Here is, what You need, right?
http://commonemitter.blogspot.com/2018/08/rad … 0htdi512ma.html

Ydee wrote on 2021-08-01, 13:31:

Here is, what You need, right?
http://commonemitter.blogspot.com/2018/08/rad … 0htdi512ma.html

Thank you! I'll take a look tomorrow and see if I can find any differences between the cards. It might not have covered all the components , but it contains most of them.

johnyept wrote on 2021-07-30, 09:37:

Thanks for all the input. I know the graphics card is weak, but currently it's impossible to get a better one at a decent price, […]
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Thanks for all the input. I know the graphics card is weak, but currently it's impossible to get a better one at a decent price, maybe in a year or so I'll try to buy a GTX750. I'll be using Windows XP and 7, so the system will be limited to at most DirectX 9.0c/11, anything 11.1 and above will be left for a "future retro Windows 10 PC" 😉

Since I'm also going to use this desktop to try out a few things with Virtualbox, I thought upgrading the CPU from 2 to 4 cores for as low as around $/€15 would be a great investment. Upgrading the RAM from 6GB to 8GB is not worth it, and the SSD 120GB + HDD 1TB is more than enough for what it will be used, so CPU and GPU are the only upgrades I'll probably do.

So 3 computers will be my main target:
- first one for Windows 98SE/2K games and a few DOS games under Win98 (currently with a dead motherbard 😒 )
- second one for Windows XP/7 games (this one)
- third one for Windows 10 games and beyond (not in my todo list for now)

There are tons of cheap graphics cards for that setup. Even if you need a low profile configuration. Look at the GTX 400 series for example. If you have room for a full size graphics card then you can do even better.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-08-01, 18:47:

There are tons of cheap graphics cards for that setup. Even if you need a low profile configuration. Look at the GTX 400 series for example. If you have room for a full size graphics card then you can do even better.

I believe there are, but not in my country. In Portugal there are not that many old good GPUs for sale, and those that are for sale are always overpriced, so I don't mind taking a stab at trying to fix a GPU that's currently just gathering dust. I might sound like a cheapskate, but when the money is short, hobby expenses go to the bottom of my priority list.

I had a Asus ROG laptop with a 1sg gen i7 and a 465m 1.5gb nd it was great for World of Tanks, Borderlands, and all sorts of games that dont require to much Horsepower even running Windows 10.
One thing you can do is install MSI afterburner and try to get as much out of the clockspeed as you can out of your Geforce 210. Im using a Q9550 and Geforce 9500gt atm and 1080p video playback without an OC on the GPU had a bit of stutter here and there.

ODwilly wrote on 2021-08-01, 19:57:

One thing you can do is install MSI afterburner and try to get as much out of the clockspeed as you can out of your Geforce 210. Im using a Q9550 and Geforce 9500gt atm and 1080p video playback without an OC on the GPU had a bit of stutter here and there.

According to userbenchmark the GeForce 210 is much slower than the 9500gt, luckily I won't be watching any 1080p videos with it, but the MSI afterburner might help squeeze a few more frames out of it 😉

I haven't tried any games on it yet, but Windows XP boots in about 5 seconds and Windows 7 boots in about 10, which is stupidly fast! I installed them both on the same partition, so Windows 7 will automagically TRIM Windows XP leftovers. Since XP came out in 2001, I'll try a bunch of games between 2001 and 2010, and check which ones struggle the most with this hardware.

By the way, which program does Phil use in his videos to show CPU/GPU/RAM usage in game on the top left corner? That would be useful to see which components are maxed out by which games.

johnyept wrote on 2021-08-02, 11:35:

According to userbenchmark the GeForce 210 is much slower than the 9500gt, luckily I won't be watching any 1080p videos with it, but the MSI afterburner might help squeeze a few more frames out of it 😉

By the way, which program does Phil use in his videos to show CPU/GPU/RAM usage in game on the top left corner? That would be useful to see which components are maxed out by which games.

It is. It's roughly an 8400GS while the 9500GT is basically a rebranded 8600GTS.

As for OSD, it's probably also the MSI Afterburner.

Thanks. The official page seems to be broken:
https://www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards
Clicking on "Download Afterburner" simply reloads the same page, tried it in Firefox and Chrome. A google search reveals the latest version seems to be 4.6.3 which I got from filehorse, I'll test it on XP later today with an older and a "newer" game.

MSI Afterburner 4.6.3 gave me an error of "cannot load rtsshooks.dll" so I went with 4.5.0.
GTA3 at 1280x1024 with all maxed out runs at 60fps (I'm guessing locked fps) with GPU at 50% and CPU at 30%.
Flatout 2 at 1024x768 runs at 15fps with GPU at 99% and CPU at 50%.
The graphics card definitely needs an upgrade, but for now it will have to suffice...

I think I might have found a Club 3D 9800 GTX+ 512MB for 25€/$ + postage. It seems to support DX11 but is mainly a DX10 card, will this be ideal for XP/7 games up to around 2010, or is it overkill?

EDIT: TDP 141w, ouch! Should I probably aim for a 8xxx card?

EDIT2: most of the time either there are no cards or they are way overpriced, this time I found 2! (actually 3 but 1 was already sold)
There is also an ASUS 8800 GT 512MB for 15€/$, according to userbenchmark the 9800 GTX seems to be about 25% faster than the 8800 GT, on the other hand the 8800 GT seems to be 7x faster than the 210 I currently have, so should the 8800 GT be the better option?

EDIT3: one more for the roundup, an ASUS GTX 650 1GB, it's up for 25€/$ + postage but I'm trying to renegotiate to 20 with postage. The seller also has a Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB for the same price and I know it's better than the 650, but it also runs hotter and goes for double the TDP, and when comparing both on a dual core system (or quad core if I upgrade it) I think the gap in performance should be closer than if compared on a higher end system. Any suggestions on what path I should follow?

EDIT4: On closer inspection, in one of the photos of the GTX 460 I can see GV-N450-1GI written on the board, which Google says it's a GTS 450, so either the seller is mistaken, or it could be a fake chinese card with a modded BIOS. The GTX 650 says GTX650-E-1GD5 on the sticker and is identical to the Google photos of the same model.

EDIT5: all gone before I could buy even one. Lucky me...

Ok, forget all cards mentioned above. Due to the difficulty in finding decent graphics cards for low prices in my country, I find myself in the lucky position of having found an Asus GTS 450 1GB DDR5 for 15€. I know it's not period correct, but I much rather prefer overpowered hardware over correct period hardware, as long as it's compatible with the software and operating system.

With that in mind, and to avoid creating a new topic just for this question... what would be the best drivers for the GTS 450 under Window XP and Windows 7?