Hardware & Technical New graphics card - advice needed please

fwibbler

fwibbler
Hi,

My current setup is as per my sig, ie: Intel i7-2600K, AMD HD 6570 graphics card, 8GB RAM, Win7 64bit.

I'm guessing that the Graphics card is the weakest spot in the system for playing Elite Dangerous (yes, only just started playing it 3 days ago!), so I may be needing an upgrade soon for Horizons or future versions.
No problem you'd think, but, I run a dual-boot system of Win7 64bit and Windows XP 32bit.
I really don't want to lose XP just yet as its still useful to me for a few things.

So the question is, how modern a graphics card can I buy that still has drivers for XP?
Many thanks.
 

GJ51

GJ51
I run Win XP 64 bit in a VM just in case I need to address a support issue for a client still running XP on my system using a 980Ti

I only fire up XP in an Oracle VM instance when I need it, but everything seems to run fine.

HTH
 

The Chairmaker

The Chairmaker
Now is just about the worst time to be buying graphics cards as coin miners have pushed prices up to stupid levels.

£200 cards are now going for £450 and even cheaper and also second hand cards are getting price bumps.
 

MickyG1982

M
The Chairmaker said:
Now is just about the worst time to be buying graphics cards as coin miners have pushed prices up to stupid levels.

£200 cards are now going for £450 and even cheaper and also second hand cards are getting price bumps.
Click to expand...

The GTX 1050ti isn't too bad, it can still be had off Amazon for under £160. At least the zotac one I've seen is still that cheap.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-GeFo...F8&qid=1517442945&sr=1-3&keywords=gtx+1050+ti

While not 970 performance, it's still not likely to be bottlenecked by the rest of your system.
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
I read yesterday that the price of graphics cards have strongly increased in recent weeks

It even seems that it is theft (It was already of theft before)
 

Zak Gordon

Zak Gordon
This is an interesting question, that needing the XP compatible bit. The normal refrain is that now is a terrible time to be looking to buy a 'new' GPU, and it is (and has been for a few years if you were looking in the top-mid range).

I got a new 1050 Ti over xmas, they suddenly had the model i had been after available for around £120 iirc (a gigabyte model that did not require an extra power connection from the PSU), and compared to my previous GTX 750 Ti i have seen a noticeable improvement across all my games. I do not think i'd be ready to spend more than the official RRP (which is around that £120 mark) on it though, as it more less an entry level gaming card for 1080 (1920x1080) gaming.

Now according to the gigabyte website the drivers for that 1050Ti are only for windows 10/8/7 no mention of XP at all, however that might not be the full story. You can pick up custom drivers from Guru 3D, for example:

https://www.guru3d.com/files-categories/videocards-nvidia-geforce-(xp-32-bit).html

But according to that Nvidia 32bit XP selection the latest driver is 306.63, whilst on the gigabyte site the driver for the 1050Ti is 384.76, so quite a bit advanced from those XP compatible drivers.

So you may indeed need to be looking at older models of GPU and i use this Tom's Hardware guide to give me a rough idea of comparative GPU rating across models:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

So the task ahead is to find a better GPU than what you have that is also XP 32 bit compatible. And i'm not sure i know the answer to that off the top of my head, but hopefully the links i've given can help you get further in your quest.

Something like the GTX970 that BaronDeKalb recommended might be a great call, powerful and cheap (well, at that link he gave at any rate!) and XP era compatible.

Depending on how easy you can find one, you could also maybe look at a 960 or even 950, both of which are improvements over your HD 6670. The 960 is about as powerful as the 1050Ti and the 950 less.

For a 'final' GPU that you need not consider upgrading again for your machine with the required XP compatible issue, i would try hard to get a 970 though, just as cheap as possible (second hand from a local store etc?).
 
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fwibbler

fwibbler
Thanks for all your help and ideas.

So, it seems that the fastest one I can get is a 900 series Nvidia based card or a AMD R9 270/270X card and still have XP drivers.
I'm guessing that my current motherboard (ASUS P67) is one of the last boards that has drivers for XP so I reckon that a new graphics card will take the system about as far as it can go for XP stuff and stil be a reasonable system for a few more years to come.

Cheers!
 
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