• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Bare minimum card for windows 8

S

Stoly

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
6,706
What's the bare minimum card that supports windows 8?
 
Intel GMA 950 is probably the oldest and slowest graphics that works on windows 8. I think it will require you to use windows 7 drivers, but they should work fine.

The Nvidia 6000 series appears to be the slowest/oldest NVidia cards that support window 8

AMD's HD2000 series appears to be the oldest card they have the support windows 8.
 
To add to what Sworkhard said, if you're just wondering about MODERN integrated graphics, every single integrated graphics card you can buy new today will run Windows 8.
 
Sorry I wasn't clear. I was asking about video cards, not integrated graphics.

I have an old A64 3000+, it had a geforce 6800GT (RIP) and it ran windows 7 quite well. I'm looking for a replacement card so I can install windows 8.
 
Stoly said:
Sorry I wasn't clear. I was asking about video cards, not integrated graphics.

I have an old A64 3000+, it had a geforce 6800GT (RIP) and it ran windows 7 quite well. I'm looking for a replacement card so I can install windows 8.
Click to expand...

Honestly just grab the cheapest discrete card you can find. Anything from the last 3 generations or so should have no compatibility issues.
 
Make sure you find something that has a driver for Windows 8.

Or just get one of those $10 - $20 GeForce 210s.
 
Don't use Windows 8, use a real OS Windows 7 :p

Windows 8 = Vista and ME, sure there are people trying to justify there purchase as in the past with Vista, but we all know it sucks and history will be the judge :)
 
Battleneter2 said:
Don't use Windows 8, use a real OS Windows 7 :p

Windows 8 = Vista and ME, sure there are people trying to justify there purchase as in the past with Vista, but we all know it sucks and history will be the judge :)
Click to expand...

Actually I'm starting to like Windows 8, I don't think its comparable to vista much less Me
 
Windows 8 + Classic shell = Windows 7 interface with a better task manager, native .iso support, and better data transfer information.

I love windows 7 but I love all the apps that comes along with 8. Netflix, Bing Weather, Newegg and Amazon, Daily show just to name a few.
 
Stoly said:
Sorry I wasn't clear. I was asking about video cards, not integrated graphics.

I have an old A64 3000+, it had a geforce 6800GT (RIP) and it ran windows 7 quite well. I'm looking for a replacement card so I can install windows 8.
Click to expand...

Was your 6800GT an AGP card or pci-e? what slot do you have?
 
If you go with a HD2000 note that it won't support anything more than WDDM 1.1. 1.2 support which was introduced in 8 requires a HD5000 or better. Nvidia's WDDM 1.2 support goes from Geforce 6000 series and above I believe.
 
Teh_ZioN said:
Windows 8 + Classic shell = Windows 7 interface with a better task manager, native .iso support, and better data transfer information.

I love windows 7 but I love all the apps that comes along with 8. Netflix, Bing Weather, Newegg and Amazon, Daily show just to name a few.
Click to expand...

Yeah too much Windows 8 hate. Yes, the Metro interface is SO DIFFERENT from the traditional Windows OS, but if it bothers you, slap on Classic Shell Start Menu, and you basically never have to see it.

I run Windows 8 on my gaming desktop with Classic Shell and have to go into the Metro UI pretty much never. Sure they could make improvements. Of course! But I've never seen a "perfect" OS, not even the holy grail Windows 7. Yeah it'd be nice to have a built-in option to enable the start menu, but it's literally not a big deal at all, and learning Metro UI is a good thing because we are likely to see more of it as Touch Screens are offered in more and more devices.

Back to the OP:
If you're stuck with AGP, you'll of course have less selection. Buying new is likely not an option, as current AGP cards will be sold at a premium price because of their rarity ($52 for a GeForce 6200 LE AGP - Which is a total rip compared to for example the nVidia 610 for like $30).

