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Do any games designed for Windows 7 x64 run on XP x64 or Server 2003 R2 x64?

computerdude92

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I never got into newer games much, but I wish to know please: Are any Windows 7 x64 games that use 4GB or more memory also able to run on earlier x64 based Windows, being XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 - and be able to use all available memory? Thanks.

This would be great for gamers who have hardware that can't run Windows 7 so well, but would now hopefully have some level of x64 gaming ability as the result of this knowledge.

Any shared personal gaming experience on XP x64 and 2003 x64 is also appreciated. I've only gamed on 2003 x86 and regular XP regarding this.
 
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Depends on the games 'DirectX' requirements and your CPU; i.e. Anthon XP & Pentium III (SSE2). My current XP-32 build is on a Intel I7-870 (2.9 GHz) with an ATI Radeon 5800 (1 GHz), runs DX10, and is probably a slight overkill as far as XP hardware is concerned. There are a handful of games, like Cyberpunk 2077, that are DirectX 12 but have been ported back to DirectX 11 to accommodate Windows 7 64-bit, and I don't think you'll have much luck with that one in XP. So, as far as Windows XP-64 goes, a snap-in DirectX 11 or above would be a special case and would take some experimentation. Bottom line is you will be extremely limited in finding any W7 games to play nice with XP. Be aware that Microsoft does not share its blessings on the retro gaming crowd. There are only a handful of DX12 games that have DX11 capabilities and these came from the games developers themselves.
 
There was no difference between using Windows XP x64 Professional Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64, because they were the same operating system. The only difference the former had was an XP UI stacked on top.

I ran Windows XP x64 Professional Edition on my main gaming machine for a number of years, and never had any major issues. The only thing it couldn't do is thunk into 16 bit, meaning that WIN16 applications from the Windows 3.x and early 95 era would not work. As for 64 bit games during that time, they were sparse, and most of the ones that did exist were experimental builds and never had a polished release candidate.

Two games that I can remember that had 64 bit builds were Half-Life 2 and Crysis, and both were very buggy and had quite a few problems. HL2 64 bit was definitely the better of the two though, Valve eventually fixed most of the issues and it worked well enough. But they eventually abandoned it sometime in 2006-2007 when Ep1 and Ep2 were released. I remember there being lots of controversy over the 64 bit build of HL2 back in the day by people that didn't know what 64 bit stood for. They thought that 64 bit was 64 bit color, not 64 bit code, and threw big tantrums about how their Windows XP install couldn't run it.

It wouldn't be until late in the Windows 7 lifecycle that 64 bit games started to be a thing, and those games would likely not run on XP x64 because by that time DX10 and 11 were a thing that XP never supported.
 
. . . DX10 and 11 were a thing that XP never supported.
Normally I would I would say that is a correct statement. However, on my latest XP-32 build which is on a I7-870 platform, DX10 installed itself. I can post a screenshot later on if interested. This could be the result of the chipset drivers or maybe the vaux XP SP4. Either way it's there.
 
I successfully loaded and ran "Assassin's Creed" from my game library on my XP-32 gamer. This game was a download from GOG and the specs say W7-W10. It runs like a bat out of hades on my W10 gamer. So, I'm guessing it's all about your XP hardware selection and setup. When I get some time I'll try some others. This game may have retro DX9 capabilities.

Specs:

In order to play this game properly, your PC MUST meet or exceed these minimum requirements:
  • Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only)
  • Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
  • RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
  • Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
  • DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
  • DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
  • Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
  • Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series
 
Normally I would I would say that is a correct statement. However, on my latest XP-32 build which is on a I7-870 platform, DX10 installed itself. I can post a screenshot later on if interested. This could be the result of the chipset drivers or maybe the vaux XP SP4. Either way it's there.

Microsoft never supported DirectX 10 on Windows XP.

Yes, there are unsupported 3rd party patches to hack it in, but they're not guaranteed to work in all situations.
 
Microsoft never supported DirectX 10 on Windows XP.

