Best GPU's and respective drivers for a 2-in-1 Windows XP and 7 PC? \ VOGONS

Best GPU's and respective drivers for a 2-in-1 Windows XP and 7 PC?

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First post, by versawizkid2002

Posted on 2026-02-28, 08:02

versawizkid2002 Offline

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Hi folks, I'm making this thread so I can get ideas for what graphics cards I should aim for in my 2-in-1 Windows XP and 7 PC project - or anyone else that wants to do something like it. While there are plenty of architectures that will work with both operating systems, I'm aiming for a DirectX 11-capable GPU that still has Windows XP drivers.

The Windows 7 part of the project is easy, anything DX11 will do for that - it's XP where we gotta pick from specific architectures and drivers. I see that for Radeon, 11.8 for TeraScale and 12.4 for GCN are generally considered the best drivers - though INF modifications may be necessary for GCN 1 rebrands in the 200 and 300 series. As for Nvidia, I can't seem to find definitive answers - but I would think that older is better. Even though my P55 motherboard (LGA 1156, first generation i5/i7) is capable of SLI and CrossFire, I'm not interested in doing a dual GPU setup - so SLI breaking past Fermi is not an issue for me.

I will likely end up defaulting to TeraScale 2, but if there are cards from let's say Kepler or GCN that will work just as well (and better in Windows 7) then I would appreciate it so I at least have the suggestions in mind. Thanks! 😁

also known as AzuSapphire
"Fun things are fun." - Yui Hirasawa
AZU-Daioh 775i65G R3.0 | Pentium E5800, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, Win98SE + XP
TBA P7P55D-E Pro | i5-760, 16GB RAM, Sapphire Radeon HD 7870, WinXP + 7

Reply 1 of 5, by PD2JK

Posted on 2026-02-28, 08:35

PD2JK Offline

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I believe a GTX 780 Ti is your best bet to acquire one, a Titan card based on the same architecture also qualifies, but a lot harder to come by.

GTX 900 series can also work, but for XP you need modified drivers.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Pluto 700 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 2 of 5, by versawizkid2002

Posted on 2026-03-03, 02:47

versawizkid2002 Offline

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GTX 900 series can also work, but for XP you need modified drivers.

For GM204 and GM200-based GPU's, i.e. 970 and up, then this is true. I believe the GTX 960 and lower are part of the drivers INF files to begin with. I did hear that there is a single XP driver that has the GTX 970 and 980 device ID's already in the INF file, but if not then its literally a couple of lines to be added. I'd expect Kepler to be more stable and compatible with XP anyway, as there are older drivers to choose from.

Reply 3 of 5, by mothergoose729

Posted on 2026-03-03, 03:02

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Maxwell is the latest GPU architecture that is supported in XP. You will need to perform a simple INF mode to get the higher end cards working. 980ti is pretty fast for DX11.

Reply 4 of 5, by meljor

Posted on 2026-03-05, 13:18

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Have a dual boot xp/7 running: intel 4790k and a gtx 980ti. Fast in both and fully compatible.

Nvme was a hassle so I went with a sata ssd instead, it's plenty fast.

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Reply 5 of 5, by versawizkid2002

Posted on Today, 13:22

versawizkid2002 Offline

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I ended up getting a Sapphire Dual-X Radeon HD 7870 for $15 locally for this project. That leaves me with XP drivers ranging from 12.2/12.3 to 14.4, I had heard that 12.4 is one of the better drivers to use for GCN so that's probably what I'm going to start with. As for Windows 7, it probably doesn't matter all that much especially because there's many more drivers going up to 2021 for Windows 7/8/10 and if the latest one is no good, then there's nearly 10 years of Windows 7 drivers made for GCN 1.

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