Upgrading my WinXP 32bit system?


Klumpen

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Hello folks,

I got tired of having to set the graphics on "average" in 6 year old games.

I want to be able to play Fallout 3, Blur, Risen, The Witcher and Gothic 3 in maximized graphical settings in my gaming partition. The last two are not even playable in any setting atm.

Is it even possible with a 32bit WinXP system with three cores?

My current GFX-Card is a 1gb ddr from ATI from the HD series (I think HD5xxx) and my 4gb RAM is really slow (more than 4gb wouldn't make sense for XP anyway, but it could be faster).

So my question is: Would it be enough to upgrade to a better GPU and fast RAM or do I have to get some new system and change to *gulp* Win7 (64bit) for gaming?

My main OS would still be Linux anyway, so I don't care for fancy stuff, net security etc...

I'd want to switch to an Nvidia card because of (Linux) drivers and much better Vsync, another company that I don't really like, hmpf.

Upside for the new system would be PS2 and GameCube in highres of course, but I really would like to avoid Win7 on my gaming partition...

And I don't buy new mainstream PC games anyway, only indie titles for some years now.

greetings

Klumpen
 
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where's the huge performance boost going to come from? Upgrading old hardware with less older hardware is a waste of money, unless you come across some cheap used components. Changing your operaing system won't change anything. You need newer hardware. Middleclass hardware will do just fine. One of the comming steamboxes might provide a good performance/price value.
 
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These days it does seem like GPU is the primary bottleneck.

Does your motherboard support PCIe X16? If so then you've got nothing to lose: $100 can get you a very decent (albeit a little outdated) video card. Get the card and see what performance it gives you. If it is good enough, you're done. If you notice your CPU and RAM are struggling then you'll need to do further upgrades, but you've already got the video card sorted.

I'm assuming that you just want "better", and don't necessarily have to go best-of-the-best, hence a suggestion for a 6-12 month old card for cheaper.
 
where's the performance boost going to come from? Changing your operaing system won't change anything. You need newer hardware. Middleclass hardware will do just fine. Or one of the comming steamboxes might provide a good performance/price value.
Obviously being able to use 64bit on my 64bit CPU, being able to use more than 4GB RAM and using Direct-X 10,11 with my current card.

XP won't allow any of that... but if I would go the Win7 way, I'd think about upgrading the whole bundle including motherboard and CPU by just buying a new PC if the hardware boost mentioned above may not be enough.

No Steamboxes please, I got a problem with DRM, that's why this decision is so hard for me.

These days it does seem like GPU is the primary bottleneck.


Does your motherboard support PCIe X16?
I have to look that up. Would you expect a performance boost even with WinXP drivers and DirectX9?
 
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^ but you don't need more then 4GB for 6 years old games. Faster RAM and dual channel would be more beneficial. *note I updated my post a little to be more clear*

you can throw any OS you want on a SteamBox. Running Linux on a PC you build from parts is bount to cause more trouble than an out of the box machine (which is even designed to operate with Linux)

Do you know the name of your'e mainboard?
 
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A new gpu has most times the biggest impact on FPS and RPGs (more RAM too but Risen is fine with 4 GB). You can get some at kleinanzeigen.ebay.de. Got a 6870 for 60€ including shipping. I can play the newest hitman with highest settings with it. My old gfx (4870) was only capable of mid settings.

In accumaleted benchmark the new card (6870) has 100% when the old card (4870) has 61 points. Was a big speed improvement.
 
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Me too thought about two fast 2gb bars in dual channel mode, maybe bigger bars for at least my main partition (Mint) could use these, but XP would probably use only one bar then because of the 4gb limitation. -.-°

Do you know the name of your'e mainboard?
I'll look that up tomorrow morning by slashing throught the jungle (probably fighting some giant spiders) in the attic and gathering ye olde PC box and manual where I should find the PCI-E information too.

A new gpu has most times the biggest impact on FPS and RPGs (more RAM too but Risen is fine with 4 GB). You can get some at kleinanzeigen.ebay.de. Got a 6870 for 60€ including shipping. I can play the newest hitman with highest settings with it. My old gfx (4870) was only capable of mid settings.

In accumaleted benchmark the new card (6870) has 100% when the old card (4870) has 61 points. Was a big speed improvement.
You too still use WinXP 32bit and can play Risen in highest settings? And the Witcher and Gothic 3 (with community patch)?

Well, I probably can forget PS2 and GameCube in HighRes with my current system due to CPU limitations in XP. 64bit and many cores seem to be important for these emulators.
 
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I have to look that up. Would you expect a performance boost even with WinXP drivers and DirectX9?
Absolutely. My computer has a 2.4Ghz Q6600 quad core with 8GB of RAM, 6 years old now. I upgraded to an NVidia gtx-something 2 years ago and it's been able to play everything I've thrown at it, running WinXP 32bit when I have to. Mass Effect 1 and 2 at max settings, notably. It cost me $120 at the time, I'm sure you could get something even better for around the same cost. I only just (literally this morning) upgraded to Win7 64bit for Bioshock Infinity which runs flawlessly in "Very High" settings, but obviously lower frame rate in "Ultra", so I am only just now starting to not be able to run max settings.The reason I specifically ask about PCIe x16 support is because it means that if you don't see the improvements you were hoping for you've at least got a good video card when you upgrade the motherboard.

