/Vista machine:
Intel Core i7-4790K
Asus Z97M-Plus
16GB 2400 MHZ DDR3 (2x8GB)
Geforce GTX980TI 6GB
240GB Kingston sata SSD (XP)
250GB WD sata SSD (Vista)

pete8475 wrote on 2025-11-20, 01:07:

My advice for XP is go with the fastest stuff you can get working in the OS! […]
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My advice for XP is go with the fastest stuff you can get working in the OS!

I have the following in my XP/Vista machine:
Intel Core i7-4790K
Asus Z97M-Plus
16GB 2400 MHZ DDR3 (2x8GB)
Geforce GTX980TI 6GB
240GB Kingston sata SSD (XP)
250GB WD sata SSD (Vista)

Thanks a lot for your andvice. You seem to have high power winxp rig.

Yes having such high end xp righ quite tempting. After owning rather peroid correct winxp rig already winfast 760gxk8mb mainboard with athlon 64 3000+ and geforce 6600 this would be the next logical step.

I just want to avoid stuff that creates more heat than necessary and gives me only little power advantage. old hardware is fragile per nature and using stuff that gets to hot easily could limit the limited lifespan of the hardware even more.

In the meantime I have done some further research and I think going the lga 775 route would be quite attractive. I fond a Intel DG965WH mainboard near me at a good price. The board even got new caps which should make it even more valuable.

What do you guys think about that mainboard family? A decent pic for a very fast winxp retro gaming machine?

And which core 2 duo cpu would you deem feasible for that board?