how to find out what graphics driver you have
Want to play the latest games, but aren't sure if your PC can handle them? Graphics are a huge function of the PC gaming experience, but not every computer is built for the best games on the market. Yous'll need to know what graphics carte du jour you have installed and compare that to the minimum requirements for the game yous want to play. Here'south how to figure information technology out.
What's a Graphics Carte?
When you turn on your computer, the images that announced on screen—whether it's a simple Word certificate or a complex 4K gaming feel—are generated by a graphics processing unit (or GPU). These fries can range from unproblematic "integrated graphics," which are part of the motherboard or processor, to larger, more than powerful expansion cards.
These expansion cards—often called "detached" or "dedicated" graphics cards—can usually perform more powerful tasks than integrated graphics, like better 3D gaming, accelerated video rendering, or even sure not-graphical jobs like mining bitcoin. This extra utility comes at the expense of higher power usage, more oestrus, and more than infinite in your figurer, which is why you'll rarely find defended graphics cards in ultra-thin laptops.
Merely like any other computer component, graphics cards tin can become outdated over fourth dimension. The card yous bought in 2012 is unlikely to play 2022'southward AAA games at high settings, so if you're ever unsure whether a game will run on your PC, you'll want to compare its minimum or recommended requirements to the hardware you currently have.
Knowing what graphics card yous accept can exist confusing, since there are two relevant model numbers: the model of the GPU (the actual flake that does the work), and the model of the menu itself (which includes other hardware similar the cooler, voltage regulation module, and then on).
There are ii main discrete GPU manufacturers today: Nvidia and AMD. There are many other manufacturers, however, making the cards themselves—Asus, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte—and other companies tin can produce graphics cards using fries from Nvidia and AMD, adding their ain tweaks to fix themselves apart from each other. One manufacturer's version may take better fans than another, may come overclocked from the factory, or accept a amend warranty.
Then when you're looking upwardly what graphics card you have, yous'll demand to determine whether knowing the chipset is plenty (for instance, the "Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060") or whether y'all need the actual manufacturer and model of your card (such equally the "EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked," which uses Nvidia's chipset). The sometime is very like shooting fish in a barrel to notice in Windows, while the latter is a bit more complicated.
Discover Out What GPU You Have in Windows
In your PC's Start menu, type "Device Manager," and press Enter to launch the Control Panel's Device Manager. Click the drop-downwardly pointer next to Display adapters, and it should list your GPU right in that location. (In the screenshot beneath, you tin encounter that I have a Radeon RX 580.)
If you lot aren't sure which company designed that flake, you can right-click on it and choose Properties to encounter the manufacturer—in my case, Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD. (Note that Device Director uses your graphics drivers to determine what GPU you lot have, so if yous suspect the wrong drivers may be installed, you should skip to the next department.)
Once you have the GPU name, you can Google effectually to learn more than nearly information technology, or compare information technology to the minimum requirements on the game you want to play. Ordinarily, a higher number denotes a amend card—and so a game that requires an RX 580 may not run on an RX 480, which is less powerful (though there are sometimes ways around that).
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If you're comparing two cards that use different naming schemes—like AMD's RX 580 and the more powerful RX Vega 56—you may have to do a little research to run into which card is more powerful, and what the difference in price is.
Detect the Manufacturer and Model Number
If, for some reason, you need to knowexactly what model video carte yous accept, y'all'll have to do a scrap more work. The manufacturer is piece of cake plenty to find with a third-party app called Speccy. Download the free version, start it upwards, and click the Graphics option in the sidebar. Scroll down and wait for the Subvendor entry, which should tell you who made the actual card in your PC—in my instance, Asus fabricated this particular RX 580. (Yous'll also exist able to see how much video RAM your card has, among other specs.)
Unfortunately, this won't tell you the exact model number, which you'll need for, say, warranty claims. (Asus makes a few different RX 580 cards, and they'll demand the exact model number to provide support.) For that, you'll demand to either search your e-mail for the receipt (if you bought the card online) or open your PC up.
In this case, find the graphics card, remove it, and await at the sticker on the side—it should have the model number you need. You may want to write this information downwardly somewhere so yous don't demand to fissure your PC open up next time—y'all never know when y'all might need it!
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-graphics-card-do-i-have
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