Yes, there are unsupported 3rd party patches to hack it in, but they're not guaranteed to work in all situations.

Never said they did and yes, I agree with that. But, be that as it may, it's there and it works. One of the DX10 patches that I played with on the XP A7N8X-E Deluxe project a while back did load DX10 but it was a kludge and caused problems which could be mainly attributed to a single core CPU and the lack of SSE2 support.
 
I gotta break the question up a little.

Are any Windows 7 x64 games that use 4GB or more memory
Yes.

...also able to run on earlier x64 based Windows, being XP x64 and Server 2003 x64...
If the minimum requirements do not say XP/Server 2003 than no.

and be able to use all available memory?
Since we already said no above this answer is a theoretical "yes" but you couldn't run the game anyways because it wouldn't meet the minimum OS requirement.

Any shared personal gaming experience on XP x64 and 2003 x64 is also appreciated
I know absolutely nobody who personally used 64-bit XP because it had hard tradeoffs with WIN16 compatibility (at the time that mattered and in some ways I run into that problem still) and driver support. (EG: The Audigy2 ZS breaks its inputs if more than 4gb of ram is present) Regular XP was perfectly useable for everyone I know right up until Steam dropped XP support, even if you were maxed out on the ram limit or using 32-bit PAE hacks. which worked but were not entirely compatible with some applications. Likewise I know nobody who used a Windows Server platform as their daily as it was at the time just XP Professional with a few extras.

Until 2019 my main system was an XP pro box running on an i5 with 3.5gb ram (again, the 32-bit limit), Audigy2 ZS, an Ageia Physx PPU and a pair of 7950GX2's in 4-way SLI and that was still pretty acceptable.
 
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It's kind of the same old story of trying to make Formula 1 racer from Volkswagen parts (or a silk purse out of a pig's ear) Yes, what the OP wants probably could be done but it wouldn't be worth the effort. The easiest way to is to build a W7 gamer like I did last year but certainly not the cheapest. BTW, I have close to 50 shooter games in my library and W7 runs every one of them, including Cyberpunk 2077.
 
A screenshot of DirectX 10 working on XP would be funny to see, Agent Orange. Could you post it please?

I still believe, wouldn't DX10 break some functions in XP or other games installed on the XP system? XP was never really designed for DX10 AFAIK.

BTW My GPU for my XP x64 compatible PC is only an NVS 300. (I use passive cooled cards only, there's no proprietary fan shroud kit to replace) I imagine due to the age of that card, there will be no 64-bit games to play with it?

Vista and Win7 games usually supply DirectX 9 support in order to support XP, and it likely has to be the same thing for XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 too.
 
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This would be great for gamers who have hardware that can't run Windows 7 so well, but would now hopefully have some level of x64 gaming ability as the result of this knowledge.
If you have a system that can not run Windows 7 x64 well, then it's too weak for games that require Windows 7 x64 anyway. So what's the point?
 
A screenshot of DirectX 10 working on XP would be funny to see, Agent Orange. Could you post it please?

I still believe, wouldn't DX10 break some functions in XP or other games installed on the XP system? XP was never really designed for DX10 AFAIK.

BTW My GPU for my XP x64 compatible PC is only an NVS 300. (I use passive cooled cards only, there's no proprietary fan shroud kit to replace) I imagine due to the age of that card, there will be no 64-bit games to play with it?

Vista and Win7 games usually supply DirectX 9 support in order to support XP, and it likely has to be the same thing for XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 too.

I tried to post the screenshot the other day but the .jpg was too large for this forum. I'm out of town for the 4th but should be back later next week and I'll try and figure out. If nothing else, I could probably send it to you via an email address (try sending me a PM). It does exist.

