Windows for older gaming PCs with just 4GB RAM
Windows for older gaming PCs with just 4GB RAM
You're looking for a budget-friendly option that works with your older setup. Windows 7 might be more compatible given your hardware, but it's worth checking if it meets your needs. If you prefer newer features or better performance, consider upgrading RAM or exploring lighter alternatives.
I think the issue lies in the hardware more than the version of Windows. If you can overclock that processor a fair bit things may get better but there's just not a lot you can do with what you have. It's better suited to office work or basic internet browsing with hardware that old, sadly. The GPU you have isn't too bad, it's being constrained by the CPU's lower abilities. If you could upgrade to to even a Haswell i3 based system you'd probably notice a decent improvement, even with only 4GB of RAM but sadly your DDR2 isn't going to work with anything in the Core i series of CPU's, as they require DDR3 for anything from socket 1155 to 1150 and then DDR4 going forward to socket 1151. You may be able to score a used OEM system board or a whole system from Dell or HP that would have a basic i3 or Pentium CPU in it and some RAM to use as a base to build up into a newer system.
On Windows 10, the IDLE usage after a few minutes is around 1.4GB. On Windows 7, it drops to 700–900MB after an update, typically staying between 900MB and 1.1GB while idle (5 minutes). The same machine usually shows this range. It might be due to RAM speed requirements or HDD caching behavior.