>>1559232
Battle cats.

You can emulate NES or SNES, maybe PS1? Look up the grindiest games in those libraries.

>>1559232
Diablo 1/2 + mods (2 is better)
Grim Dawn + mods
Torchlight 1/2 + mods (2 is better)
Titan Quest + mods ("recent" dlcs have dogshit optimization so if it doesn't run well then try the original + IT which still have plenty of mods and TQVault)
Borderlands 1/2 + mods (2 is better)
Mount & Blade Warband + mods (plenty of total conversions)
The Slormancer
Elona+ customgx (at some point some AVs started tagging cgx on virustotal but those are most likely false positives)
Heroes of Hammerwatch + mods (can be infinite but it's pretty much the same roguelite loop)
Stardew Valley + mods
Terraria + mods
Unepic
The Binding of Isaac + mods
Rogue Legacy
Minecraft + mods (some modpacks can take 100s or even 1000s of hours)
You can use dxvk to boost fps in some of those older games as it translates direct3d(directx) to vulkan. The most notable example is GTA 4 where it more than doubles the fps on some pcs. I prefer using dxvk-async fork for less stuttering when it caches the files for the first time but the original dxvk works just fine. Most of the time replacing the files just works but make backups of the original files in case it doesn't work or has less performance than the original.
Lossless Scaling is also a thing but I haven't found any real use for it and it might just lower the overall performance(yes it's not magic) with little to no visual improvement (especially considering that among other issues with the frame gen it can blur the fuck out of the screen edges in games with a lot of rapid movement).

>>1559232
how toaster are we talking? black desert will run on ancient hardware and I think is one of the most grind heavy games in existence

>>1559253
less than 2GB of ram
Windows XD at most
less than 600MB
"the fuck is a GHz?"

around that level or less

>>1559281
With specs like that it might be better to run linux and save resources, that is if the games you want to play work on linux.

>>1559281
Might as well add a dail-up modem to the list

>>1559281
Dude. I know that hardware prices are not great right now but you can still get something better than that for a reasonable price. Nowadays most smartphones have better specs than that. Try to hit up facebook marketplace or any other online or perhaps even offline marketplaces that sell used pcs near you. I mean a lot of the games from my list might still run fine but you can definetely do better than that.
Still I remembered a few more games.
Sacred 1/2 gold (not the remasters)
FATE (2005) + mods - Maybe the other FATE games too but I haven't played them. I think there was a mod to port content from the other FATE games to the first one.
Dungeon Defenders 1 - They started updating it so I'm not sure if it still has the same requirments. Kinda requires to equip different characters if you're playing solo which can take a while. Also I think you might need to run multiple windows for levelling other characters and I think building towers too.
Dynasty Warriors 6 - Maybe the other ones too. Most of the grind is levelling and I think equipping different characters.
Tales of Maj'Eyal
CDDA - Dunno if it still runs on calculators. Can be grindy if you choose to survive for long enough to start building your own base/village.Tileset is kinda required.
Warcraft 3 - Not the reforged. There are a lot of custom maps that are sometimes better than modern AAA games and amongst them there are some grindy rpgs that can be played solo.
Zombasite - A weird mix of Titan Quest and FATE. Not the worst thing ever but I wouldn't recommend it as your first pick.
Siralim games - Heard that they are pretty grindy.
Dwarf Fortress - Steam release should work.
Fallout games up to New Vegas + mods - Not really grindy but they have replay value and mods add to that. Just don't give your money to Todd.
TES Morrowind and Oblivion (maybe older ones) + mods - Same as the above.
Dungeon siege 1/2 - The first one was kinda grindy but mostly linear. I think the second one is pretty similar.

>>1559293
Also just like >>1559246 mentioned emulators for older systems should work. Like the PSP emulator PPSSPP is well optimized and it at least used to support XP (you can download a legacy version anyway). You can play Monster Hunter Freedom (it's like a DLC for MH1) Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite (like a DLC for Freedom 2) with it but you kinda need a controller. If you have to choose one then choose Freedom Unite as it's a bit easier and has qol features like the farm. MH games have a lot of grinding if you want weapons and armor for diffrent situations/monsters and it's especially true if you use more than one weapon type.

Stardew Valley. - take your time doing errands/grinding to get enough enough ore from the mine, enough tomatoes, enough wood. Now with the wood you can make a chicken coop and the grind continues plus you collect eggs and so forth.

Same kind of busy-cosy gameplay from Animal Crossing. You can emulate the DS version, I hope.

I see some MMORPGs were mentioned. Add Runescape to the list. I loved playing that 20 years ago, I managed to get java working on Debian 3 back in the day, I was so proud of myself . I was the linux kid of my school. Runescape has items you get for shooting 10000 of a specific ostrich that you can only hunt for with a low-powered bow and manufacturing the arrows is also a grind if you're not buying them. There's so much grind in Runescape.

Try out Dave the Diver. It's as grindy as you want it to be. It's not very playable on my Thinkpad T490 (integrated graphics, 2018, business laptop) but it runs perfectly in 1080 on my Dell 7577 gaming laptop from 2017.

Factorio, even without the expansion DLC has too much content to not be a grind. The point of the game is to automate everything. But some things aren't so easy to automate like clearing enemies from where you want to expand to. Completing the game the first time round took me 136 hours.

I totally agree that you should consider emulated games. Like Champions of Norrath and the original Baldur's Gate for PS2. Endless dungeons and dungeons of enemies to aggro and kill so you can progress and spend skill points.

Lot's of racing games can be very grindy. Because it's just race after race after race.
I played Star Wars Pod Racer for N64.
Ridge Racer 64
The F-zero games.
There's a free game called Nitronic Rush, it's fun and there are lots of levels. All racing games get more grindy if you insist on getting gold medals on every race and completing every challenge. Same for rhythm games.

Does it have to be a grindy game anon? Have you played Half-Life 2? (2004) Can run on 8mb VRAM.