Also, just because you can load and run some DX10 games in XP is no guarantee that any DX10 W7 game will run in that setup. There are many hardware considerations such as dual core, SSE2, RAM, etc. I would like to clear up one point; the fact that some of my W7 games may run on XP are in fact the older games that I got from GOG that specify W7, W8, etc. GOG quit supporting XP a while back but some of those games seem to be around, if not in disguise. I can't prove it, but I think that those surviving GOG XP games, now labeled for W7, actually retained DX9 compatibility. Some of the XP games that run okay on my present XP gamer will not run on my old A7N8X-E Deluxe which is a single core Sempron (Barton) running at 3.2 GHz.Confused. Me too,
 
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Just to add onto the DX10 on XP debate, I really do not see the point on backporting besides to brag. Much like trying to play games from later Vista and 7 I suspect DirectX on XP would of been a compatibility nightmare for all but the most patched of games.

When DX10 came out anyone who wanted to hack it to XP did so because 7 was expensive and they had futureproofed and paid a LOT of money for something like an 8800gtx, which makes no financial sense to me but I've seen people cheap out on builds in weirder ways. By the time cheap and performing DX10 cards were plentiful 7 was cheap and nobody looked back.
 
wouldn't DX10 break some functions in XP or other games installed on the XP system? XP was never really designed for DX10 AFAIK.

I very much doubt the hacked in DX10 would work without issue on XP.

BTW My GPU for my XP x64 compatible PC is only an NVS 300. (I use passive cooled cards only, there's no proprietary fan shroud kit to replace) I imagine due to the age of that card, there will be no 64-bit games to play with it?

The Quadro NVS 300 is based on the ancient Tesla 2.0 architecture used in the GTX 200 series cards, it's also the lowest entry level card, not something you'd even want to attempt to play games on. It'd do fine with games a decade older than it was (late 90s, early 2000s), but nothing beyond that.

Vista and Win7 games usually supply DirectX 9 support in order to support XP, and it likely has to be the same thing for XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 too.

No, Vista and 7 support DX9 because the vast majority of PCs at the time didn't support DX10. When Microsoft initially announced the system requirements for Vista, they were widely panned because of the DX10 requirement, so they backpedaled and added in support for DX9 cards.
 
A screenshot of DirectX 10 working on XP would be funny to see, Agent Orange. Could you post it please?

I still believe, wouldn't DX10 break some functions in XP or other games installed on the XP system? XP was never really designed for DX10 AFAIK.

BTW My GPU for my XP x64 compatible PC is only an NVS 300. (I use passive cooled cards only, there's no proprietary fan shroud kit to replace) I imagine due to the age of that card, there will be no 64-bit games to play with it?

Vista and Win7 games usually supply DirectX 9 support in order to support XP, and it likely has to be the same thing for XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 too.



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The images were posted from XP and getting the size to fit is a bit of a problem. I was unable to present the whole DX10 page because of JPG size limitations.
 
If you have a system that can not run Windows 7 x64 well, then it's too weak for games that require Windows 7 x64 anyway. So what's the point?

You are missing the point of this thread. It's about possibly running a W7-32 bit game in XP-32. Some GOG W7-32 bit games retained DX9 and if your XP PC has the right hardware combo you might be able to do it.
I did it with "Assassins Creed" from GOG.
 
I downloaded a fresh copy of CRYSIS from my GOG account and installed on my XP gamer. The install went with out a hitch but the game needed a tweak. The game will install with a 64-bit icon on the desktop, which of course, will not fly. You need to get into the CRYSIS/BIN32 folder and copy the 32-bit icon to the desktop. I would assume this would work for this game if you were running Vista/W7/W8 or W10.
 
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Thanks for the pics Agent Orange! I assume the small one is a screenshot from dxdiag, showing DirectX 10 is present?
 
Thanks for the pics Agent Orange! I assume the small one is a screenshot from dxdiag, showing DirectX 10 is present?
Yes - the one that says DX version on the bottom is a partial screen shot as that's the best I could do.

Late edit:

On your PC open the start menu and type DXDIAG on the command line. You should be able to compare my DXDIAG snippet to the actual DX page format. I'll try to resize the snippet but it is difficult to upload a lot of the jpg's on this forum.
 
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