Question for longtime PC builders

[jdk200]

Hey everyone.  This question may seem odd, but I am working on a full on retro PC build that currently runs vista, xp, and win 2000.  I need a graphics card that will have driver support for all 3 OS's.  I understand it will have to be an older card from the mid 2000's, but I can't seem to pin down one that will do all 3.  Now I understand virtualbox is the easy way, but I want a legit standalone retro PC just for geek reason.  You know, why not?  So for anyone that has been building pc's for a while that can give a hand, it will be greatly appreciated.

[nick name]

I wanna say look at a recent video LTT did where Linus built his high school dream machine circa 2003.  And think that's around the time you'd find a card compatible with all three OSsssssesss.

 

Also Linus was in HS after I graduated . . . what am I doing with my life?

[goto10]

support, well on vista perhaps legacy, agp port, i would buy a fx6200 or a ati 9600, should work on all 3 iirc

 

i rember i had a ati 9200 on that time, i dont remember usong it in vista, but i used it on xp and older os, wuat works on xp has to wprk on windows 2000, the 9600 is more capable but also more expensive

 

same for the fx6200

[jdk200]

I am currently running an amd 7850 for my retro build, and it runs vista aero perfectly, runs xp perfectly, but windows 2000 is horrendous with it.  I can't even get 640x480 with 32 bit color.  It wont even use a vga driver.  I bothers me, lol.

[jdk200]

Hate to have to bump this guys, but I completely forgot that my motherboard does not have an agp port.  So the challenge is getting a card to work for all three os's using standard PCI.  Ugh.

[goto10]

2 hours ago, jdk200 said:

Hate to have to bump this guys, but I completely forgot that my motherboard does not have an agp port.  So the challenge is getting a card to work for all three os's using standard PCI.  Ugh.

change the motherboard, there was a pci fx6200 iirc, but is easier and cheaper to find a agp card and also agp is faster with less problems

[jdk200]

I forgot to mention it has pcie as well.  I found that the geforce 6200 pcie has drivers for windows 2000 and up.  Thoughts?

[jdk200]

So I got a refurbished geforce 6500 and installed the necessary windows 2000 drivers.  I tried a couple different official drivers and both had major issues on 2000 and on XP.  The OS would freeze, then screen would go black, and then would sometimes restart the entire PC.  I have a feeling it's the graphics card causing the issues, and not the drivers.  Any thoughts on this?

[goto10]

i only had something like that but on a motherboard that had problems with a old ati card, a bios update on the motherboard fixed the problem

[jdk200]

I'm going to go with a newer geforce 8400 to see if that makes a difference.  Apparently the xp driver with this card is compatible with win 2k.  If that doesn't do the trick I will just downgrade to an older board to make it true retro.

[Touch My Hamm]

For those OS (except 2000 since thats usually an oddball for compatibility) you could always search for the 200 series from Nvidia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_200_series. I remember using 260 when I has windows XP. 

 

NVIDIA has ceased driver support for GeForce 200 series on April 1, 2016.

• Windows XP 32-bit & Media Center Edition: version 340.52 (WHQL) released on July 29, 2014
• Windows XP 64-bit: version 340.52 (WHQL) released on July 29, 2014; 
• Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 32-bit: version 342.01 (WHQL) released on December 14, 2016;
• Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 64-bit: version 342.01 (WHQL) released on December 14, 2016; 
• Windows 10, 32-bit: version 342.01 (WHQL) released on December 14, 2016; 
• Windows 10, 64-bit: version 342.01 (WHQL) released on December 14, 2016;