vintage video cards for vintage computing

[TOS]

so a friend of mine is giving me an old intel core 2 duo windows box, which i figure i might hook up to the tv for vintage gaming (the kids love that stuff)

i've looked around at old video cards, but i don't know the first damn thing about them ... i assume a pci card from that time would work, yeah? like this for example? i have no clue how to pick a card

i don't know specific specs aside from the cpu ... i think it runs windows 7

[maurvir]

Core 2 machines generally supported PCI-E, which opens you up to any PCI-E card supported by the target OS. Given Windows 7 is still widely supported by most vendors, that means almost any card you like, though later ones will be bandwidth constrained.

Without the system specs it's a bit hard to say. With a Core 2 machine, it will be very easy to outrun the CPU, but you also can go "too cheap".

[dv]

Yeah, C2D isn't that old, and Windows 7 is actively supported by almost everybody.

I'd probably be looking at a relatively new low-end card like a GT1030. It'll work fine for <2012 games, and still support modern stuff like hdmi and video decoding. Plus they're super-quiet and low-power.

[TOS]

oh, i wasn't planning on spending that much

what about oem cards? for example this one: https://www.amazon.ca/512MB-HD6350-PCI- ... ay&sr=8-57

will it only work on a dell, or will it work on anything?

[Betonhaus]

oh, i wasn't planning on spending that much

what about oem cards? for example this one: https://www.amazon.ca/512MB-HD6350-PCI- ... ay&sr=8-57

will it only work on a dell, or will it work on anything?

um...

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/N ... 26vsm10261

I'd shop around. But first I'd look up the minimum requirements for the games you want to play then see what they go for.

[Pariah]

human waste, I have an old 1GB low profile ATI card PCIe in my storage back north. If I had it handy I'd be happy to give it to ya.

[maurvir]

It probably will suck, but I just pulled an AMD R7 250X out of the attic. As far as I know it should still work as well. Unfortunately it doesn't work too well for a Hackintosh, which is why I had it.

[dv]

I have a GTX 660Ti in my closet, if you want that. I think it probably still works?

[TOS]

i really have no idea about these cards, but i must admit i've always wanted to poke around in dv's closet

pm sent!

[maurvir]

Yup, in terms of older cards, DV's is the best so far.

[TOS]

update: i finally got the frontend figured out, the controllers working, and the old pc (with dv-generously-donated video card, thanks a ton!) chugging happily

the kids are overjoyed to see the list of games for them, especially the gamecube games (via dolphin emulator)

son currently up to his eyeballs in ocarina of time, which he's wanted to play for ages, daughter loving animal crossing

dad enjoying mame, still trying to figure out commodore 64 and ms-dos emulators

all in all it's fabulous!

[dv]

Great, glad it worked and survived the trip and whatnot. :-)

[TOS]

the boy is playing luigi's mansion as i type this!