As for Windows 8 support, anything from the nvidia 6xxx generation (Such as your 6800, or the 6200 LE) or newer should have no issues. Search ebay, kijiji, craigslist, or even the FS thread here. I wouldn't spend much money though. Even $50 seems like a ripoff for something that old and slow.
 
If you start pushing above the $50 range you might as well just buy the cheapest FM2 motherboard and A-Series APU you can find along with 4 GB of RAM. Shouldn't run you more than $100 total if a bundle is available and would upgrade your whole system rather than just getting a new video card. If no bundles/sales are running it will probably run closer to $120. If you can't do $120 you can step back to FM1 not on sale and still hit $100 for a new APU/mobo/4GB RAM, all of which will be faster than the Athlon 64 3000+
 
Battleneter2 said:
Don't use Windows 8, use a real OS Windows 7 :p

Windows 8 = Vista and ME, sure there are people trying to justify there purchase as in the past with Vista, but we all know it sucks and history will be the judge :)
Click to expand...

I dislike Windows 8 interface, but it is NOTHING like Vista or Me... It's one thing not to like it, it's another to not know what you're talking about.
 
With AMD you can use as old as HD2000 series using the "current" legacy drivers:
Note that this is a WDDM 1.1 driver, while Windows 8 uses WDDM 1.2, but WDDM is designed to be forward and backward compatible.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx

With DX9 AMD cards, You can use the Vista64 driver, last updated February 2010:
Note that this is a WDDM 1.0 driver, while Windows 8 uses WDDM 1.2, but WDDM is designed to be forward and backward compatible.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English

Nvidia cards as old as the 6800 series are still supported with current drivers, though support is being dropped for DX9 cards starting with the 310 driver series:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-307.74-whql-driver.html

For Nvidia, anything older than 6800 series and you're pretty much up a creek. There is an ancient driver that was released for Vista64 way back in 2006. I have successfully used this driver for older cards in Windows 7 before. There is a chance it might also work with Windows 8.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_96.85_2.html
 
GotNoRice said:
With AMD you can use as old as HD2000 series using the "current" legacy drivers:
Note that this is a WDDM 1.1 driver, while Windows 8 uses WDDM 1.2, but WDDM is designed to be forward and backward compatible.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx

With DX9 AMD cards, You can use the Vista64 driver, last updated February 2010:
Note that this is a WDDM 1.0 driver, while Windows 8 uses WDDM 1.2, but WDDM is designed to be forward and backward compatible.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English

Nvidia cards as old as the 6800 series are still supported with current drivers, though support is being dropped for DX9 cards starting with the 310 driver series:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-307.74-whql-driver.html

For Nvidia, anything older than 6800 series and you're pretty much up a creek. There is an ancient driver that was released for Vista64 way back in 2006. I have successfully used this driver for older cards in Windows 7 before. There is a chance it might also work with Windows 8.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_96.85_2.html
Click to expand...

Tnx I guess I'll try to get another 6800, or maybe a 6600 depending on price.
 
AMD no longers supports 4000 series or older in windows 8. ( older cards do work, its just they use a generic windows driver)

So if you go AMD you want like a 5450+

Intel has windows 8 drivers for anything relevant

Nvidia unified driver pretty much supports everything relevant as well.
 
I've got a 4850 in a Win8 box. No issues at all. Windows runs fine as do games.
 
The earlier version of the Windows 8 legacy driver (12.something iirc) had stability issues on my Radoen 3850. I've reinstalled windows recently when I got a new mSATA SSD and I'm still running the default windows driver which works fine (but won't run games). I've downloaded 13.1, but have yet to install it as I haven't done any gaming yet. So I have yet to see if 13.1 resolves the stability issues.
 
On the NVidia side the 7900 GT and 7950 GT were the last AGP cards I believe. You could also try a Radeon 5450 PCI I suppose. The 5450 is a full DirectX 11 card rather than DX9 like the 6000/7000 series NVidia cards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top