I would guess your tri-core is a little older than my quad but you should still see some huge improvements with a new video card.
 
WinXP is eol. So I would upgrade anyway exept if I won't go online with it. As more and more games need you to be online while playing there is no real alternative. Maybe by running your games in wine.
 
WinXP is eol. So I would upgrade anyway exept if I won't go online with it. As more and more games need you to be online while playing there is no real alternative. Maybe by running your games in wine.
Hello folks,

I got tired of having to set the graphics on "average" in 6 year old games.

I want to be able to play Fallout 3, Blur, Risen, The Witcher and Gothic 3 in maximized graphical settings in my gaming partition. The last two are not even playable in any setting atm.

Is it even possible with a 32bit WinXP system with three cores?

My current GFX-Card is a 1gb ddr from ATI from the HD series (I think HD5xxx) and my 4gb RAM is really slow (more than 4gb wouldn't make sense for XP anyway, but it could be faster).

So my question is: Would it be enough to upgrade to a better GPU and fast RAM or do I have to get some new system and change to *gulp* Win7 (64bit) for gaming?

My main OS would still be Linux anyway, so I don't care for fancy stuff, net security etc...

I'd want to switch to an Nvidia card because of (Linux) drivers and much better Vsync, another company that I don't really like, hmpf.

Upside for the new system would be PS2 and GameCube in highres of course, but I really would like to avoid Win7 on my gaming partition...

And I don't buy new mainstream PC games anyway, only indie titles for some years now.

greetings

Klumpen
I highlighted some parts.

Edit: I freed my XP-partition from some background services and the GoG-versions of Risen and the Witcher run well on highest settings now, more fps would be desirable though, so the idea of getting a new gpu, fast RAM and a FullHD-screen with portrait mode possibility is tempting (got 1680x1050 landscape only atm), will go to the attic now to look for specs.
 
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For the games you mention in the OP, upgrading GPU only would be enough. Don`t bother with RAM (minimal gains) or Win 7 (unnecessary).

I`m still on XP and lovin it because it`s super stable, from pre online-checks era and runs most of DOS games flawlessly without fiddling/patching/etc. Also on HD 4870 + Q6600 + 2 GB RAM + 1680x1050 display. With this I can run Fallout 3 with VSYNC on and 2x-4x AA  and get framerates somewhere between 40-60 fps, depending on game areas and how far I feel like pushing the AA up. Similar stuff with first Witcher and most other games from this era. Even finished Crysis  on this rig and I`m an old gfx whoar - I won`t play slideshow games and pretend it`s okay.

This is an old config but by swapping just the GPU to one of the newer cards would ~double the performance and so allow for the "maxing out" or at least somewhere very close to it depending on what resolution you play in. Check this chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html - depending on your budget you can get something between HD 6870 - HD 7870 1GB (or Nvidia equivalent) and rest assured it`ll handle these games with ease.
 
For the games you mention in the OP, upgrading GPU only would be enough. Don`t bother with RAM (minimal gains) or Win 7 (unnecessary).
DirectX 11 has tesselation and stuff Windows 7 matters (WinXp has only DX9 and tesselation adds a lot of details). I had a HD 4870 + Q6600 + 4 GB RAM + 1280x1024 display. Worked fine for most games but newer games needed more power (and tesselation could was not supported by the 4XXX serie, only geometrie shaders). I bought a HD 6870 gpu for 55€ at kleinanzeigen.ebay.de and can now play the latest hitman titles at full details with tesselation without lags. This is very nice.

This is a flat street with tesselaltion on:

Unigine_Heaven_DX11_Tessellation_10.jpg
 
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So people really use XP these days? XP was a great OS back then but of ocurse it's really getting old and the security issues are serious compared with todays standards.

Well besides that 32 Bit is obsolete in the PC area, I strongly suggest to use an modern OS that can take advantage of todays hardware. I know it, I also use an compared old OS (VISTA! but heavily tweaked of course, runs without any issues since 2009 on this PC) but only because I have not buyed an SSD yet, then it will be Win7 (not 8) to get a real performance boost.

More and more programs use 64 Bit, not even just because of more RAM, my PC also has only 4GB. I play Minecraft for example, you will never get it working great onto a 32 bit java version, see the endless issues with these. My Minecraft runs with the 64 Bit java version and I basicly never have crashes or any issues at all. it's stable, fast and I never had any of all these reported crashes etc.
 
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I just cannot find the damn manual of my mainboard. ><

I know it's there... somewhere. At least I got motivated to clean up the attic again and to finally throw out my ancient Athlon Barton (fastest single core ever produced?) system/heater...

@Fusion_Power: Never change a running system. :D
 
Have you tried the internet? ;)

Most motherboards have their name code written across them in big bold letters somewhere, just put that into google.
 
Have you tried the internet? ;)

Most motherboards have their name code written across them in big bold letters somewhere, just put that into google.
Also usually it's displayed on bootup or in the BIOS info.
 
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So people really use XP these days?
Not everyone can justify spending $100+ to upgrade from something that works perfectly fine.
 What, Windows is not Freeware? :p

@Fusion_Power: Never change a running system. :D
Very true. ^^

However, in your case I guess it does not run that great anymore when it comes to games and 64 Bit support like you mentioned. So the rule is still legit even if you change your system. ;)
 
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^ Well I do have a copy of Windows XP 64-bit edition.. Driver support is pretty iffy on it.

 
 
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